Employment Advocate Under Fire

Date: 08 May 2000

Following the termination of four workers at the Toorallie mill in Bombala the TCFUA calls upon Toorallie to confirm whether there will be any further retrenchments at the mill.

The TCFUA says confirmation is required because of conflicting statements made by the director of Toorallie, Peter Smith in the media. Mr Smith, who has refused to negotiate with the Union, claimed on ABC Radio, 2BA, on Monday 1 May 2000, "... that the knitting machines were already in Canberra and over the next month or so various other parts of our making up will go to Canberra as well". Yet in response to a question on whether part of Toorallie's production might go offshore on radio station 2XL in Cooma on Tuesday, Mr Smith stated that "our only manufacturing plant up until now has been here at Bombala. We're now going to have a manufacturing plant at Gold Creek in Canberra .. and between the two places, all of our product will be manufactured there". The Bombala Times reported in February that manufacturing at the Bombala factory and the shop front would continue for at least until the lease expired in June 2001.

As to the four sacked workers, the Union plans to lodge unfair dismissal applications in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The Assistant Secretary of the Union, Mr John Owen, says that Toorallie's failure to afford these workers due process and unwillingness to explain the reasons for its back down from its undertaking to provide these employees with work until at least 30th June 2001 is the basis for the applications.

In other developments the Union's perception is that the Company has adopted an anti-union position which has become increasingly apparent since Peter Reith's Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) met with the Company on 5th April 2000. The Union believes that the Company's opposition to the Union is apparent by their dramatic back down from its March 9th undertakings to the Toorallie workers (negotiated with the Union) that included the guarantees that all make-up employees would be employed at least until 30th June 2001 and a much improved redundancy package would be implemented. The Union also claims this opposition is further evident by the dismissal of the four workers without the promised additional redundancy pay and the complete refusal of the Company to discuss the issues in dispute. In addition, Mr Smith on ABC radio, 2BA, blamed the Union for absenteeism amongst his employees.

Toorallie had earlier sought the assistance from the OEA in February to help it introduce AWA's (Australian Workplace Agreements) or individual contracts. The proposed AWA's contained substantial cuts to employment conditions. Amongst other things, the proposed AWA's sought to replace the Award in its entirety excluding important areas of employee protection. Furthermore, the introduction of a piece rates system to replace hourly rates of pay could have left some employees being paid substantially less than the minimum rates prescribed in the Award. If this was to occur, the AWA specified that employees would have to wait up to 16 weeks to be reimbursed the difference.

The workers, who at that stage were not in the Union, refused to sign the documents and called in the Union to represent them. Following the Union's involvement, Toorallie was advised that it appeared that many employees had been paid below the legal minimum Award rates for some time and in addition, further suspected breaches were pointed out, including underpayment of annual leave and miscalculation of sick leave.

As a gesture of their good faith and readiness to assist the Company the workers offered to forgo the Union making any legal claim that they might have or had for back pay in return for the promises made to them concerning their job security and improved redundancy package. They further offered to negotiate a collective agreement (instead of the individual contracts) to assist in bringing about better productivity and efficiency in the workplace so that the business could thrive and their jobs would remain in Bombala beyond 30 June 2001.

The Assistant Secretary of the Union, Mr John Owen says the "final straw came last week when Toorallie gave letters to the employees advising it was going to change their hours of employment from 38 hours a week to part-time employment. It appears that Mr Smith advised the employees this was so he could give them one week's notice to stand them down. We have run out of patience with this employer. Unless, Toorallie are prepared to do the right thing by its workers their conduct will leave us with no option but to take appropriate action under the Workplace Relations Act".

For further information

Contact:	John Owen
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Phone:	0408166647
WWW:	http://workers.labor.net.au/

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