AWU fertiliser wage dispute

Date: 23 May 2002

About 250 Pivot workers at three Victorian sites, Geelong, Portland and Yarraville voted to stop work this morning after enterprise bargaining agreement talks with the fertiliser company broke down.

The stop work will spread to South Australia tomorrow when employees at the Port Adelaide plant walk off the job also in support of the Australian Workers' Union pay claim.

AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten said he hoped the dispute could be resolved quickly because it could quickly lead to a shortage of fertiliser for farmers and pastoralists, which is in high demand at this time of year after the Autumnal rains.

"The workers are seeking a fair wage increase in line with national economy growth figures,'' Mr Shorten said. "Our members at Pivot work hard to keep the fertiliser bins full and want to be paid a fair day's pay for their efforts,'' he said.

The AWU is seeking a pay rise of 4.5 per cent per year over two years; the company has overed 3.5 per cent a year. Mr Shorten said the workers also sought some guarantees about income protection and the use of contract workers.

The stop work will be followed by ongoing bans on overtime, contract work and short notice maintenance and production work.

For further information

Contact:	Andrea Carson
Union:	Australian Workers Union (National Office)
Phone:	039 3298733
Contact Mobile:	0407 041933
Fax:	03 9329 2871
Email:	awu@iprimus.com.au
WWW:	www.awu.net.au

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