Howard Must Help Dye Workers

Date: 17 March 2000

The Labor Member for Wills, Mr Kelvin Thomson, today called on the Prime Minister to provide a guarantee to workers who lost their jobs today at the Fabric Dye Works in Coburg Melbourne.

The Administrator of Fabric Dye Works sacked the 60 workers at the Coburg Factory today and the workers stand to lose over $650,000 in superannuation & other entitlements.

Mr Thomson said: "The Prime Minister must provide an absolute guarantee to the workers that all of their entitlements, including 2 years worth of superannuation contributions, will be paid.

"These workers must get the same support as the National Textiles workers.

"The Prime Minister and Minister for the Workplace Relations have made numerous statements about protecting workers, but the lack of detail available on the current scheme means that clarification and guarantees are still required if these workers are to be secure that they will receive their full entitlements.

On 17th February the Prime Minister said about to the National Textiles workers: 'Our commitment to these workers is genuine.' Well now it is time to prove it.

"There are also a number of other issues behind the sacking of these workers that needs to be investigated, in particular:
* Whether the ATO has been using a section 218 notice to get around the provisions of the Corporations Law, which gives employee entitlements priority over the Tax Office.
* How the company got away with telling workers for two years that they were deducting superannuation, when they were not sending that money to the ATO.

"I note that the administrator has recommended an ASIC investigation of the company's directors on issues related to insolvent trading.

" As Labor's Superannuation spokesperson, I have called for superannuation payments to be made quarterly. Such a change, along with policing of the legislation by the ATO, would prevent companies going two years without paying superannuation to their workers."

For further information

Contact:	Kelvin Thomson
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	0419 594 882

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