
Issue No 102		13 July 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Media

Soft Penalty for Video Nasties

Unions have called for a review of video surveillance laws after an employer was fined just $500 after being found guilty of secretly filming female staff in a room where they changed into uniforms.

ACI Penrith appeared in Penrith Local Court this week charged with the offences under Workplace Video Surveillance legislation, one of the first cases brought under the laws.

Workers at ACI found a hidden video surveillance camera in their First Aid room before Christmas last year and confronted management with their discovery.

More than 300 workers then downed tools and refused to return to work until the camera was removed and there was an assurance that there were no other similar cameras at the site. Management did finally admit to installing the camera and agreed to write employees with an apology.

Workers at ACI were horrified to discover that the camera had been in place and monitored by male observers during times when female employees had been trying on uniforms, or being treated for injuries or illnesses that required them to undress.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, which represents many of the ACI workers, is demanding that heavier penalties be imposed.

"It seems that if you are a sporting personality or celebrity caught on celluloid, then the penalty is hundreds of thousands of dollars" AMWU State Secretary Paul Bastian says.

"But if you're an ordinary worker, filmed without your knowledge while you're at your most vulnerable, then that's different."

Bastian says that workers at ACI had told the Union that they felt violated after the hidden camera was exposed.

"These women don't know who saw the tapes or what was on them. They don't know if copies were made, or where the tapes are now"

"They are embarrassed to even walk into the manager's office now much less use the First Aid room ever again" said Mr Bastian

"If management seriously thought that they needed to install video surveillance of their First Aid room they could have sought permission from a magistrate"

"The fact that they did not seek permission can only be because they knew they had no grounds for the application."

The AMWU has written to the Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations asking for a meeting to discuss the entire ACI affair and the immediate introduction of tougher penalties for employers who breached the current legislation.

"If employers think that they can get away with this sort of obscenity with nothing more than a $500 fine, then no worker can ever feel safe at work again," Bastian says.

"The Government must get tough and it must do it now

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  Issue 102 contents

Interview: Jolly Green Giant
Senator Bob Brown on the upcoming federal poll, balances of power and what the Greens can teach the trade union movement.

Workplace: Call Centre Takeover
Theresa Davison brings us this real-life story from the coal face of the call centre industry.

E-Change: 1.2 Community � The Ultimate Network
Peter Lewis and Michael Gadiel look at the potential for network technologies to reconnect communities.

International: Child's Play
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has recently entered a new alliance with the Child Labour Schools Company to support a project for child labourers in India.

History: Flowers to the Rebels Faded
With the departure of our own Wobbly, a look at the development of the Wobblies in Australia and their view of Labor politicians and the work ethic seems timely.

East Timor: A Dirty Little War
In this extract from his new book, John Martinkus recounts the scenes in Dili immediately following the independence ballot.

Satire: Telstra Share Failure Ends City-Bush Divide: Everybody Screwed Equally
Communications Minister Richard Alston today claimed that the government had fulfilled its promise to ensure that the bush was not disproportionately disadvantaged by Telstra's privatisation.

Review: Cheesy Management
Currently climbing Australian best-seller lists is the 'life-changing' motivational book 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Rowan Cahill has a nibble but doesn't like the taste.

» Search for a Dude Begins

» Public Money Backs a Stellar Bully

» Workers Get First Meal Break In Five Years

» Soft Penalty for Video Nasties

» Negligent Employers Should Pay

» Brit Cleaners Serve It Up to Aussie Boss

» Rio Tinto Guilty of Hunter Valley Sackings

» Rail Workers Strike for their Families' Security

» Nurses Seek Urgent Action on Pay

» Workers Win Tip Top Delegate Rights

» Telstra Halts Latest Privatisation Plans

» Requiem for the Banks

» Surfers Remember Oil Slick Disaster

» Widespread Mail Disruptions on Cards

» Minister for Caged Hair Gets Hot Welcome in West

» Cleaner Wins Right to Attend Family Reunion

» Howard Cuts R&D Spending by 15 Per Cent

» Fears Grow Over Shangri-La Protests

» Mick Young Play Award

» Activist Notebook