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Issue No. 148 | 16 August 2002 |
Peak Performance
Interview: Labor Law Unions: Critical Conditions Bad Boss: Shifting The Load History: Peeking Out Safety: Flying High Corporate: Salaries High, Performance Low International: War on the US Wharves Review: And the Signs Said... Poetry: Tony Don't Preach Satire: Latham Dumps Rodney Rude as Speech Writer
Qantas Dressed Down Over Uniform Backflip Virgin Threatens Delegate Over Net Use Email Protection Hits Firewall Victorian System Needs Reform: AIRC Qld Public Sector Battle Heats Up Community Workers Eye Canberra Show Down Lift Techs Face Redundancy Lock Out Council Workers Win Picnic Day Fight School Support Staff Demand Recongition Black Chicks Talk At Refuge Fundraiser Colombian Left MP Applying For Asylum
Politics The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Human Rights
Another Capitalist Party? Justice For All? Kill the Photos! Right Wing Lackies
Labor Council of NSW |
Bad Boss Shifting The Load
Australian Workers Union industrial officer, Robert Flannagan, coined the phrase on the first day of a State Industrial Relations Commission hearing which workers hope will bring the WA-based contractor back into line. Around 250 Tasmanians, employed at tin, copper, zinc and gold mines on the state's west coast, have been disadvantaged by a string of Barminco assaults on their wages and conditions. Flannagan estimates that the unilateral company actions could cost individuals as much as $600 a week. Company stunts include: - regularly paying workers late, one employee having to wait three weeks for access to his wages. - slashing around $200 from the fortnightly wage by removing a negotiated shift bonus without any discussion or consultation. - introducing a new sick leave policy that can sting employees as much as $330 for a single day off. What? Well, in mining, much income comes from bonuses. At Barminco sites, workers earn a $30 a day attendance bonus which workers on sick leave have traditionally forfeited. The company, however, now slugs them for each of the 10 or 11 shifts in the pay period, if they are absent for a single day. - making workers pay for damage to machinery. According to the company, they have a choice - pay up or find another job. Flannagan relates the story of one mine worker who had accepted a company bill of $10,000 for damage to a loader, even though he hadn't been responsible. "He had agreed to pay $10,000 rather than lose his job," Flannagan explained. After the union became involved, and put his case, it was agreed that the worker had not been responsible for the incident in the first place. The AWU has been trying to have Barminco pull its head in over these issues since January. True to form, Barminco didn't show up for its day before the Tasmanian Commission, sending along an Australian Mines and Metals Association legal consultant who couldn't deal with the issues, instead. The case has been rescheduled for August 27 and 28 in Queenstown. In a separate claim, the AWU is arguing that a worker was sacked unfairly after he was denied a rest break and, suffering fatigue, crashed a company truck. It highlights the way Barminco operates that, having signed an enterprise agreement at one of its Tasmanian mines, it then insisted on new employees being hired under the terms of indiviual agreements. "Really, they don't want any union or collective activity on their sites," Flannagain says. "This company is the employer from hell, with its unyielding pursuit of profits showing a complete disregard for the needs of employees and their families." The company, owned by Perth-based Peter Bartlett, is this week's nominee for the Tony Award which Labor Council will present to workers employed by the worst boss notified to Workers Online.
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