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Issue No. 165 | 20 December 2002 |
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Terror Australis
Interview: Taking Stock Bad Boss: Pushing the Envelope Unions: The Year That Was Republic: Still Fighting International: Global Ties, Global Binds Politics: Turning Green Technology: Unions Online 2002 Industrial: The Past Is Before Us Economics: Market Insecurity Review: Shooting for Sanity Poetry: The PM's Christmas Message Culture: Zanger's Sounds of Summer
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Predictions
 Refugee ReviewRepresentative RepresentativesMen Only?Dry ArgumentVale: Phil Berrigan
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News Restaurateur Takes Knife to Wages Protection
Labor Council has applied to join three African chefs in opposing a Restaurant and Caterers Association application to have “benefits” retrospectively discounted against outstanding wages . Ribs and Rumps representatives want a landmark IRC ruling that would allow it to subtract the costs of rent, uniforms, soap, toiletries and other alleged benefits from sums it told Immigration it would pay imported cooks. The Manly eatery brought the South Africans workers into the country four years ago under controversial Section 457 Immigration Visas. "The applications is a direct challenge to the principle that a worker's wages are inviolable, especially if there was no agreement," Labor Council spokesman Chris Christodoulou said. "This would take us back to the Rum Days where workers were paid in kind." Labour Council cited "public interest" in asking to be joined to the case. Ribs and Rumps has listed a string of deductions it says should be made from the $49,000 it agreed to pay the three black immigrants. Top of that list is rent at $10,000 a year, per man, which would have meant paying $600 a week for the 2 bedroom flat the three workers shared during their first couple of years in Sydney. Soaps, toiletries and laundries are listed at $1200 and restaurateur David Diamond wants $4500 a year for annual flights to and from South Africa. The chefs have already told Workers Online that they had to fly home to recover money held by a Johannesburg lawyer, on their behalves, in rand. Health insurance, uniforms and food also figure on deductions that add up to a whopping $23,000 a year for each man. Christodoulou said it was "not uncommon" for employers to offer non-award inducement like free accommodation to entice overseas workers with specialist skills. Meanwhile, CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson is alleging that the men's immigration visas were systematically. In a letter to Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, Ferguson says the chefs, brought to Australia on the ground that they had cooking skills unavailable here, were put to work as labourers on the construction of a second Ribs and Rumps outlet at Gordon. Sources close to the men say one of them worked five shifts a week, up to 16 hours a day, on the building site before putting in two days over the grill at Manly. They claim the two other immigrants both did stints on the tools in Gordon. Workers Online understands another two South African chefs were subsequently brought to Australia to cook at Ribs and Rumps, Gordon. The CFMEU has driven the exposure of immigration visas rorts since the deaths of two construction workers at Lake Cargellico. Days later, an African labourer, suffering serious injuries, was whisked out of Wagga Wagga Base Hospital before he could be interviewed by authorities. In other Ribs and Rumps news, one of the chefs has decided to risk his six-figure back pay claim to spend Christmas with his wife and family in Johannesburg. William Ndlovu, who didn't travel home this year on legal advice, has quit his job after several years at the Manly restaurant. Lawyers, Ros and Reg Bartley, are trying to strike a deal with the Immigration Department that would allow Ndlovu to return to Australia to pursue his backpay claim.
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