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Issue No. 331 | 03 November 2006 |
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Issue No. 331 | 03 November 2006 |
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The decision to cancel the Glass House was a bold decision, but it had to happen.
Unlike the Libs, though, it was not the jokes about the Government that got the shed's goat; it was a case of too much of a good thing.
The show had definitely jumped the shark - that is to say it had passed its peak.
There's only so many times Dave Hughes can pretend to be something like a half-eaten banana and give witty responses like "ohhhhh, yeah" before it stops being funny.
The same goes with serial guest Molly Meldrum constantly making jokes about "coming out".
The final nail in the coffin was when Joe Hildebrand stopped his Wil Watch in the Telegraph.
But none of these reasons featured in John Howard's decision to cancel the Glass House.
For the real reason, you need go no further than Connie Fierravanti-Wells up in the Senate.
The intrepid Senator had done some research and discovered one of the show's hosts, Corinne Grant, was the public face of that evil Marxist campaign to have people paid a little more than a rock and a shiny thing - the Your Rights at Work campaign.
Of course, Grant rejected these suggestions, saying she merely appeared at a one event for the "NSW ACTU".
You would think the public face of the Your Rights at Work campaign would get the name of the peak union body in NSW right.
But this kind of logic won't get in the way of Crazy Connie, that's Connie not Corrine, who has decided to launch a Spanish Inquisition on public broadcasting in general.
It was revealed this week that a complaint from Connie resulted in an ABC radio presenter in the Illawarra being stood down.
She claimed the presenter had not explored alternative opinions when he interviewed South Coast Trades and Labour Council Secretary Artie Rorris about a protest outside her office.
Whether or not Connie was available for comment is beside the point; the ABC's managing director agreed the ABC has a duty to present different opinions and the presenter is now in an off-air role.
So it's Connie two - public broadcasting nil.
Now Connie has the SBS in her sights.
Connie attacked the multicultural broadcaster in Senate Estimates, accusing it of being hard-core on sex and soft-core on terrorism.
She said the station was "siding" with David Hicks.
Apparently there is no room for these kind of alternative opinions. According to Connie, there is only one alternative - conservative.
If you wanted a comedy to replace the Glass House with, you could probably just have a camera on someone like Connie explaining her logic.
Now that would be worth watching.
Advocate, Peter McIlwain, stunned Senate Estimates this week when he said his office would no longer make that information available to legislators.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson said McIlwain's extraordinary decision ripped the "last shred of credibility" away from an agency that has been accused of partisan political activism since its creation.
"The Employment Advocate has decided to deny Australians the data they need to make informed decisions about WorkChoices," Robertson said.
"Information already released shows John Howard misled the public and that union criticisms were on the money.
"What McIlwain and his masters need to understand is that refusing to tell the truth doesn't mean it no longer exists.
"The federal government's defence of WorkChoices has been based on a mixture of lies, damned lies and statistics. All this does is take statistics out of its equation."
McIlwain refused to update Senators on admissions made last May that every single AWA analysed by his Office removed at least one of the conditions John Howard had promised to "protect by law".
He said 16 percent of AWAs excluded all five conditions at the heart of the Prime Minister's $60 million advertising campaign and that employers were within their rights to cut them.
McIlwain revealed 64 percent of AWAs cut leave loadings; 63 percent eliminated penalty rates, and that 52 percent cut shift loadings.
On May 29 he told senators his office would continue to collect the information.
But this week he dogged on that assurance.
He said the information was no longer available because "sometime in June" he developed "serious concerns" about his office's methodology.
The Office of the Employment Advocate was created by the Howard Government to promote its industrial relations agenda.
Former Advocate, Jonathan Hamberger, carried out an aggressive campaign against the CFMEU and inspired the discredited Cole Royal Commission with an 11-page report that contained lurid accusations that have not been substantiated to this day.
Hamberger was appointed to the position after carving out a reputation as an aggressive, ideological employer representative.
OEA insiders have dubbed McIlwain "The Gherkin - the piece of the hamburger you throw away".
It has become a point of contention, that under his leadership, the OEA greenlights AWA individual contracts, on lodgement, without checking, but holds up collective union, negotiated agreements for months at a time, checking for anything the federal government might take exception to.
His office doubles as cheerleader for AWAs and has arranged media stunts to celebrate the 750,000th and, more recently, the millionth AWA since they were introduced in 1996.
But again, its stats are rubbery, at best.
Two months before fanfare for the 750,000th last year the Office conceded it had no idea how many AWAs were in operation.
Press flak, Bonnie Laxton-Blinkhorn told Workers Online the OEA didn't record that information and "if we don't nobody else would".
Robertson said the decision to deny Australians information on how AWAs undermined protected award conditions, "gelled" with last year's ABS refusal to continue the long-standing practice of comparing agreements.
Hard ABS data released in 2004 comprehensively refuted claims by the Prime Minister and Workplace Relations Minister that Australians on individual contracts earned more than those on collective contracts.
Then, last October, the ABS announced the pay fixing component of its annual review had been shelved, ensuring there would be no statistical review of comparative wage trends under WorkChoices, before Australians cast their ballots in the next federal election.
The ABS is a federal government agency that comes under the control of Treasurer, Peter Costello.
The public exposure of Hunan Industrial Equipment Installation and Melbourne-based Aprint was slammed by Immigration Minister Amanada Vanstone as a political stunt, but one of her government's agencies confirmed this week it had led to massive pay outs.
The Office of Workplace Services acknowledged Hunan had stumped up $650,972 for 38 ripped off guest workers, while Aprint had back paid four immigrants a total of $93,667.66.
AMWU NSW secretary, Paul Bastian, said the Hunan payout showed the extent of exploitation under the visa system and the attractions of denying work to Australians.
"Entitlements under the visa scheme are vastly inferior to Australian negotiated wages and conditions," Bastian said.
"When a company underpays its employees by $650,000 over six months, under those conditions, you can see the attraction of guest labour."
Bastian said no government agency "lifted a finger" about the rip-offs until the AMWU made them public and they could no longer be ignored.
The AMWU sprung Hunan Industrial Equipment when its project installing a press at ABC Tissues, Wetherill Park, was shut down after attracting 40 workplace safety breaches.
At the time, Bastian accused the company of "gross underpayments" and failure to pay workers compensation insurance.
ABC Tissues is having the construction job done predominantly by overseas labour. It also has an Italian company on site, using European guest workers.
WorkChoices legislation makes it illegal for union officials to get on sites using workers on 457 visas or AWAs to check compliance with Australian wages and conditions.
Workers Online understands that since being caught out, the ABC Tissues site is now surrounded by barbed wire and uses electronic personal recognition equipment to keep unwanted people at bay.
The AMWU broke the Aprint story after being contacted by desperate Chinese immigrant, Jack Zhang.
Aprint sacked Zhang, and tried to have him deported, after he completed paying it $10,000 in $200 weekly instalments, apparently a charge for giving him the job. He was immediately replaced by another "guest worker" from China.
The AMWU's action won Zhang $31,700 in backpay and three colleagues another $62,000 between them.
Meanwhile, the OWS has finally initiated action against a Canberra bar, fingered months ago by the LHMU.
The union named the Holy Grail, a favourite haunt of federal politicians, as one of a number of ACT bars and restaurants ripping off federal "guest workers".
The LHMU became involved in the case after one of its members, a Filipino, was sacked, and another foreign worker was kidnapped and driven to Sydney Airport.
The OWS this week confirmed it was seeking over $70,000 for 96 employees, including two guest workers.
The three men faced deportation, under federal government guest labour rules, after they blew the whistle on exploitation at labour hire company, Dartbridge Engineering, and joined a union.
The trio made headlines when they told Australians they were getting just $27,000 a year all-in for 55-hour weeks as skilled welders, and were being fleeced up to $1400 a week for bunk accommodation in a standard three-bedroom suburban house.
As the men were explained their circumstances on national television, they started fielding calls from distressed wives in the Philippines warning them they would be sacked.
The following day, Dartbridge sacked the trio.
Federal 457 visas tie "guest workers" to sponsoring employers. If they lose that sponsorship, for whatever reason, they are deported.
Unions have been warning the federal government about the unfairness of that system, since two South African chefs were booted out of the country after filing six-figure wage claims against a Manly eatery, back in 2002.
The AMWU has been using its contacts in the Brisbane engineering sector to try to prevent that fate befalling the Filipinos.
Today, relieved Queensland branch official Danny Dougherty confirmed all three had been taken on by another company on award conditions.
"They've all got jobs as first class welders," Dougherty said. "They start next week and whatever they earn will go to them and their families.
"On the basic award, they'll get at least $200 a week more than they were receiving at Dartbridge. On top, they'll get penalty rates, shift loadings, annual leave, sick leave and tool allowance - the same as everybody else.
"We're very pleased for these guys because they had the guts to stand up and expose the rorts that this system encourages.
"Australians should ask themselves if they are happy with a system that exploits workers from Third World countries to drive down the wages and conditions of everybody."
The simple step-by-step move is taken straight from the Dartbridge Welding playbook and shows how a theoretical wage of $41,000 a year can be turned into take home income of less than $17,000.
AMWU secretary, Doug Cameron, says the $41,850 gross annual income demanded of guest labour employers is a "rip off" that duds immigrants of thousands of dollars a year, in comparison to Australians doing the same work, but reality is much worse.
The Filipinos employed by Dartbridge were promised the legal minimum but then the smoke and mirrors were applied.
They were
- charged $175 a week each for transports and bunk accommodation
- slugged $49 a week for health insurance
- classified as casuals, effectively stripping $201.20 a week from their wages
- charged an agent's fee of $3660 each
- made to pay interest on the "agent's fee", for six months, at an effective rate of 66 percent, costing another $1098
- federal government still taxed them on their gross figure of $41,850 stripping another $167 a week out of their pay packets
Then, hey presto, the $41,850 promised in the Philippines had turned into $324.15 a week in Brisbane.
The AMWU says the Brisbane welders are just one example of how employers rort the system without attracting the attention of government agencies. There have been worse.
Last month, a Chinese immigrant revealed he had been charged an agent's fee of $A20,000.
Another Chinese tradesmen said he had been charged an agent's fee in Hong Kong, then the Australian employer had forced him to pay it another $10,000 out of his weekly earnings.
Earlier this year, in Perth, Korean immigrants were forced to buy second hand cars, on arrival, at prices locals say were up to three times their real value.
The AMWU has called for a full parliamentary inquiry into the system administered by Immigration Minister, Amanada Vanstone.
Workers Online has already revealed that Vanstone has sat for months on a critical report into the mass importation of Chinese meatworkers, prepared by her own department.
Cameron is calling for a full parliamentary inquiry into the 457 Visa scheme.
Quite the opposite, according to a contract imposed on Chinese welder, Zhihong Fu, who is required to refrain from becoming pregnant, or impregnating anyone else, during his four years in Australia.
The no-sex clause has been blasted by Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, who described it as "one more insult on top of a number of injuries."
"I don't think this sort of thing requires too much comment," Robertson said. "It is dehumanising, disgusting and unacceptable."
A Senate Estimates Committee heard Chinese guest workers are being forced to comply with employment contracts containing what are effectively 'no-sex' clauses.
A translation of the employment contract gives the employer the power to deport a worker who "For personal reasons result(s) in pregnancy or impregnating others."
Organising strike action and political activity are also outlawed by the contract that covered Fu, the guest worker who made headlines after breaking his arm at work.
Fu was forced to return to work after breaking his right wrist in a fall and claimed that injury led to him spraining his right arm when he was unable to properly control a drill.
Fu stopped work on his doctor's orders and Lakeside Packaging responded by sacking him and notifying him he would be deported within 28 days.
The 49-year-old was earning thousands of dollars a year less than the $41,000 minimum prescribed under the federal government's 457 visa program.
Earlier this month an Age investigation revealed labour hire firm, Worldlink to China Services, charged Fu more than $21,000 to bring him to Australia.
The AMWU has launched anti-discrimination action in a bid to prevent Fu being deported.
Unions NSW secretary John Robertson says the combination of environment targets and government purchasing policies would create massive job and export opportunities for NSW companies.
"We have the opportunity to generate smart, export industries by taking a lead on the environment," Robertson says.
Under the plan, NSW would be declared a carbon neutral state and take a lead role by installing solar panels in all NSW schools, hospitals and public buildings.
It would then use procurement policy to favour NSW suppliers, creating the required demand to build an export base in energy-efficient manufacturing, with centres of excellence based in regions such as Newcastle and Wollongong.
"This is the sort of smart government intervention that makes the most of our current challenges," Robertson says.
Robertson says the community fights against WorkChoices and climate change are fighting the same enemy, the Howard Government's support for big business over ordinary working families.
"Our current battle for Rights at Work has bought us closer to the community than ever before," he says.
"There is no doubt that, like the attack on workers rights, the issue of global warming is resonating in the community.
"Both our campaigns have a common theme: ordinary Australians taking a stand for future generations.
"And in both our campaigns, we are up against a Prime Minister who always puts the interests of big business ahead of the interests of the people he is meant to represent."
Godfrey Hirst Australia, in the process of purchasing carpet-maker Feltex's operation, has offered individual contracts with conditions inferior to those the workers had been receiving and claims to be free of redundancy or severance pay obligations if workers refuse to sign.
Their union says the Feltex workers and their families have already suffered extreme insecurity over the future of their jobs and entitlements and deserve better treatment.
"Now, when they are at their most vulnerable, the choice they have is to sign away their rights on an inferior AWA or have no job and no redundancy pay," said Textile Clothing and Footwear Union Victorian secretary Michele O'Neil.
The TCFUA has filed an application with the Federal Court alleging breaches of workplace laws covering freedom of association.
Victoria's Workplace Rights Advocate Tony Lawrence said this week he would investigate the legality of forcing the workers to sign AWAs as a condition of employment.
View the ad at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEX6VdxpD88
The Public Service Association launched a 'cheap and nasty' TV advertisement highlighting the cuts, forcing Debnam to tell different stories to the general public and the business community.
Just one day after publicly denying he ever planned to cut the 29,000 positions from the NSW public sector, Opposition Leader Peter Debnam revealed to Liberal Party donors that his old plan still stands.
At a Liberal Party fundraiser in Sydney, Debnam told assembled ICT executives that he planned to cut up to $2 billion from the NSW 'bureaucracy'.
NSW Minister for Finance, John Della Bosca, says Debnam is exposed as a serial liar. "Do the maths," Della Bosca says. "If you're saving $2 billion from the public sector, at an average salary of $68,000, that's 29,000 people."
"Just one day after denying he had plans to gut the public sector, he is telling Liberal Party audiences in a coded message that this is precisely what he intends to do.
"This performance is straight out of the Nick Greiner Idiot's guide to getting elected - that is you keep one set of polices to be used in the lead-up to the election and in the other drawer you keep your real policies."
PSA general secretary John Cahill says the advertisements were a fun way to make a serious point - that the public service will be totally decimated by the plan for 29,000 job cuts.
"The public sector is already under stress and these sorts of cuts will tip it over the edge to the point where it will no longer be able to provide basic services to the NSW people," Cahill says.
"Our advertisement is deliberately cheap and nasty because we think this policy is cheap and nasty."
In a report released this week by Finance Minister Nick Minchin, accountancy firm CRA International claimed that the sale could result in 7% "increased efficiency" by cutting jobs across the workforce.
Specifically, the bean-counters focused on savings due to a "rationalisation of management, call centre and customer delivery mechanisms."
While the Government has indicated it will not proceed with the actual sale unless re-elected at the next federal poll, a bill that enables the eventual sell-off landed in Parliament this week.
The arrival of the legislation coincided with the release of another report from the Parliamentary Library questioning the legality of the privatisation plan, raising the possibility that policy holders might be eligible for compensation if the sale proceeded in its current form.
Having failed to consult Medibank Private members regarding its intentions to sell, the Government predictably dismissed the independent report, releasing instead a privately commissioned paper it had prepared earlier.
Responding to overwhelming criticism from doctors, academics and unions that privatisation of Medibank Private would drive up the cost of premiums, the Government's plan advocates slashing jobs from the workforce, supposedly reducing pressure on operating costs and thus keeping a lid on premiums.
According to the Save Medibank Alliance, Medibank Private's recently improved performance and climbing profits are a direct result of taking on more staff, not less.
CPSU's Stephen Jones told Workers Online that the improved results came as no surprise.
"By investing in the workforce, Medibank has increased its capacity to win new customers and deliver better services. It's not brain surgery," he said.
"The Government plan to cut jobs will only compromise operational capacities and reduce Medibank's ability to attract and retain new business. It's like prescribing a lobotomy for a headache," Jones said.
With public opposition to the latest Government fire sale growing, the man responsible for the creation of the private health insurer joined the fray.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, in a letter to CPSU's Jones, lent his support to the campaign, arguing that selling Medibank would lead to increased upward pressure on private health fees.
"When Medibank Private was introduced, we believed that, if the Government were actively involved in the business, we would have a better handle on costs and outcomes than if it were done by private enterprise," Fraser wrote.
"I believe it would be a great pity if Medibank Private were sold and that would lead to escalating fees."
Find out more at www.savemedibank.net.au
Eight AMWU members have been on strike at Thompson Roller Doors, Turella, for the last two and a half weeks.
Surviving delegate, Prakash Chand, says Thompson is using the worst elements of WorkChoices to undermine collective bargaining and cut living standards.
His predecessor was axed after being involved in months of negotiations for a new collective agreement.
Thompson then offered non-unionists two percent more on AWAs than they were prepared to pay people covered by a collective agreement.
AMWU state president, Tim Ayres, said it was blatant discrimination against union members.
He confirmed the union had instigated unlawful dismissal proceedings against the company on behalf of the sacked delegate.
Unions NSW has backed the striking Thompson employees and offered its support.
AMWU members at Trafalgar Building Products have been on strike for a fortnight since the Goldman Sachs-owned operation refused to guarantee their entitlements.
The merchant bank filled position 97 on the Fortune 500 list, last year, with revenue of $US43.4 billion.
Despite that sort of backing, AMWU state president, Tim Ayres, said Trafalgar had refused to sign off on entitlements protection.
"A lot of these people have 15 years of service, and more. There are a number of issues between us but entitlements is the sharpest.
"They just refuse to guarantee these people what they are owed," Ayres said.
Workers have been picketing the company's Sydney base since last week.
Entitlements are back on the agenda after Tristar Automotive, in Marrickville, ceased production but wouldn't lay off around 50 of its longest serving staff.
It has now gone to the AIRC in a bid to have their enterprise agreement terminated, a move that would deny ageing workers millions of dollars in accrued entitlements.
Almost 200 employer greenfield 'agreements' - business-wide employment deals where the terms are set unilaterally by the company before workers are hired - were lodged in the six months after laws allowing them were introduced in March.
Fast-growing franchise chains and building and engineering companies are the biggest users of the agreements, according to an analysis by the Australian Financial Review.
Food and restaurant chains including Starbucks, Health Habits and Jones the Grocer have lodged greenfield agreements allowing franchise business owners to replace award conditions like overtime and penalty rates with flat hourly rates.
Takeaway food chain Seaking Seafood's agreement gives workers $14.28 an hour and strips all award entitlements including overtime and shift penalties, uniform and laundry allowances, public holiday penalties and allows the employer to deduct uniform costs from pay.
Construction firms including John Holland, Barclay Mowlem and Thiess Services have included no-strike clauses and offered lump-sum payments for projects finished without industrial disruption in the so-called 'agreements'.
Once lodged, greenfield deals override any industrial awards which would otherwise apply. They remain valid for 12 months with the Government arguing they would encourage new business ventures.
But unions say businesses are taking advantage of the cost-cutting opportunities offered by greenfield deals by restructuring and transferring workers between different branches within a company.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley has promised to abolish the greenfield provisions if Labor wins office.
As banks lined up to announce billion dollar profits this week, the Local Government Association passed a resolution calling on banks to maintain Australian jobs.
"This decision gives councils the power to take a leadership role in protecting Australian jobs and the security of personal information of Australians," FSU ACT-NSW state secretary Geoff Derrick says.
"Local Government has shown its support for communities by passing this resolution and giving preference to banks that do not send Australian jobs overseas.
"Given all local shires and municipalities are significant users of banking services, this resolution carries real weight with banks considering off-shoring.
"It will also allow them to set an example for other tiers of government about how the targeted use of government purchasing decisions can deliver a fairer outcome for the community."
The resolution was brought forward by Canada Bay City Council, where Westpac is considering outsourcing up to 500 jobs at their Concord West Service Centre.
HOMELESS INDIAN GUEST WORKERS' FUNDRAISER
Four guest workers employed on 457 visas are now homeless after being forced to pay $12,000 to a Singapore migration agent just to get a job in Australia.
The workers contacted the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union for help following advice from members of the Indian speaking community in Sydney. The Union represented the workers in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, after their employment was terminated.
The union successful negotiated for the workers to return to work, but they remain homeless and are currently being housed in the union office until they are able to find a new home.
The CFMEU is supporting them as they seek justice, but they need your help to get back on their feet.
Indian Guest Workers Fundraiser:
When: 7:30pm, Friday 17 November 2006 Where: CFMEU, Level 2, 12 Railway St, Lidcombe Tickets: $25 / under 14 $10 / under 5 free Entertainment: Dinner, guest speakers, performance by Indian rocker Santhi and local DJ with the latest Bollywood beats. For Tickets: Radhika Raju: (02) 9749 0400 or [email protected] Donate: Indian Guest Workers Appeal (02) 9749 0400 All proceeds go to supporting these four workers in their campaign for justice.
Centre stage has been the Prime Minister's political deafness on global warming - consistently a sneering critic of warnings about climate change even as he blames extreme storms and drought for economic problems.
This week he attempted to paper over his contempt for the issue by throwing a few dollars at solar power. But the $60 million is dwarfed by the $5 billion if the government had joined the rest of the developed world in working together through the Kyoto process.
Howard has ridden shotgun for the Bush Regime, denying the problem and whining about disproportionate cost to Australia, ignoring that the leadership the Australian people want will come at a price.
Instead of being part of the international response to the crisis, Howard lurks like a fringe dweller, throwing grenades like nuclear energy into the debate, but never taking a lead. On greenhouse, he is the consummate reactor.
The Stern Report, again denigrated by Howard, is the rigour to back Gore's slick and inconvenient package, and Howard can't keep ducking - expect some more tokenism but nothing meaningful. A vision for the future he has not.
This contempt for public sentiment is part of a pattern of behaviour, think privatisation of Telstra and Medibank Private, think troops to Iraq, think WorkChoices. This is not leadership, this is - in every case - putting the interests of big business ahead of the interests of ordinary Australians.
And it is not even about having a debate anymore, with control of the Senate the government is winding back the committee process and, when inquiries are held, the bureaucrats are conditioned to give nothing up.
This week we saw this approach in action when the Office of the Employment Aadvocate fronted its Senate oversight committee.
Those with a memory will recall last time OEA was there they gave up their own inconvenient truth - the fact that workers on AWAs were being forced to trade off basic conditions - the conditions warned were under threat in their 'scare campaign''.
What happens this time around? You guessed it, the statistics are no longer collected. If you don't like the truth, don't ask the question.
As for the dissent, Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells is brandishing the scalp of Corrine Grant and her Glass House comrades this week. Her crime? Fronting Unions NSW Last Weekend family protest last August where she betrayed her political colours by directing parents to lost children and introducing Tim Freedman. Subversive stuff.
As Workers Online reveals this week, that's not all the Senator has been up to - in Wollongong her public service has been earning the scalp of an ABC radio reporter who had the temerity to interview South Coat Labor Council secretary Arthur Rorris in support of ABC industrial action. Some views should not be aired.
But it's a conscious plan, that includes stacking the board with right-wing critics - it's about raisin g the stakes so that people in the public eye think twice before speaking out.
This is shoddy government with no interest in democracy and the will of the people; like the miserable Republicans awaiting their comeupance next week in the US, all they have are cheap and nasty tricks and the payola from their corporate sponsors.
Peter Lewis
The public exposure of Hunan Industrial Equipment Installation and Melbourne-based Aprint was slammed by Immigration Minister Amanada Vanstone as a political stunt, but one of her government's agencies confirmed this week it had led to massive pay outs.
The Office of Workplace Services acknowledged Hunan had stumped up $650,972 for 38 ripped off guest workers, while Aprint had back paid four immigrants a total of $93,667.66.
AMWU NSW secretary, Paul Bastian, said the Hunan payout showed the extent of exploitation under the visa system and the attractions of denying work to Australians.
"Entitlements under the visa scheme are vastly inferior to Australian negotiated wages and conditions," Bastian said.
"When a company underpays its employees by $650,000 over six months, under those conditions, you can see the attraction of guest labour."
Bastian said no government agency "lifted a finger" about the rip-offs until the AMWU made them public and they could no longer be ignored.
The AMWU sprung Hunan Industrial Equipment when its project installing a press at ABC Tissues, Wetherill Park, was shut down after attracting 40 workplace safety breaches.
At the time, Bastian accused the company of "gross underpayments" and failure to pay workers compensation insurance.
ABC Tissues is having the construction job done predominantly by overseas labour. It also has an Italian company on site, using European guest workers.
WorkChoices legislation makes it illegal for union officials to get on sites using workers on 457 visas or AWAs to check compliance with Australian wages and conditions.
Workers Online understands that since being caught out, the ABC Tissues site is now surrounded by barbed wire and uses electronic personal recognition equipment to keep unwanted people at bay.
The AMWU broke the Aprint story after being contacted by desperate Chinese immigrant, Jack Zhang.
Aprint sacked Zhang, and tried to have him deported, after he completed paying it $10,000 in $200 weekly instalments, apparently a charge for giving him the job. He was immediately replaced by another "guest worker" from China.
The AMWU's action won Zhang $31,700 in backpay and three colleagues another $62,000 between them.
Meanwhile, the OWS has finally initiated action against a Canberra bar, fingered months ago by the LHMU.
The union named the Holy Grail, a favourite haunt of federal politicians, as one of a number of ACT bars and restaurants ripping off federal "guest workers".
The LHMU became involved in the case after one of its members, a Filipino, was sacked, and another foreign worker was kidnapped and driven to Sydney Airport.
The OWS this week confirmed it was seeking over $70,000 for 96 employees, including two guest workers.
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