BY BRONWEN BEECHEY
ADELAIDE — The United Trades and Labor Council of South Australia is considering turning its traditional Labor Day march, on September 29, into a strike following the refusal of the state Liberal government to contribute to a federal government redundancy scheme.
State workplace relations minister Robert Lawson told a union delegation on August 29 that the SA government would not contribute to the Employee Entitlement Scheme, set up by the federal government following the closure of the National Textile company in Newcastle.
Protection of workers' entitlements in the event of redundancy is particularly important in SA, where companies are going to the wall at a rapid rate and others are reducing their work force. In the past three weeks alone, there have been job cuts at BankSA; 120 jobs cut at Bridgestone Tyres; and the closure of Perry Engineering.
On August 31, the Advertiser reported that mining machinery manufacturer Ludowici Engineering was closing its Adelaide factory, retrenching 39 workers, and another engineering firm, GEI Automation, is going into receivership with the projected loss of 32 jobs.
At a protest outside Lawson's office following the meeting with the union delegation, Dave Kirner of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) furnishing trades division told the audience that only three out of 10 SA workers receive their full entitlements on redundancy.
Bob Gregory, a worker from Perry Engineering, said that workers with up to 47 years' service are still unsure if they will receive their entitlements. He was critical of the federal scheme, describing it as being "cobbled together to save embarrassment for the prime minister when it was revealed that his brother was a director of National Textiles". Workers deserved better than a scheme in which they basically paid for their own redundancy, Gregory said.
Martin O'Malley from the CFMEU called for changes in legislation to make company directors personally responsible for ensuring that workers receive their full entitlements if the company goes broke.