www.workinglife.org.au
Issue 20, April 2015
Your work. Your life. Your news & views.
Business penalty rates campaign backfires by JACKIE WOODS
Photo: Mark Phillips/ACTU
STAND FOR SAFETY A day to remember the dead, and fight for the living: After 185 Australians were killed in workplaces in 2014, emotional services were held around the nation on 28 April as part of the International Worker’s Memorial Day commemorations. FULL REPORT: Pages 8-9
A BUSINESS campaign against Easter holiday rates backfired badly. The ‘Too Big To Ignore’ campaign encouraged businesses to display posters explaining they were shut because the penalty rates they were required to pay to staff rostered to work on a public holiday were too high. But the campaign backed by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry sparked outrage in the community, with people vowing to boycott businesses that displayed the signs. ACCI launched the campaign shortly before Easter by claiming that thousands of small businesses would struggle to open their doors because of the cost of “excessive” penalty rates. As well as putting up posters in their windows, ACCI members were also encouraged to use the hashtag #2bigtooignore. But the peak business lobby group clearly underestimated the depth of support for penalty rates among the wider community, as people around Australia took to social media and their local newpsapers and radio to show their support for penalty rates. Not all business owners were on board with the ACCI campaign either. The owners of one cafe on the New South Wales South Coast said they supported a public holiday surcharge over cutting penalty rates. “Weekends are not the same as any other day of the week. If you have children or go to church, that is the time for those things,” Alana and Heydn Tomasetti told their local paper. Penalty rates are good for business because they drive spending A report by the McKell Institute looking at the impact of cutting penalty rates in retail found that workers would Continued Page 6
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Hall of Shame
If you can’t stand the heat, it’s time to get out of the kitchen IT’S that time of the year again, when the publicity machine swings into overdrive for the arrival of a new season of MasterChef Australia. The hit TV show promises to turn ordinary people into culinary superstars as they battle through a series of rounds over steaming dishes of growing complexity for the prize of being named the next MasterChef – not to mention the $250,000 in prizemoney up for grabs. It’s also a marketing vehicle for the three judges: food writer Matt Preston, and chefs Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. All three have been able to generate lucrative spin-offs from their MasterChef roles, and none more so than Calombaris, whose Melbourne restaurants have included The Press Club, Hellenic Republic and Mama Baba. With his fast cars and luxurious house, Calombaris has done well for himself, and good luck to him. But that doesn’t excuse his forays into sharing his ill-founded opinions on our industrial relations system, and given the recent debate about penalty rates, it’s worth revisiting what he has had to say. In an interview in 2012, he claimed that the Fair Work Act and penalty rates made it uneconomical for him to open his restaurants. “The problem is that wages on public holidays and weekend greatly exceed the opportunity for profit,” he said back then. “It’s really difficult to stay open and we only do it because of tourism but the reality is it’s uneconomical. So our labour laws are something that need to be looked at and we keep talking about it.” But as the ACTU’s economist Matt Cowgill pointed out at the time, Calombaris was speaking through his (chef’s) hat.
In a detailed blog post, Cowgill demolished the central thrust of Calombaris’ claim – that waiters on a Sunday get paid $40 an hour. Even the highest qualified chef would struggle to earn that, Cowgill wrote. But why quibble over mere facts? It would be unfair to single out Calombaris on his own for the Hall of Shame. There are other celebrity chefs who also deserve to be inducted. Luke Mangan, whose restaurant empire is reportedly worth $80 million, has blasted penalty rates as “ridiculous” and also admitted 20% of his waiting and kitchen staff were employed on 457 visas. Rockpool owner Neil Perry is also a big fan of the much-discredited 457 visa program and claims that temporary migration is the only way to find kitchen staff. Even then, he reckons the minimum annual pay for a worker brought in on a 457 visa – $51,400 – was over the odds. So what is it about these celebrity chefs that gives them the sense of entitlement to tell the rest of us we’re being paid too much? Don’t they realise that without
decent pay and conditions, ordinary people would not be able to afford to eat in their over-priced restaurants in the first place? As Fairfax’s economics editor, Peter Martin, recently highlighted, in the past five years spending at restaurants and cafes has climbed 36%. Other retail spending has climbed only 18%. And employment in food service establishments has grown at twice the rate of other employment. Of course, what these celebrity chefs are saying is a reflection of the views of their industry body, Restaurant & Catering Australia, which in its submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into workplace relations has called for penalty rates in service industries such as hospitality to be abolished, and for employers to be permitted to count free meals and other non-monetary benefits as part of employees’ remuneration. So to all those multi-millionaire celebrity chefs complaining about high wages, or the shortage of skilled staff, or the inability to hire apprentices, we have one piece of advice: If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
GET IN TOUCH
Want to know more or get involved? Contact our newsdesk by email at editor@workinglife.org.au or phone (03) 9664 7266. Or get in touch by Facebook (facebook.com/ThisWorkingLife) or Twitter (twitter/thisworkinglife). Editor: Mark Phillips. Responsibility for election comment is taken by Dave Oliver, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, 365 Queen Street, Melbourne 3000.
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At Work
Abbott’s construction code claims new victims by MARK PHILLIPS AN industrial dispute at Australia’s largest carpet manufacturer has uncovered a new trap for workers hidden within the Abbott Government’s national construction code. In short, virtually any worker at any stage in the construction supply chain could risk falling foul of the proposed new code, which is currently in limbo between the two houses of Parliament. The threat emerged during negotiations for a new enterprise agreement at Godfrey Hirst, which is based in the Victorian city of Geelong. The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia says Godfrey Hirst is using the construction code as an excuse not to negotiate with the union. The National Building and Construction Industry Code would apply to all Commonwealth Government construction projects, and compliance with the code would be a condition of tendering for Commonwealth-funded work, including schools, hospitals, Defence properties and government offices. Employment Minister Eric Abetz released the new code a year ago, but it can only come into effect when the Building and Construction Industry (Improving Productivity) Bill is passed by the Senate. The fate of that Bill, which would also reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission, hangs in the balance, but if it is passed, the code would then apply retrospectively to any enterprise agreement struck since 24 April last year. Introducing the code last year, Senator Abetz said enterprise agreements would no longer be able to contain “restrictive work practices or discriminatory provisions”. Agreements would not be able to include clauses that sought to restrict the use of casuals or contract labour. The focus of the government’s attacks has been officials and members from the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, but the Godfrey Hirst case
In the firing line: the National Building and Construction Code would apply to all Commonwealth Government construction projects. points to a deliberate employer strategy to target workers outside of the construction industry. In a notice to employees on 3 March, Godfrey Hirst claimed that job security clauses being sought by the TCFUA in the enterprise agreement would be in breach of the code. The union is seeking a ratio of no more than one casual worker to 15 permanent workers and for casual employment to be limited to 16 weeks. It is also seeking to remove a requirement for the union and workers to agree to any unpaid stand down and a last-on/first-off clause for redundancies. Godfrey Hirst claims that as it supplies and installs a significant amount of carpet in Commonwealth-funded building projects, it would be roped into the code. “We remain committed to negotiating a replacement agreement – but are anxious not to place in jeopardy our capacity to tender for Commonwealth-funded work,” the company said in the 3 March memo to staff. Michele O’Neil, the national secretary of the TCFUA said Godfrey Hirst was
using a code that was not even yet law as an excuse to cut existing workplace conditions. “The company’s tactics showed the code’s impact is wider than the government’s stated intention of regulating the conduct of CFMEU officials on building sites,” she said. “This is not just about how a union official behaves on a construction site. It’s also about a textile worker not being able to have an agreement that protects their job. The ABCC and the code are bad and unfair laws for building workers but they are also bad and unfair laws for textile workers.” Godfrey Hirst is not the only large nonconstruction company to have attempted to use this tactic to cut back working conditions. In recent negotiations with the Australian Workers’ Union, OneSteel claimed that it was covered by the code because some of the steel it made ended up being used on Commonwealth-funded building sites. But the union stuck to its guns and a new agreement has been reached which retains the conditions.
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At Work
‘My family is everything to me. Penalty rates give them a good life.’ Mark Mann (pictured) has sacrificed more than his fair share of weekends and public holidays for his employer. He explains to Leanne Shingles why penalty rates are important to him.
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ARK Mann has worked at the Cadbury chocolate factory in the Hobart suburb of Claremont for 30 years. Over those years the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union member has worked in lots of different areas of the factory, on a range of products. Mark even met his wife, Sue-Ellen, on the production line. “I was making Flakes and she was wrapping them,” said Mark. Nowadays he works in the “crumb plant” turning the fresh milk that arrives in a tanker into the powdered milk that is added to the chocolate. “I make the glass and a half of full cream milk,” said Mark. The plant operates around the clock, 365 days per year and Mark is on a rotating roster that sees him work between 72 and 96 hours every fortnight. “In a typical week I work four twelvehour shifts. This week for example I worked 7am to 7pm for two days, had a 24 hour break and then did two night shifts working 7pm to 7am. After night shift I get four days off and then the roster starts again,” said Mark. On top of those hours, Mark often works overtime. “Shift work is hard. It takes a toll on your mind and body and it takes a toll on your family. “I often don’t know what day it is. I don’t sleep well or for very long. Today for example I came home from night shift and slept for three hours. I might get another couple of hours sleep later today before fronting up to work again at 7pm. “I’m a family man through and through
and because of my work pattern I have missed out on a lot of important family moments. Over the last 30 years I have worked on Christmas Day at least 10 times. I usually work over Easter and I have lost count of the number of birthday celebrations I have missed. “I have two children who are now 22 and 16. When they were young, my wife and I lashed out on a video camera so she could film the kids opening their Christmas presents or their birthday presents. “We would organise a time during my shift when I could call them and hear them open their gifts and when I got home from work I would watch the video. “Even though we did that, and sometimes it felt like it was the only thing that kept me sane, it’s just not the same as being there. People don’t realise that if you’re a shift worker you give up being with your family for Christmas Day, birthdays, New Year’s Eve parties, school concerts, all sorts of things that are important to family life. “I promised the kids when they were growing up that we’d buy a house, with a little bit of land, so they could have a couple of horses. Now we have three horses and chickens.
“In dollar terms, penalty rates give me an extra $40,000 per year on top of my base rate. It would cause us so much heartache if I lost that. Everything revolves around me doing well at work and bringing home a decent income. “If I lost my penalty rates we’d have to sell the house. We couldn’t afford to keep living here and our lifestyle would be shite. “It wouldn’t just affect me; it would affect my whole family. I simply wouldn’t be able to provide for them. “I’m passionate about penalty rates. They’re so important. Not just for me, but for everyone who works here. I think a company’s best assets are its workers and you’ve got to look after them and give them a way to provide a good life for their families. “The government and big business want to take away our penalty rates and I think that’s really unfair. All they’re thinking about is the money, but there’s people behind that. “If I could sit down with Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz, I would show them all of the videos of my kids opening their presents and talking to me on the phone because I couldn’t be there so they could see, that’s what companies are paying for when they pay us penalty rates.”
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Great Moments in History
The story of how Labour Day became the first ANZAC Day by NEALE TOWART THIS year we are being swamped with ANZAC bluster, patriotism and tragedy. But World War One was far from Australia’s first exposure to conflict in far off lands. Australian governments have always been keen to send “our boys” to fight other peoples wars, from the Sudan in 1885 onwards. Burnt into our memories by stories from relatives, from school and from the vast marketing campaign around Gallipoli launched by Bob Hawke for the 75th anniversary and ramped up by John Howard, the landing at ANZAC Cove is promoted as the forging of a nation in blood sacrifice. Trade unions have always argued about the merits of wars, and many, many unionists do enlist as volunteers. Many fine historians have been challenging what has become an official narrative of the ANZACs ever since the story of Simpson (a larrikin and radical unionist) became part of folklore in the 1960s. That he was a unionist and was fiercely opposed to the bosses was written out of his first biography and was only reinserted some years ago. Similarly, with “the last ANZAC”, Alec Campbell. John Howard claimed he embodied what Australia was as a nation, hoping no-one would notice that he was a railway union leader and close associate of left-wing ALP politician Bill Morrow. Australian male larrikinism saw the First World War as a big adventure, especially when you consider the working conditions of many. Unemployment was high and the working classes roamed the bush and towns in casual labouring jobs. This was fertile ground for groups such as the Industrial Workers of the World who dismissed labourites as the bosses’ lackeys. Despite the hostilities between workers, especially the IWW and the Australian Workers’ Union, they united in opposition to conscription, whilst also being concerned at the welfare of the
‘We will remember them’: the Cenotaph at Martin Place in Sydney is one of Australia’s most significant memorials to the fallen from World War One. Photo: flickr/Des Wass troops who returned injured. The IWW was hounded out of existence by Billy Hughes, but its members were supported against the oppression by many unionists who certainly did not agree with their apparent “extremism”, just as unions did not let down their “mates” despite the opposing positions on the war. The strong opinion of the labour movement in World War One was opposition to the conscription of men once the initial rush of volunteers declined and the cold, hard, bloody reality of the slaughter in the Middle East and in France and Belgium became apparent. THE unions strongly opposed conscription, but they did support the many soldiers who did volunteer. Many faced a difficult return especially when injured. Approximately 50% of all who enlisted were injured; this does not include the many women who served in many roles including nursing and ambulance driving. The government did not provide any sort of war pension. Trade unions were established to provide security and sickness benefits for members, and the drive by unions to help returning service personnel stemmed from
this long tradition. Sydney Trades Hall, for example, provides free lodging for the family of the Trades Hall caretaker, Arthur Price, who was killed at Gallipoli on 29 April 1915 after volunteering. Many of the servicemen who were fighting on the Western Front during the conscription referenda voted against conscription. The Victorian Trades Hall honours these people with a plaque in its foyer to this day. The trade union movement opposed conscription, despite Billy Hughes’ attacks on free speech using the War Precautions Act, and his attacks on unions, including the one he founded − the Waterside Workers Federation. Unions and unionists who refused to volunteer were not hostile to the workers who did volunteer. They were their mates for the most part, whilst differing strongly with them in the attitude to war. The Trolley, Draymen and Carters Union in 1915 at the Sydney EightHour Day parade reflected strongly the “For King and Country” sentiment, with Hughes, as president of the union proudly leading the float. Continued page 10
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At Work Business penalty rates campaign backfires Continued from Page 1
be hit with average pay cuts of up to 16.5%. The report found cutting penalty rates from workers’ pay packets isn’t just bad for workers but removes important discretionary spending from across the economy, with a disproportionate impact on rural and regional areas where wages are generally lower. It found towns across rural NSW alone would lose between $26 million and $111 million of economic activity if penalty rates were scaled back. The ACTU responded by encouraging people to visit their local cafes and shops and ask them to put up a poster showing that they backed penalty rates. Within days, thousands of people had signed an online petition launched by the ACTU calling on the Abbott Government to commit to not cutting or reducing penalty rates. “The business community, backed by the Abbott Government, are using the Easter break as justification to attack penalty rates by saying it’s unaffordable to hire more workers,” said ACTU President Ged Kearney. This led ACCI to accuse unions of bullying businesses who spoke up about penalty rates. “Businesses that put up posters, comment on social media or speak to the mainstream media about the issue are facing abuse and boycott threats from union heavies who prefer bullying to a reasoned discussion,” said the CEO of ACCI, Kate Carnell. At the same time the business lobby pushes to wind back penalty rates, it is also pressuring governments to lift remaining trading restrictions on important holidays like Easter. The Baird Liberal Government has pledged to push forward to allow shops statewide to open on Boxing Day and has refused to rule out allowing widespread trading on Easter Sunday. The retail workers’ union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, is fighting to protect the very few times of the year with trading restrictions to allow families to spend time together, like Easter.
April 2015
The minimum w Mark Phillips takes a close look at the numbers behind this year’s minimum wages case in the Fair Work Commission. THE Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review case is now well advanced following the lodging of submissions by unions, employers and other interested parties late last month. Over coming weeks, you will hear plenty of rhetoric from both sides leading right up to final decision in June. But it’s worth remembering who the case concerns: that is about 1.9 million workers solely dependent on award wages for their income. For them, the wage review is the one chance they get each year for a pay rise. That number of 1.9 million workers who are award-dependent has been growing for the past couple of years after about a decade of decline as collective agreements grew in popularity in the workforce. But since a lowpoint of about 15.2% of the workforce in 2010, the trend has begun to reverse and today, about 18.8% of all workers are dependent on awards. We’ve pored through the numbers to give you a clear picture of how this year’s minimum wages case stacks up. Here are the numbers that count:
$27
The ACTU is seeking a pay rise of $27 a week, or 4.2%, for Australia’s lowest paid workers. That equates to about 71 cents an hour, and would lift the minimum wage to $667.90 a week or $17.58 an hour. This would apply to all workers up to the C10 tradesperson’s level, where the weekly wage is currently set at $746.20. For workers above that classification, the ACTU has applied to increase wages by 3.6%.
$18.70
is the amount the minimum wage increased last year when the Fair Work Commission handed down an across the board wage rise of 3% for all workers on award wages. That was just – but only just – above the inflation rate of 2.9%,
Artwork by Sam Wallman
Read the full comic strip, ‘The Story of the Min www.workinglife.org.au/minimum-wage-stor
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At Work
wage: by the numbers
nimum Wage in Australia’ at: ry
and was well below the $27 that the ACTU had sought.
$2.9m
That’s what the average CEO earnt last year, according to the Australian Financial Review’s annual Executive Salaries report, which came out in December. By contrast, a full-time worker on the minimum wage would currently earn $33,326.80. The difference is $55,128 a week. Or to put another way, the average CEO earns 87 times a worker on minimum wages.
43.4%
You might think we’re picking an unfair comparison by contrasting minimum wages with the exorbitant salaries earned by CEOs. Consider this instead: the minimum wage is worth just 43.4% of average weekly earnings, which in December were $1477 a week. And it’s getting worse: in 2005, the minimum wage was worth 47.8% of average earnings, and in 1995 it was 51.6%.
32.3%
What this means is that over the past decade, minimum wages have fallen further and further behind average earnings. Despite the best efforts of unions, the minimum wage has risen by 32.3% over that time, from $484.40 a week to $640.90 a week. Meanwhile, average weekly earnings have grown by 45.8%, from $1012.70 to $1477.00.
$706.49
Is what the minimum wage should be today if it had been increased at the same pace over the past decade as average earnings. Instead, it is $640.90 – a difference, in nominal terms, of $65.59 a week.
10%
In addition to the $27 a week increase to minimum wages, the ACTU has also asked the Fair Work Commission to increase employer superannuation contributions by 0.5% to 10%. This
is to compensate Australia’s lowest paid workers for the cut to their retirement savings caused by the Abbott Government’s decision to freeze the 0.5% increase to compulsory super that was due to come into effect on July 1 under the Superannuation Guarantee. The decision to delay the 0.5% super increase until 2021 means a 20-year-old minimum wage worker will be $3329 worse off in retirement.
57.5%
of the awarddependent workforce is female, compared to 48.9% of other workers. This is a major factor behind the gender pay gap of 18.8%, which is the largest since 1983 and has risen from 15% a decade ago.
$5.70
The largest employer organisation, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has supported an increase to the minimum wage of just $5.70 a week this year. That equates to a 0.9% pay rise which, when stacked up against an inflation rate of 1.7% in 2014, is a real pay cut. The Australian Industry Group is hardly better; it is offering just $10.25 a week, still below inflation.
US$7.25
or $9.50. That’s the federal minimum wage in the United States, although some states have mandated slightly higher minimum wages themselves. President Barack Obama has repeatedly sought to raise the federal minimum to US$9, but has been blocked by Republicans in the Congress. At $16.40 currently, Australia’s minimum wage is one of the highest in the world – and rather than giving strength to the case to reduce it, that is something we should celebrate. It is a major reason why Australia is still one of the more equal societies in the developed world, and we only need to look at the US to see the damage a low minimum wage and a large underclass of working poor can do to an economy and a society.
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Workers’ Memorial Day 2015
Deadly business: how going by MARTIN WATTERS
F
ORGET terrorism, sharks or dodgy airlines – just going to work has been much more deadly for hundreds of Australians in recent years. Last year 185 people were killed at work and already there have been almost 50 fatalities in 2015. The stats are worrying given fatalities are rising for many of our most dangerous professions. And those are just the recorded deaths from incidents at work, excluding the hundreds more as a result of work-related illnesses and diseases, like mesothelioma. On 28 April, Australian workers joined commemorations for International Workers’ Memorial Day. The day remembers those killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work, highlighting the preventable nature of workplace accidents under the slogan ‘Remember the dead – Fight for the living’. Going to work should come with a health warning. This sobering list of our most dangerous industries shows that Australian workers face risks every day, in a wide variety of work settings. 1.Transport, post and warehousing Those working in transport, postal and warehousing have the most deaths per year and tragically those figures aren’t falling. Last year 49 people were killed, with road freight drivers making up a large proportion. Already 15 have died this year. The Transport Workers’ Union has highlighted the horrors facing truckies; a union survey revealing almost a third of drivers feel pressured to speed and a quarter to carry overweight loads. Drivers in the supply chain to clients like big supermarket chains must make their delivery window or risk hours in wait or a return home with no financial compensation for extra hours driven 2. Farming, forestry and fishing These three industries are regularly listed among Australia’s most dangerous; farming workplaces in particular having serious hazards that can lead tragedy. Last year 46 farming, forestry and fishing workers died and nine have already
Boots and all: At the Workers’ Memorial Day service at the Melbourne Trades Hall, pairs of shoes were laid out on the ground, each representing a worker who died in 2014. died in 2015. that if a company cuts corners on safety Not only do farmers contend with plant our workers will suffer as a result,” Mr and machinery, chemicals, noise, dust, sun O’Connor said. “April 28 is a reminder to exposure, and working with animals, they keep fighting for the injured and the dead. are also more likely to be older and selfemployed. Farming life also relies on hard 4. Mining physical labour, and farmers often work Deaths at mine sites have soared in recent alone and at a distance to help or first aid. years in a worrying trend for the industry. To date there have been five mining 3. Construction fatalities in 2015, following 14 deaths in Working on a building site is not only last year. tough; it’s also extremely dangerous. Last Unions have warned that multinational year 29 construction workers died and mining companies desperately cutting there have been six fatalities in 2015. corners and ramping production during Falling from height was the most the slumps in iron ore and coal prices common cause of death, accounting for compromises safety. almost a third of all fatalities. Vehicle Contractors and labour hire workers are accidents and being hit by falling objects generally over-estimated in the number of are also other tragic outcomes. fatal accidents and injuries. CFMEU National Secretary Michael O’Connor said Memorial Day was vital 5. Manufacturing to highlight the constant need for safety Workplaces with heavy plant and awareness. machinery and moving equipment make “We remain forever vigilant as we know manufacturing a particular dangerous
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Workers’ Memorial Day 2015
g to work can be a killer
Funds for Rana Plaza victims fall short
‘Industrial homicide’: Rescuers search for survivors at the site of the collapsed Rana Plaza building two years ago. Photo: IndustriALL Global Union industry. Manufacturing had higher proportions of workers being hit by falling objects, being trapped by machinery and being hit by moving objects than other industries. As well as 11 deaths in 2014 and two to date this year, manufacturing also has a very high rate of compensation claims and injury, especially through manual handling. 6. Arts and recreation services A broad industry but a dangerous one, workers involved in arts and recreation include jockeys, circus performers, cavers, skydivers and other sports and tourism operators. Tragically 12 people from the sector died at their workplace last year and already three have died in 2015. 7. Wholesale trade Last year five people died in wholesale trade and thousands of people were reported injured. Continued page 10
TWO years after the Rana Plaza collapse, a compensation fund established to help the victims of one of the worst industrial disasters in history is still almost US$9 million ($11.7 million) short, unions say. A coalition of IndustriALL Global Union, UNI Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign is calling on global brands including Bennetton, Lee Cooper and JC Penney to pay up what they owe to the compensation fund. The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka on 24 April 2013 resulted in a final death toll of 1134. About 2500 injured people were rescued alive. They were paid a few dollars a day to produce garments for some of the world’s best-known fashion chains, including Benetton, Primark and Walmart. It later emerged that the building’s owners and garment factory tenants had ignored warning signs about its structural faults the day before it collapsed, leading to descriptions of the
disaster as “industrial homicide”. A US$30 million ($37.6 million) compensation fund was negotiated by IndustriALL, UNI and the Clean Clothes Campaign, with the proceeds to be used exclusively to make payments to Rana Plaza victims and their families. But to date, claimants have only received a maximum of 70% of what they are owed, with further payments delayed as a result of the failure of brands to come forward with the US$8.5 million ($11 million) needed to complete the scheme. The worst offender has been named as the Italian casual label Bennetton, which until just a few days before the anniversary was still to put a cent into the compensation fund, despite promising in February to do so. Bennetton finally announced on 17 April that it would make a payment of US$1.1 million ($1.4 million), but the unions said this was a “token step” and still far short of the US$5 million ($6.5 million) they believe the company should pay.
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How Labour Day became the first ANZAC Day Continued from Page 7
Adelaide workers had other ideas. Their Eight-Hour parade was turned into a Gallipoli commemoration in October 1915, and it was not a sombre remembrance. The unearthing of the conduct of the parade and carnival came from research by Gareth Knapman, who has since been publishing and speaking about Australia’s development of the ANZAC tradition and its place in our society. IN 1915, 13 October was celebrated as Labour Day. Union members traditionally walked along the street displaying their union banners. But in 1915, a year into World War One, many of the men who would normally have marched for the unions found themselves on muddy battlefields throughout Europe. A few months earlier, some had landed on a craggy Turkish peninsula called Gallipoli. Many had already returned to Australia as the war wounded. At that time the government didn’t offer a war pension, so wounded soldiers got little support. For that reason, the trade unions decided to co-opt their traditional event in support of the returned veterans and they called it “ANZAC Day”. The celebration was built on the traditional union members’ march, which was converted into a veterans’ march – a precursor to today’s tradition. “The emotional centerpiece of the march came next – the wounded soldiers from Gallipoli,” reported Liam Mannix in
Home of resistence: Melbourne’s Trades Hall building, pictured in about 1916, was a centre of the anti-conscription movement during World War One. the InDaily in April 2013. “Similar to the later invalid and aged and incapacitated ANZACs of marches from the 1920s onwards, these veterans travelled in automobiles. Following the heroes, and probably with trepidation, were 2000 new recruits who had been training in camps on the outskirts of Adelaide. “Following . . . was a series of tradeorientated floats, bands and fundraising endeavours that extended for two miles. Many of the floats had a Gallipoli theme, such as the one for the Operative Painters and Decorative Employees of Australia, which hosted a background painting of Gallipoli’s hills with the painters dressed as solders occupying the foreground, at the ready to clamber-up the painted escarpment.” Unlike today’s reverent Anzac Day, the 1915 event was billed as a celebration
Deadly business: how work than others on the list. can be a killer Continued from page 9
Being hit by falling objects and accidents while driving were the biggest killers. 8. Electricity, gas, water and waste services This year there have already been three fatalities from the sector which includes all those who ensure the services of energy, water and waste – the same number recorded for all of 2014. These workers often labour in confined or high spaces and outdoors and are more likely to be killed trapped between objects
rather than a commemoration. With the war still raging, the veterans themselves wanted a celebration of their deeds, rather than a remembrance of those who didn’t make it. They didn’t want to feel ashamed of what they’ve done; they wanted people to cheer them. Second, the event was designed to raise money to support injured veterans. The organisers needed a bit of colour and movement or the crowds might not show. The highlight was a staged tram car crash, with timed explosions making it a pretty exciting show. The funds raised all went to veterans. Perhaps conservative columnist Andrew Bolt needs to go back to the history books before criticising unions for being involved in this year’s commemorations. Read more labour history: workinglife.org.au
in recent years. Five people from this sector were killed at their workplace last 9. Public administration and safety year and another three in 2013. Although the figures have fallen this year and last, public admin and safety jobs – AUSTRALIA’S alarming workplace death including police and all Aussies working and injury statistics show that tougher in government administration – have been workplace laws are needed, including dangerous professions in the last decade. tougher penalties for employers whose The sector claimed 111 lives between negligence results in death. 2003 and 2013, with many fatalities In Australia, the average fine for a occurring in vehicles. There were three workplace fatality is around $100,000, a deaths in 2014. fraction of the profit of a large business making billions of dollars a year. 10. Accommodation and food The ACTU is calling for company services directors to face personal penalties The sector that puts us up for the night and including jail and fines if workers die as a makes us dinner has also been hazardous result of negligence.
April 2015
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Ask Us
Whether you get paid for overtime depends on your employment status by RIGHTS WATCH
Overtime hours worked is treated differently for wage and salary earners.
GOT A PROBLEM AT WORK? You’ve come to the right place. Share your workplace issues with our other readers and get free advice from the Australian Unions helpline if you have a problem with your pay, entitlements, health and safety or anything else at work. Phone 1300 4 UNION (1300 486 466).
LEONIE asks: I work for the local council the hour, you should receive payment for any and I’ve just now changed jobs within the extra time or weekend work you do – along council. I’m not being paid for overtime or with any applicable penalty rates. coming in on the weekends. We really need to have some more information to make sure the answer we give As you work for a council which will no doubt you is right for your situation. Why don’t you be unionised, there would be be an Enterprise give us a call on 1300 486 466? Bargaining Agreement in place. We’ll be able to have a look at your agreement Have you checked what this says about your in more detail and find out exactly how much overtime? you should be paid. You don’t mention whether you’re paid on an Of course if you’re a member of a union you hourly rate or whether you’re on a salary. need to talk to your delegate ASAP. If you’re on a salary you’re paid at a higher Don’t worry if you’re not – that’s something rate but that is taken to include any reasonable else we can help with as we have a confidential extra hours (the keyword here is reasonable). For example if you’re on a salary and do an free joining service. We’ll find out who your union is and how hour on Saturday that could be taken to be a much the fees are; then if you want to go ahead reasonable expectation which is compensated and join we send your details to the union and for by your higher wage rate. Perhaps there is a TOIL (time off in lieu) they add you to their membership list. It’s that easy and honestly is the best thing arrangement in place whereby if you work a lot of extra time or some hours on the weekend you you can do to make sure you’re protected at can apply for some paid time off to compensate work. Give us a call, your boss will never know you for this. If however you’re on wages – that is paid by you’ve spoken to us.
Do I still get penalty rates if I’m sick on my rostered day? ERIN asks: If I normally work on a day friends and family. when a public holiday falls but I’m sick If you were a casual worker and normally on that day and so don’t go in, would I get work on Fridays you would receive payment penalty rates? plus penalty rates for working on Good Friday. If you didn’t work though, unfortunately you Penalty rates are payable if people work on wouldn’t be paid for the day. a public holiday, but aren’t paid if the day is The same rules apply to if you were sick on taken off if you are sick. a public holiday – if it falls on your normal For example, if you are permanent worker rostered day and you can’t go in because you’re and Friday was one of your standard days, if ill (and have sick leave up your sleeve) you you worked on Good Friday you should receive should be paid at the normal rate but wouldn’t penalty rates on top of your standard flat rate. receive penalty rates on top of that. If however you take the day as the public If you have any questions or think you’ve holiday and don’t go in, you will be paid for been underpaid give the Australian Unions that day at the normal rate (as part of your paid team a call on 1300 486 466. leave entitlement) and won’t receive penalty It’s a confidential service and your boss will rates, because you get to spend the day with never know you’ve phoned us.