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22 November – 5 December 2011
MPNEWS (1300 676 397) or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au Under stress: BlueScope’s Western Port mill has long been the backbone of employment and prosperity in Hastings.
Wipeout for workers, bonuses for bosses By Mike Hast BLUESCOPE Steel will pay $3.1 million in bonuses to 11 senior executives including CEO Paul O’Malley, who will receive about $720,000 on top of his base pay of $1.25 million. The so-called “short term incentive” bonuses were agreed to at the company’s annual meeting in Sydney last Thursday, but not before shareholders lodged a significant protest vote against the decision.
Almost 40 per cent of votes went against the remuneration report as BlueScope suffered its “first strike” under rules passed earlier this year (see box page 4). The BlueScope board could face new elections if 25 per cent or more votes go against next year’s remuneration report. In August, BlueScope reported a $1.054 billion net loss for financial year 2010-11 after making a $126 million profit the previous year.
The company said it would be forced to cut 1000 jobs and shut down one of two remaining blast furnaces at Port Kembla as well as its hot strip mill at Western Port after it had decided to stop exporting steel and concentrate on the Australian market alone. A metal coating line at Hastings was mothballed. An estimated 400 contracted workers at the two sites would also be affected, BlueScope said.
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The company closed its Western Port hot strip mill at Hastings on 19 October and one of two metal coating plants on 22 October. About 200 BlueScope workers at Hastings have been retrenched and as many as 70 workers at other companies have lost their jobs. BlueScope Lysaghts in Dandenong South laid off all casual workers at its roofing facility. Patricks Stevedores has made redun-
$5
dant wharfies after BlueScope’s ship Iron Monarch delivered its last cargo of slab steel to Hastings from Port Kembla on 4 October. (Earlier this year, the ship underwent a $17 million upgrade in Singapore.) Jack Thompson Engineering, a maintenance contractor for BlueScope, has retrenched workers, and another contractor, Crib Point Engineering, is under pressure. Continued Page 4
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