FED: Unions extend campaign to protect workers' entitlements

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-2001
FED: Unions extend campaign to protect workers' entitlements

By Natalie Davison, Industrial Reporter

SYDNEY, Aug 17 AAP - Demands to protect workers' entitlements have become as common
as asking for a pay rise.

In the past week hundreds of workers across the country have walked off the job calling
for entitlements like superannuation, holiday pay and long service leave to be secured.

Already looming as a central federal election issue, the demands for protection of
workers' entitlements have led to a number of industrial actions just as hundreds of enterprise
bargaining agreements come up for re-negotiation.

And the impact of the action ranges from bringing the nation's car-making industry
to a halt for a week to forcing a shortage of plastic drinking cups.

Hundreds of workers this week followed the lead of Tristar Steering and Suspension
employees who demanded management insure their holiday pay and long service leave against
corporate collapse.

The Tristar action caused a shortage of parts for cars and meant Ford, Holden and Mitsubishi
had to stand down thousands of other workers as production ground to a stop.

That brought the issue to national attention, but there have been other similar industrial moves.

Paint workers at Taubman's in Sydney's west have voted for a seven-day strike over
pay and protection of entitlements.

The 120 workers agreed if the company refused to negotiate, they would extend their
action indefinitely.

And 250 telecommunication manufacturers at NSW company Solectron have given their bosses
a week to negotiate over worker's entitlements before they resume industrial action.

In Western Australia about 25 workers at plastics and polystyrene cup manufacturer
PolarCup are taking action over pay and guarantee of entitlements.

And the NSW passenger rail system remains under a cloud as 230 maintenance workers
at Maintrain take their industrial action into a sixth week.

NSW Transport Minister Carl Scully intervened to support striking workers and call
on management to end the dispute by guaranteeing their entitlements.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) state secretary Paul Bastian said if
the dispute wasn't resolved within the next seven days, passenger train services will
be disrupted as crucial train parts need replacing.

The company is expected to meet with unions again tomorrow over whether it plans to
protect entitlements.

Workers want management to adopt the union-sponsored Manusafe scheme to protect their
entitlements.

While companies continue to resist Manusafe, it's clear workers are not prepared to
settle for the federal government's Employee Entitlement Safety Net Scheme.

That scheme is capped, funded by the taxpayer and has failed to secure the backing
of any Labor state government.

Unions are continuing the push for companies to sign up to Manusafe, but they are willing
to concede to another trust fund, an insurance bond or a bank guarantee to protect entitlements.

They just don't want the government's Safety Net Scheme.

If recent times are anything to judge by, companies must deliver a better system for
securing workers' entitlements or the only thing they'll be guaranteed of is more industrial
action.

AAP nd/mo/jc

KEYWORD: ENTITLEMENTS (NEWS ANALYSIS)

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