The Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) State Secretary, Michele O'Neil, said it was time for Bruck to abandon its attempts to strip Award protections and commence talks with the Union to negotiate a fair collective union agreement.
"These results sent a clear message to the company - workers want the protection of a collective union agreement. They don't want to be pushed into non-union agreements containing some starting pay rates less then the Federal Government's minimum, that remove guaranteed Christmas annual leave breaks and open up being stood down without pay as well as major shift changes without agreement from workers. The Union is ready to start negotiations for a collective Union agreement as soon as Bruck comes to the table," Ms O'Neil said.
The TCFUA has accused Bruck Textiles of using the Howard Government's WorkChoices laws to try to ‘starve' its workforce into submission. Ms O'Neil said the Howard Government had a lot of explaining to do.
"What are a number of starting pay rates less than that of the Australian Fair Pay and Condition Standards (AFPCS) doing in a post-WorkChoices agreement? The Howard Government is blatantly failing on its empty promise that wages would be ‘protected by law' under its IR regime. Today's results, show once again, that the best protection workers have from the Howard Government's anti-worker laws is be a member of a Union," Ms O'Neil said.
Ms O'Neil said that in cases of grievances, the non-union agreement could have seen individual workers footing the bill for mandatory, but non-binding, mediation procedures while locking out the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
Bruck had hoped to entice workers to sign its sub-standard non-union agreement with a three percent annual pay increase that wouldn't even keep up with inflation. It's the company's second attempt in the last 12 months to reduce rights and conditions through a WorkChoices non-union agreement.
"This is a courageous decision by the Bruck workers because the current Federal Government laws allow this company to get away with paying some of the workers below the AFPCS. Why don't we have in Australia the basic democratic right for workers to have a Union collective agreement when the majority of workers clearly want one?" Ms O'Neil said.
