Racism and rip-offs on rail project

In a return to the bad old days of "coloured" labour, 
Aboriginal and Kanaky-descended workers have been shipped from 
northern Queensland to Victoria to work under colonial 
conditions.

Unions on the Traralgon-Melbourne arm of the State's Very Fast 
Rail Project have discovered that at least 19 of the workers have 
been short-changed by labour hire outfit, Skilled Engineering.

Gippsland Trades and Labour Council leader John Parker said that 
when the project delegate came across the Queenslanders, they 
were sharing pies and sandwiches, unaware they could use smoko 
rooms or toilet facilities.

The Queenslanders were sleeping in cars or bunking in caravan 
parks. One was wearing size nine and half work boots although his 
foot size was 11.

Many had been hired by Skilled Engineering under the terms of 
Federal Government's STEPS program, providing employers with 
$4500-a-head bounties. "It's the Government's way of getting them 
off the dole", John Parker noted ruefully.

Investigations by the rail project unions — the Australian 
Manufacturing Workers' Union; Construction, Forestry, Mining and 
Energy Union; and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union — revealed they 
had been underpaid at least $4 an hour on the project rate and, 
worse, had spent three weeks with no incomes at all.

Contrary to the project agreement, they had been laid off and not 
offered work for at least eight days when they made contact with 
unions. Another group, apparently, had been flown south, put 
through medicals, then told they were not wanted.

"You imagine hungry construction workers who haven't been paid 
for three weeks. They were fairly hostile and there was talk of 
them going into Traralgon to have it out with Skilled", said Mr 
Parker.

The unions have won back pay for the Queenslanders, including a 
living away from home allowance of around $400 a week; guarantees 
of at least six weeks on full pay; as well as commitments to fly 
them home at the end of their contracts.

Officials said while unions were fighting for local jobs in the 
La Trobe Valley, where unemployment is still 17 percent, there 
was "no way" they were going to stand aside and see the 
Queenslanders "exploited and discriminated against".

AMWU organiser, Steve Dodd, called their treatment "outrageous". 
"It was a throwback to the racism of the past", he said.