The Guardian 11 July, 2007
Workers denied redundancy
entitlements under IR laws
Nine workers at a Mitcham curtain factory in Victoria have been sacked and denied redundancy pay by their employer under the Coalition Government’s IR laws.
The workers are owed up to $10,000 dollars each in redundancies and entitlements after working at Pele Curtains for between 10 and 21 years.
On June 25, the workers were told to clear their lockers and immediately leave the premises. Their employer gave them 15 minutes notice that they were being sacked and cited "operational reasons" in their termination letters.
Under the Howard Government’s IR laws workers at a business with less than 100 employees are denied the right to make an unfair dismissal claim. Workers are also banned from lodging unfair dismissal claims if the employer cites "operational reasons" for the sacking.
The workers’ union, the CFMEU Furniture Division, will seek to recover the lost entitlements. The so-called "operational reasons" loophole in WorkChoices allows employers to sack workers or lower their pay and conditions. It was cited in the high profile Cowra abattoir case where 29 people were sacked and then offered their jobs back with a 30 percent pay cut.
The laws were also used recently to sack 32 Priceline workers. Their employer re-advertised their jobs at a 25 percent pay cut.
Howard’s WorkChoices hurts working people and their families for the sake of profits. They give employers the power to override pre-existing wages and conditions, sack workers at will and whatever else they wish in the pursuit of higher profits, regardless of the cost to workers. The Howard Government must be thrown out and with it the anti-worker laws.