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Shame file
Chili's in hot oilThe NSW Government is to prosecute the Chili's chain of restaurants for failing to cough up unpaid wages for young staff. Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca said Chili's management had failed to meet the 21-day deadline to respond to a Notice of Compliance issued by the NSW Office of Industrial Relations."The Notice, which was issued after an investigation identified initial underpayments of over $45,000 for 27 workers across the five Chili's outlet[s], directed the chain to ensure all other employees, including ex-employees, receive any outstanding underpayments," Mr Della Bosca said in a press release on October 19. "The company will face fines of up to $11,000 for each incident that breaches NSW industrial relations laws," he added. Mr Della Bosca alleges the Australian Workplace Agreements used by Chili's removed award entitlements such as penalty rates, public holiday, minimum weekly engagements and laundry allowance of their employees, which are protected under the Iemma Government's child employment laws.
Workers trappedMore than 150 Blaxland retail workers have been trapped on a substandard five-year workplace agreement, reports the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association of NSW (SDA).On September 12 the Federal Court of Australia ruled that Karellas Investments Pty Ltd, the employer of retail workers at IGA Blaxland, circulated two documents to its employees containing false or misleading information. The court found: "The employees of Karellas were misinformed in relation to the true effect of the 2007 Agreement when contrasted with the 2003 Agreement. In the circumstances all of the persons employed...were not given by Karellas a 'reasonable opportunity to decide' whether they wanted to approve the 2007 Agreement or not". Notwithstanding that the employees were misled, the Court found, WorkChoices laws meant the new agreement was still valid. "In other words, these employees were duped into a lower rate of pay, lower weekend penalty rates, complete loss of overtime rates and paid rest breaks, and much more besides," the SDA website stated. Had the agreement commenced on or after May 7 (when the Federal Government's 'Fairness test' came into force) the requirement would have been that pre-existing conditions of employment be provided or a form of compensation provided.
No chanceMany of the Australian Workplace Agreements made are characterised by a lack of negotiation, the Australia @ Work: The Benchmark Report, funded by Unions NSW and the Australian Research Council has found."Almost half (46 per cent) of employees covered by an AWA feel that they do not have the opportunity to negotiate their pay with their employer," the report by Brigid van Wanrooy, Sarah Oxenbridge, John Buchanan and Michelle Jakubauskas stated. The authors stated it was "difficult to believe that negotiation is a part of this process". "In fact, our research shows that just under half of those on AWAs had no opportunity to negotiate their pay."
Young 'abandoned'A review of pay rates for young workers and trainees launched by the Howard Government's pay setting body was a worrying sign that the Coalition would go further on industrial relations and that young workers could suffer a further drop in their pay and conditions after the election, the ACTU said on September 26.ACTU President Sharan Burrow said: "The launch today of a new review of pay rates for juniors and trainees clearly shows the Howard Government will go further on IR if it is re-elected." "Unions are worried this review is just a stalking horse for another push by the Government to further cut the wages and conditions and rights of young workers," Ms Burrow said. "There have already been repeated examples of young workers having their pay and conditions cut under WorkChoices. In just the last week we have seen reports of young workers underpaid more than $12,000 by an actor starring in the Government's WorkChoices ads who also ran a painting business in Melbourne [and] young workers under 18 being ripped off more than $45,000 by Chili's restaurant outlets." "Young workers have been abandoned by the Howard Government and left without the legal rights they need," Ms Burrow said. Step backward for pregnant workers WorkChoices weakened the workplace rights of pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave, a recent study by RMIT University Centre for Applied Social Research's Sara Charlesworth and Fiona Macdonald has found. The report, Hard Labour? Pregnancy, Discrimination and Workplace Rights, was commissioned for the Office of the Workplace Rights Advocate, Victoria.
More evidenceYet another study has shown that low-skilled workers on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) earn significantly less than those covered by collective agreements.Professor Alison Preston of Women in Social and Economic Research, Curtin University of Technology conducted her study using unpublished data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Her study reaches the same conclusion as the recent research on the impact of WorkChoices from the Workplace Research Centre.
Category 457 visa workers exploitedThe plight of category 457 temporary work visa holders was highlighted at a rally outside Prime Minister John Howard's Sydney office on September 28. The crowd heard about Chinese carpenter Gong Wei and bricklayer Huang Jiandong who started work in Australia in March 2006 after being hired through a Chinese recruitment company. The CFMEU allege their contract included an annual wage of only $16,130, to be paid after two years of service, a $50 per week allowance and a monthly payment of $540 for their family in China. They were required to work 12 to 17 hours a day, six days per week and were required to pay an $8065 'deposit' to get the job. When they finally complained about unpaid wages and long hours, they were sacked, their visa terminated, evicted and threatened with deportation.
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