C2002/1833, Transcript of Proceedings [2002] AIRCTrans 1528 (6 May 2002)

AUSCRIPT PTY LTD
ABN 76 082 664 220

Level 4, 179 Queen St MELBOURNE Vic 3000
(GPO Box 1114 MELBOURNE Vic 3001)
DX 305 Melbourne Tel:[phone] Fax:[phone]

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS


O/N VT03581

AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL

RELATIONS COMMISSION

SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT WILLIAMS

C2002/1833

CLELANDS COLD STORES (AUST) PTY LTD

and

NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS

Notification pursuant to section 99 of
the Act of a dispute re the
inability of the parties to resolve their
differences in relation to a new EBA for
the company's Tullamarine site

MELBOURNE

2.20 PM, MONDAY, 22 APRIL 2002

PN1

MR T. BOURKE: From the Australian Industry Group on behalf of Clelands and with me at the bar table is MS F. DONALD.

PN2

MR R. GORMAN: I appear on behalf of the NUW, National Union of Workers. And appearing with me is MR V. BOGOVSKI.

PN3

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes, thank you. Yes, Mr Bourke?

PN4

MR BOURKE: Thanks, your Honour. And can we say, firstly, thank you for bringing on this matter at the speed which you did. I am sure it took everybody a little bit by surprise but we appreciate it anyway. Your Honour, Clelands is a company with which you have had previous experience and some of the faces in the room are likely to be familiar to you. But this matter concerns the Tullamarine site which is one of three sites. There are around 30 employees at Tullamarine. About 130 at Lyndhurst and another 20 at Clayton, all of which are, shall we say, NUW type employees in terms of what they do.

PN5

As well there are about 60 drivers who are aligned to the TWU. And your Honour it is worth commenting, I think, at the moment, that the other sites and also the drivers all have EBAs lining up behind this one for renegotiation. So this becomes a fairly critical issue from the point of view of the company. Your Honour, in terms of background, the previous agreement was a 12 months agreement and at the final stages of negotiating that agreement there were two days of rolling stoppages. And during those two days one of the company's major clients, Castlemaine Bacon, I think, threatened to take its business elsewhere.

PN6

And as a result of that the company were forced to pay a 5 per cent increase for a one year agreement which was significantly more than they felt comfortable with at the time. And it is no secret in terms of the people involved that this is a critical issue. In fact some of the employees have already referred to the opportunity to engage in protected industrial action, which is not far away, as being something of a deal maker this time around. Your Honour, the company can recoup CPI increases from clients but that is the limit of the increases that can be recouped.

PN7

And in the six months to December 2001 the company made a loss. That loss was notified to the stock exchange and my instructions are that that is the first loss for at least 20 years, perhaps ever. But certainly the first loss since it went public in about 1986. The last 10 years the CPI increases have been around 28 per cent. The increases given in terms of wage increases to the employees - 55 per cent. And as well as that there is a profit share system in place. Your Honour, as far as the company is concerned there are three outstanding issues.

PN8

And it is their understanding that these are the issues, notwithstanding what the union might say, the company believes that these three are the points of difference. Firstly, wages. The company has offered a 3.1 per cent increase for the first year followed by a 4 per cent or CPI whichever is the greater for the second year. And just mentioning in passing, your Honour that 3.1 per cent reflects the CPI increase, December - December to December 2001. The second issue is that the company wishes to red circle some people who are benefiting from inequitable payments based on their classification.

PN9

The examples which I have been given are that there are forklift drivers whose basic rates of pay are $2 an hour different and there are other employees where there are those doing the same work are between 50 cents and $1 per hour different. And the company initially said that those needed to be absorbed into any increases but their current position is that they be red circled and that those inequities disappear over time.

PN10

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: In what way?

PN11

MR BOURKE: Pardon me, your Honour?

PN12

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: In what way would they disappear?

PN13

MR BOURKE: Well, as - - -

PN14

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I mean, who is being red circled, the lower paid person or the higher paid person?

PN15

MR BOURKE: No, the upper paid, your Honour. And as those rates increase from time to time, until the lower ones get to the top level, the top level would stay as it is.

PN16

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes, go on.

PN17

MR BOURKE: And the third issue concerns freezer allowance and chiller allowance. The freezer allowance at the moment is 70 cents an hour. The chiller allowance is 40 cents an hour. And there are people who are being inappropriately paid these allowances based on the sort of conditions that they work in. And what the company plans to do is to pay the people as per the award. My understanding is that there are degrees of coldness which define which allowance which is available and that that is not being paid appropriately at the moment for some employees who have been there for some time.

PN18

I believe that any new employees or recent hirings are being paid correctly. Your Honour, basically, the company's position is that it simply cannot be competitive the way things are and it really does have to use this EBA as a way to enhance this level of competitiveness in the interests of everyone who is involved. Your Honour, depending on anything that the union may say, the company is happy to go into conference. The company really does come to the Commission understanding the ramifications and the potential in terms of the powers that you have got.

PN19

Nevertheless, would be hopeful that with your involvement it may be possible to resolve the outstanding issues, or make a significant dent in them relatively quickly. And certainly unless you have any questions I will leave it at that at this stage, if your Honour pleases.

PN20

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you. Mr Gorman?

PN21

MR GORMAN: Yes, thank you. Well, basically everything that I have heard is spot on apart from the fact that there has been no threats to the best of my knowledge of any industrial action. I have got it in my diary for a meeting tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock with the company. That arrangement was made last Thursday. I was notified by a phone message - by my office on Friday that this Commission hearing had been called. The - where we are apart is basically right. And as far as the company and everything else that they have said, well, that is their story, they are sticking to it.

PN22

If they want to have a quick - a brief discussion here this afternoon, I am quite prepared to go along with it, but as I said I had a meeting set tomorrow morning and I have had to rearrange my schedule this afternoon because this was brought on at short notice. And I understand that that is good if we are in a dispute but there has been no threat of any dispute that I am aware of and I have been up and spoken to the members on the site to find out who has been making these threats. On the notification it clearly says that the employees have made a threat of industrial action on the basis of rolling stoppages.

PN23

Now that is very clearly in my mind not true. But we are prepared to go on with a conference if the Commission pleases.

PN24

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Mr Bourke, is it right there is a scheduled meeting tomorrow?

PN25

MR BOURKE: That is my understanding, your Honour, but without having had this formally put to me I believe that what was supposed to be on this afternoon has been rescheduled for tomorrow and I believe the company will be unable to make that meeting tomorrow because of that.

PN26

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Well, it was the company who sought the urgent assistance of the Commission.

PN27

MR BOURKE: I haven't had formal instructions in that sense but it was just a comment made just before we started.

PN28

THE SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT: All right, well, we will adjourn into conference and see whether the matter can be progressed or see where the matter is going and if necessary go back on the transcript at a later stage. The Commission is adjourned.

NO FURTHER PROCEEDINGS RECORDED [2.29pm]