Brown attacks annual leave

Dean Brown's Liberal government sided with a local South Australian employer in a failed bid to halve annual leave under an enterprise flexibility agreement.

Secretary of the Automotive, Food, Metals and Engineering Union's vehicle division, Paul Noack announced that a division of Arrowcrest, wheel maker ROH, wants workers to cash in two weeks of their annual leave, but that this has been successfully challenged by the union in the federal Industrial Relations Commission.

“This is the Brown government's clearest signal yet that it does not want to recognise awards as a minimum standard in enterprise bargaining”, Noack said. He pointed out that ROH workers are already required to work a 40-hour week with one six minute tea break and only 20 minutes for lunch.

“If workers were allowed to cash in holidays, it opens the way for employers to eventually claim they cannot pay it and then it is goodbye to two weeks annual leave and goodbye to a more humane workplace.”

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