AWAs used to smash collective agreement

BRISBANE — Workers at garage-door company Gliderol became a test case for Howard's new industrial relations laws. According to Darren Needham, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) delegate at Gliderol, the company refused to negotiate a collective agreement, instead offering individual contracts (AWAs). The previous collective agreement expired on April 1, and senior management stalled negotiations, forcing the Gliderol employees to hold the first secret ballot under the new IR laws.

According to Needham, while workers won the vote to take industrial action, they decided against doing so, as it would not have stopped production (most of the employees are labour hire). The company pressured most workers into signing AWAs, calling each employee one by one into the office and offering them a lump-sum payment of $1000 for signing. Needham says the AWAs undermine pay, conditions and job security.

Workers had hoped to secure a collective agreement because 38 AMWU members at a Gliderol workshop in South Australia successfully negotiated one. "Unfortunately the union delegate was on compo at the time and the company secretly brought in AWAs", Needham explained. "I estimate that the company has spent $12,500 on legal costs, plus $15,000 for the secret ballot ... more than what our pay rise would've been, in order to smash the union."

Andrew Martin

From Green Left Weekly, July 19, 2006.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 675