Harvey Norman sacks worker over AWA

Susan Price, Sydney

Melanie Reardon, a salesperson at a Harvey Norman store in Liverpool, was sacked on August 19 when she challenged the roster conditions of her new individual contract (Australian Workplace Agreement — AWA). Reardon, who is the sole provider for her seven children, had her roster unilaterally changed by her employer.

Reardon told her story to a September 8 Unions NSW council meeting. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union is supporting her case.

Before she signed the AWA, Reardon had two weekends off every six weeks guaranteed. This was reduced to one weekend off in every six after she signed the AWA.

"Within days of me questioning my AWA, things started to crumble. When my brother passed away suddenly I was not allowed to take the weekend off, and my boss had me take apart and reassemble bar stools on that Sunday when I came into work", Reardon told Green Left Weekly.

"I'm a good salesperson, one of the top in the store", she said, explaining that she had continued to work despite suffering a significant work injury several months earlier. "I broke some bones in my thigh and knee, and it took seven months to be given the time off [sick leave] to have an operation to properly fix it. I now have a permanent limp."

Reardon was eventually dismissed by her boss for allegedly being unfit for work. That was "in spite of my doctor giving me the OK to return to work", she said.

Under the federal government's proposed new workplace laws, Reardon would be unable to appeal her dismissal, as the Harvey Norman retail chain is organised through a franchise structure that ensures that each of its stores is legally classified as a separate business, and they each employ less than 100 people.

From Green Left Weekly, September 14, 2005.

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From GLW issue 642