EZ forced to reveal job cut plans

Wednesday, October 20, 1993 - 10:00

By Shayn McCallum

HOBART — The Pasminco-EZ zinc plant was forced to close down on October 11 when the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees, the plant's largest union, voted to joint the strike by the AMEU, the EPU and CFMEU.

Unions at the plant originally called the strike to pressure the company into releasing a section-by-section account of planned job cuts so that individual workers could decide whether or not to take voluntary redundancies. However, it has become clear that the company wants to retain the power to choose who stays and who goes.

On October 13, the day the industrial commission ordered the company to reveal its plans, Pasminco-EZ's general manager Paul Salmon revealed the company's reasons for withholding information on the cuts.

"We have been working on an assessment system for several weeks, so that information will obviously be used in determining who stays and goes", he said.

"If you're a good performing individual and want to work at Pasminco in a world class team, volunteering [for redundancies] is something that you shouldn't be doing." He went on to say that workers would be selectively retrenched on the basis of their skills and performance.

The company has also been accused of making a hit list of workers it wishes to sack, allegedly with particular emphasis on injured workers who had claimed compensation. It is also alleged that contractors who refused to cross union picket lines have been docked pay.

The newly revealed details concerning the job cuts show that 333 positions will go. According to Jim Bacon, the secretary of the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council, this will hinder the workability of the plant and will not ultimately benefit EZ at all.

The company has just made $19 million profit, a fact which has embarrassed it greatly as its official reasons for job cuts feature cries of poverty and imminent economic collapse. Pasminco-EZ is the traditional beneficiary of scores of privileges, including extremely cheap power.

Upon the industrial commission's ruling compelling EZ to reveal the details of the job cuts, workers voted to lift the strike, but it is unclear whether further action will be taken at a later date.