AUSTRALIA-MEAT GIANT IN BIG TROUBLE.
THE Harvey Beef stalemate is no closer to resolution after the embattled processor allegedly failed to meet a deadline to present a new and third collective agreement to workers.
The financially-burdened company sacked 160 employees last month and threatened more dismissals unless a revised workplace agreement offering less pay, conditions and incentives was accepted.
Workers had already rejected the firm’s first two offers, the latest of which would have com-pelled one third of the workforce to take a 20 per cent pay cut.
They are being urged by the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) to accept an alternative Union Collective Agreement which will preserve some entitle-ments that the company has agreed to include.
The lower wages offer will not be amended, but the poten-tial key to a solution is the change to a two-year agreement from the three years initially proposed by the company.
The agreement preserves the right of the union to represent the workers and also ensures that they could renegotiate if the economic climate turns around.
The AMIEU said that Harvey Beef, run by investment comp-any Stark Harmony, had agreed to the agreement and would put it to the workers last week.
However, AMIEU vice-presi-dent John Da Silva said that Harvey Beef’s management failed to deliver the necessary documents on the promised date.
"There were no documents, so there was no third offer," Mr Da Silva said.
"Harvey Beef has given us no indication of when the docu-ments will be available, so we don’t know yet when the next vote will be.
"Once the documents have been presented, the workforce will be given seven days to consider it before going to a vote."
Harvey Beef employees are strongly divided over the new agreements; some workers are refusing to tolerate a deal which would have slashed pay and reduced working conditions, while others are less resistant and are happy to keep their jobs.
Harvey Beef spokesperson Danika Mullins disagreed with the AMIEU’s comments, saying it was not planning to bring the matter to a third vote.
"We have put forward the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission and are awaiting the outcome," she said.
