WESTERN AUSTRALIA-HARVEY BEEF IN TROUBLE.
Management at Harvey Beef’s meat-processing plant in Harvey, 150km south of Perth, would not say whether the redundancies could have been avoided if the enterprise bargaining agreement had been accepted.
But the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union said it was a bullying tactic to try to force the remaining workers to accept the new agreement, which would cut salaries for most of the workers by up to 20 per cent. Urged by their union to reject the new agreement, workers had voted 55per cent to 45 per cent against the offer, which would have meant a pay rise for some lower-paid staff.
In January, Harvey Beef had closed the abattoir’s doors for nine days while it reviewed its operations.
Yesterday, general manager Dean Goode said the company was forced to lay off 120 full-time workers and 40 contractors because of falling overseas demand and higher costs, and to protect 350 other jobs at the plant.
"Today’s a day we hoped we hadn’t reached," Mr Goode said. "But it’s about the long-term sustainability of Harvey Beef."
Sacked workers said they were not surprised to lose their jobs.
Darren Sewell, a slicer in the boning room who has three young children, said his redundancy package would not go far.
He said he and his wife would have to rely on her casual income to support the family and pay the mortgage.
"We were expecting it ... but everybody’s pretty lost at the moment," he said.
Couple Rhonda Gaddes and Mick Wood, who have two children, both worked at Harvey Beef and said they may have to move out of the area to find work.
"People are angry and frustrated. There are a lot of scared people out there that are going to lose their homes," Ms Gaddes said.
Harvey Beef said that the job cuts were not restricted to the slaughter floor and boning room, but extended to administration and to some supervisors.
The 300 Harvey Beef workers covered by the old union-negotiated enterprise bargaining agreement voted last week against the company’s proposed three-year, non-union, agreement.
The AMIEU had advised against the offer, saying it would cut earnings and conditions for all workers.
Harvey Beef had argued that its workers were being paid more than their interstate counterparts and the pay cuts were necessary to make the company competitive in difficult times.
AMIEU state secretary Graeme Haynes said the union had been prepared to negotiate but the company had adopted a take-it-or-leave-it approach.
He said the job cuts were unnecessary. "There was a con job being done on the workforce. The workforce saw through it, rejected it and in retaliation they are making people redundant."
Mr Goode denied the job cuts were in retaliation for rejecting the offer, saying they were the result of a separate, six-week review of the business.