Vic: Workers docked pay for taking up collection for widow

AAP General News (Australia)
04-11-2006
Vic: Workers docked pay for taking up collection for widow

By Jane Bunce

MELBOURNE, April 11 AAP - Unions will take legal action after workers were docked four
hours pay for stopping work for 15 minutes to collect money for the family of an employee
killed on a construction site.

The workers were docked for taking unprotected industrial action under the government's
new workplace legislation.

CFMEU organiser Martin Kingham said about 25 workers stopped for up to 15 minutes last
Friday to take up a collection for the family of building worker Christos Binos, 58, who
was fatally crushed by a concrete slab in Pakenham last month.

Mr Kingham said the stop-work was not political or industrial, it was "about people
in the building industry looking after each other".

"People have been penalised for trying to do the right thing," he said.

"We want to challenge the legality of this new law, we think this new law is nonsense.

"But whatever happens in the courts, we are not going to stop what we do, which is
(to) help each other out when we are down."

He said the legislation had created a dispute where none had existed before.

Employer Hooker Cochram said the company was forced to dock the pay of workers as the
unions had not given them a detailed written request seeking the meeting.

"That wasn't complied with, so under the legislation we have no choice but to deduct
four hours' pay for, what is considered under the legislation, industrial action," general
manager Matthew Dalmau said.

Mr Dalmau said Hooker Cochram directly employed two of the construction workers refurbishing
the Department of Defence building site at Port Melbourne, while the remainder were subcontractors.

He said the company could suffer sanctions or be fined up to $33,000 if it did not dock the pay.

"Of course we are sympathetic, of course we would have granted the approval for the
meeting, if the rules had been followed," Mr Dalmau said.

"Unfortunately, our hands are tied, we had no choice."

Shop stewart Steve Barum said the union had given notice of the meeting the day before,
and presented a written letter about five minutes before the meeting.

He said workers did not blame the employer, which had been directed to dock the pay
by the building industry taskforce, and was protecting itself against fines or losing
future government contracts.

He called the legislation "unAustralian".

"It's about taking away the Australian spirit of helping one another," he said.

AAP jb/dk/jm/de

KEYWORD: WORKPLACE DOCK

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