News

Mar 27, 2008

Autoliv in Campbellfield, Victoria, has told four injured workers that there are no light duties available and they should consider ‘voluntary packages’.



AMWU organiser Chris Spindler said that there was no such thing as ‘voluntary packages’ in theUnion Agreement and the company was not being genuine about accommodating the workers’ return to work.



“It appears that the company is trying to get out of paying people a proper redundancy and they are just not serious about meeting their responsibilities to help workers get back to work.”



Mr Spindler said the workers’ preference was to get back to work and the union has put a proposal to the company that they sit down and negotiate a plan to make that happen.



“If they really can’t accommodate someone, then we should look at the option of retraining.



“And what they really need to do is fix the underlying problems that are causing these injuries.”



Mr Spindler said a redundancy should only be considered once all other avenues were exhausted.



“In a situation like that, the workers should be offered a genuine redundancy and not some voluntary package.”



The union is holding a mass meeting on site next week to discuss the issue.



In another development at Visy in Coburg, where sacked AMWU member George Kyridis has maintained a vigil since his sacking in January, a community picket was organised for the Thursday before Easter.



Mr Kyridis was sacked in January after refusing to do work that he was incapable of undertaking due to a work related knee injury.



Forty people turned up to support Mr Kyridis, many of whom live locally and saw his story in the local papers.



AMWU Victorian organiser Tony Mavromatis said George had a lot of support from his workmates and from the community at large.



“George has been a loyal employee of the company for seven years and their treatment of him has been abominable.”



The company is still refusing to meet with the union over the issue.

Contact Person: Chris Spindler

Contact Email: news@amwu.asn.au

http://www.amwu.org.au/read-article/news-detail/90/Rough-deal-for-injured-workers/