Fair Work Commission suspends industrial action after hearing submissions from unions and Wilmar company
The Fair Work Commission has ordered unions to suspend their ongoing industrial action with the AWU lodging an appeal as negotiations continue.
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Eight Wilmar sugar and renewables sites are planning to begin cane crushing again this week after the Fair Work Commission ordered unions to suspend their ongoing industrial action.
After hearing submissions from three unions and the Wilmar company, the Commission has ordered that the industrial action be suspended for six weeks after unions notified the company of their plan to stage a series of stoppages over the coming weeks.
Submissions made to the fair work commission by the Wilmar company outlined the impact that bans and stoppages would have on the regional economy.
A Wilmar spokesman said that all Burdekin mills this week are expected to be up and running again assuming that no more rain fell in the region.
“Further south, Proserpine Mill is also expected to commence crushing Tuesday and Plane Creek Mill at Sarina is looking promising for Tuesday or Wednesday,” the spokesman said.
“Our Macknade Mill in the Herbert region to the north is expected to be in production tomorrow (Monday) with Victoria Mill following midweek,” he said.
The spokesman also said that this suspension provides time for further enterprise agreement negotiations while minimising the immediate risk to the annual crushing seasons.
Australian Workers Union (AWU) Northern District Secretary Jim Wilson said that the union was disappointed in the Commission’s decision.
“We lodged an appeal last night (Sunday) pretty soon after the decision was brought down,” he said.
“Our legal team are telling us that there’s definitely a basis for an appeal and there are some issues of credibility with their witnesses that we feel could be fleshed out a bit more in an appeal.”
“In the meantime it means that our industrial action is suspended so we’ll just get back to the bargaining table … well just keep going and keep fighting until we can get a fair outcome.”
Mr Wilson said that future delays at the factories cannot be blamed by Wilmar on the rain or the industrial action, but instead on the shortage of skilled workers.
“Wilmar has been blaming the industrial action for the crush being delayed. Our members know that the industrial action is not the only thing – or the wet weather – that has caused the delays, the delay has been caused by the lack of skilled workers,” he said.
“So every delay now, every stoppage that isn’t related to wet weather, it all falls back on Wilmar management now, they’ve got no more excuses.”
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