No reason given for unfair culling at mushroom factory

Workers were sacked in 2004 under a deal struck by their employer, Chiquita Mushrooms Pty Ltd, with the AWU.

Former mushroom picker Elica Jovanovski lost her job after the AWU supported a move by her company to sack all its workers.

They were mushroom pickers employed under an enterprise bargaining agreement signed by Bill Shorten on behalf of the Australian Workers Union on June 20, 2003.

But Donna Hodgson, Joseph­ine Hodgson, Elica Jovanovski and Ivka Kolenda were sacked in 2004 under a new deal struck by their employer, Chiquita Mushrooms Pty Ltd, with the AWU.

The four took their claim for unfair dismissal to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and were found to have been denied procedural fairness, despite the presence of an AWU delegate at their meeting.

The 2004 deal between the AWU and Chiquita brought a “union-friendly” temporary labour­-hire company called One­force onto the site, and 160 permanent employees were culled. Most workers at Chiquita’s farms were offered voluntary redundancy packages, and then rehired as Oneforce labour.

But some were made redund­ant without consultation and never told why.

Ms Kolenda worked for Chiquita for 20 years and had won four awards for her service. She was “very upset” by the events, her daughter, Lucy, told The Weekend Australian. “It’s all still very raw even though it happened a long time ago,” she said.

The four who took their claim to the AIRC were found by commissioner Len Hingley in 2005 to have been denied procedural fairness.

Ms Jovanovski, now 50, who worked at Chiquita for four years before she was dismissed, had three young children and a mortgage to pay. She told The Weekend Australian she was still horrified by the way she was treated and blames Mr Shorten.

“He could have done something to support Australian workers and especially the older workers like Ivka … It made me feel like: why have a union? They just said there was no job available but they were bringing in people from elsewhere.’’

A spokesman for Mr Shorten said: “As Mr Shorten said on (the ABC’s) Insiders, he has always put the interests of workers first.”

While the 2004 deal, signed by then AWU assistant state secretary Cesar Melhem, permitted sackings “for legitimate operational requirements”, the AIRC ordered the four to be given voluntary redundancy packages.