General

Industrial Relations

Petrol workers pay slashed

Up to 65 Tasmanian workers are facing pay cuts of as much as $190 a week and the loss of important award conditions under new employment contracts that exploit newly discovered loopholes in the Federal Govt's IR laws that allow owners of new businesses to impose pay cuts and change work conditions without any consultation or agreement with existing workers says the ACTU.

United Petroleum has confirmed to the ACTU that it is taking over 13 of Mobil's former service station outlets in Tasmania.

The company has refused to honour the existing wages and conditions of the workers, instead gaining Federal Government approval for a new 'Greenfields' employment contract that overrides the workers' previous award protections.

In Tasmania to meet with workers today (Thurs 5 Oct.), ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:

"Unions estimate that up to 65 workers at United Petroleum's new
petrol stations in Tasmania have been affected by a new employment
contract which slashes award wages and conditions at the former
Mobil outlets.

Under the new employment contract, the workers have lost their penalty rates, allowances, public holidays, annual leave loading, overtime payments, skills payments and rest breaks.

The workers' pay has been reduced to a flat rate of just $14.33 an hour

• down from a casual rate under the State award of as much as $36 an hour on weekends and more for public holidays - with some workers reported to have had their take home pay cut by $190 a week.

The workers have also lost entitlements to rest breaks - meaning they could be made to work up to seven and a half hours without a break.

The workers are basically doing the same job they were doing when they sold petrol for Mobil. Now they are selling petrol for United. Even the company that controlled the Mobil franchises in Tasmania, Norvac, is now their current employer - it has simply been bought out by United Petroleum and restructured.

But the workers have had no say over the terms of the new work contract and a number of the workers claim to have not been issued with a copy of the document.

Under the new IR laws, workers that strike or take any industrial action during the first twelve months of a 'Greenfields' contract can legally be sacked, fined up to $6600, sued for unspecified damages, and potentially jailed for up to 12 months.

The Howard Government promised to protect the award conditions of workers when a business transferred from one employer to another, but it has given the green light to this nasty example of exploitation,"
said Ms Burrow.

Since taking over Mobil operations in Tasmania, United Petroleum has engaged in a fierce discounting war with other local petrol outlets - recently cutting the price of fuel to as low as 99 cents a litre and sparking long queues by motorists at its outlets.

"The public should be aware that the people who are really paying
for Tassie's petrol price war are the workers at United Petroleum
who have been left in the lurch by the Federal Government's IR
laws," said Ms Burrow.

More information:

• Copy of United Petroleum (Norvac) employment contract -

'Greenfields agreement'

• Summary of Office of Workplace Services investigation

• Letter of appeal to OWS by Unions Tasmania

This article can be found on the Web at:

http://www.actu.asn.au/work_rights/news/1160012341_28424.html

© 2001 Community & Public Sector Union - State Public Services Federation (CPSU-SPSF) - National Office

http://www.cpsu-spsf.asn.au/latest_news/general/20061005_ACTU.html
Last Modified: 05 Oct 2006