아직도 ABN으로 노예 급여에 연금/병가도 없이 '사장님'이 아닌 '직원'으로 일하시는 분들

[Nagasari]

From poultry workers to office cleaners, unions are being attacked for sticking up for workers' rights

In industries low in glamour and high in exploitation, employers sign contracts that take their working rights away from them. This is why unions matter

Lina Martinez, a Colombian international student working in Melbourne. Photograph: Nick Haines

Pedro Vannea is a Cambodian migrant. He has been employed by food processing company Royal Bay International since 2007, in the unglamorous role of a poultry boner. When he started working there, his english skills were poor and his knowledge of workplace laws in Australia, unsurprisingly, even poorer.

At the commencement of his employment for Royal Bay, he was referred to an accountant and duly found himself set up as a business called “Pedro Vannea Pty Ltd”, the idea being that he would now work as an independent contractor on the site.

Vannea, it goes without saying, did not fully understand the implications of this arrangement. By being sub-contracted in this way, Vannea forwent all the entitlements regular employees receive – penalty rates, holidays, superannuation, sick leave. He was not even guaranteed a minimum hourly wage, receiving instead pay based on the number of chickens he could bone on a shift. He was employed like this for six years – with a take home pay averaging around $450 a week, far beneath minimum wage –and was also personally obligated to pay the government GST on his meagre income and manage his own tax affairs.

In December last year, Vannea was dismissed by Royal Bay International for missing two Saturday work shifts, when late notice made it impossible for him to get to work. By this stage, however, Vannea had signed up as a union member, and the union represented him in an unfair dismissal hearing before the Fair Work Commission.

It was through this process that the National Union of Workers (NUW) found out about how he had been contracted, and made a successful application for the contract to be shredded and his true employment status to be recognised. Vannea was reinstated, now with full pay and all the benefits owing to him as a regular employee.

While the NUW have been fighting for the rights of chicken boners, the United Voice union has been pursuing an activist campaign to highlight the appalling employment conditions of many workers in the cleaning industry.

This is, too, an industry low in glamour and high in exploitation. There are about 1,500 city office cleaners in the city of Melbourne – a mix of international students from Latin America and the subcontinent as well as an an older workforce derived from migrant communities as diverse as the Philippines, Greece, Macedonia and Eastern Europe. It’s estimated that at least 90% of the cleaning community don’t have English as a first language.

It’s deeply insecure work, as cleaning contracts can be as short-term as a month by month basis - and the work is among some of the lowest paid employment in the country. A seven year campaign by United Voice to demand job security and a living wage has led to the establishment of a new industry-wide Clean Start agreement signed by 52 of the top cleaning companies to provide job security and a 25% pay rise above the award.

However, some of those companies have been sidestepping the agreement by employing sub-contractors with a particular fondness for employing international students as independent contractors through their ABN numbers. This means they’re paid around a flat rate of $15/16 an hour, again without workcover, sick pay or any other basic entitlements.

The union has therefore focused on building up the leadership skills of these workers on cleaning sites, like Lina Martinez, a Colombian international student working in Melbourne for the Glad Group. She was distressed to discover fellow international students working beside her were being paid $8 less an hour than she was, because they were employed as contractors while her better work conditions were covered by the union’s Clean Start agreement.

A United Voice member, the appalled Martinez signed up her workmates to the union and led an activist campaign of demonstrations and media exposure against the company until her workmates were employed with the same pay and conditions as she had. The Clean Start campaign has now moved on to Melbourne’s biggest office cleaning contractor, Consolidated Property Services, who have refused to sign the union agreement. This week, cleaners walked off the job for a second time.

All campaigns are, of course, ongoing – as one workplace wins their rights, another is forced to organised to defend them.

As I write this, the Australian Education Union is on strike, with 1,000 preschool teachers and their coworkers amassed on the steps of Parliament House. Their industrial dispute involves preschool teachers and educators who’ve been in negotiations with the state government of Victoria for 14 months. Preschool teachers and co-educators are asking for salary parity with their primary school counterparts; a reform agenda introduced in 2009 increased the teaching demands placed on the preschool sector without increasing the resources for a much-expanded workloads, with educators laden with unpaid overtime to meet performance targets. Currently, preschool teachers receive 5-9% less than their primary school equivalents, while co-educators are taking home only around $15/16 an hour.

This is the reality of industrial organising in this country; campaigns for the provisions of workplace entitlement are decried by those with the economic privilege to never have to think about them. Those still confused about why the attacks on unions continue may wish to look at the chicken boners, cleaners and preschool educators taking action and start to ask just how and where union opponents made their money.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/22/justice-for-chicken-boners-to-office-cleaners-this-is-why-unions-are-being-attacked

캐쉬잡은 세금이라도 안 내는데 이건 뭐 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 언능 노조가입 ㄱㄱ? 

[Nagasari]

ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ 무섭네영

[Mel Sky]

호주 참 좋은 나라네요. 한국이었음 노조 간부들 이메일, 카톡, 전화 감청 당하고 손배 가압류로 몇십억 몇백억 빚쟁이로 만들고 일베들은 종북이라고 난리를 쳤을텐데... 가두시위는 해봐야 차막히게 한다고 욕만먹고 효과도 없습니다. 최소한 40일은 단식을 해야 신문에 나올까말까죠. 신문기사 내용도 위와같이 왜 캠페인을 하는지가 안나오고 '노조 한국경제 다시 발목잡나?' 라는 내용으로 나갈겁니다.

[블랙펄]

세상 보시는 눈이 저랑 비슷하시네요. 한 3년 후 지켜보면 답이 나오겠죠.. 뭐.ㅎㅎ

[Nagasari]

ㅇㅇㅇ 어그리드 근데 한국이 이상한거임 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[너맘에든다]

영어공부에 도움이 되네요 다는 이해 못 하지만 ^^; 감사합니다.

[Nagasari]

ㅇㅇㅇ ㄱㅊㄱㅊ

[Mel Sky]

위에서는 청소업체 얘기했는데 수많은 한인 클리너가 12-13불 받고있는데 그 위의 사장들은 아무런 문제가 없이 잘먹고 잘삽니다. 언어적 한계도 문제지만 자기 권리에 대한 교육을 받아본적이 없으니 잘못되도 그런가보다 합니다. 노조가입 하라고 하셨는데 노조라니까 일단은 공포심 혹은 반감을 갖는 한국분도 많을거예요. 어쩌면, 노조는 나쁜건데 유니온은 좋은거다라고 생각하는 분도 많을껄요? ㅋㅋㅋ 노조라는 단어 자체에 나쁜 이미지가 너무 세뇌가 되서리. ㅋㅋ 전라도도 마찬가지죠. 전라도 하면 그냥 싫은 분도 많을듯. 그거 다 한국 살면서 세뇌된것임.

[Nagasari]

한국 일용직 근로자들, 노조 등등에 관한 웹툰 '송곳' ㅊㅊ http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=602922&weekday=tue

[★멜번YES유학원★]

역시 호주답네요..ㅎ