Sunday, April 16, 2017

NUW NSW fights hard for casual workers at DHL Ingleburn


The battle for workers rights is heating up at DHL Ingleburn where the NUW NSW Organiser Charlie Morgan has just lodged a log of claims on behalf of the sites 90 workers.

The workers comprise of 30 permanent staff and 60 causal workers employed by Action and Belway labour hire firms to load and unload shipping containers at the Ingleburn site.

The majority of the 25 claims relate to protections for the casual workers including job security, an inadequate wage offer, no guarantee of conditions for relocating staff and access to full time positions.

NUW Organiser Charlie Morgan said many of the casual workers were desperate for permanent positions and deeply concerned about the attempted undercutting of wages and stripping of conditions.

  • “Many casuals have worked for DHL for long periods of time, including some staff who’s been here for as long as 7 years.”
  • “Employees who’ve worked for DHL for several years deserve the opportunity to become permanent after such a long period of loyal service.”
  • “The casuals who work for DHL get no paid sick leave and no annual leave. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid. They cannot afford not to work and finally they’ve said ‘enough is enough.”
  • “We’re also standing up against DHL’s attempt to undercut wages by creating a new entry level position that pays up to $5 less an hour than what the other employees receive. DHL have managed to get away with it at other sites, but we want to stop them here.”
  • “To make matters worse, DHL has offered no security of conditions to employees who may be required to relocate. If they move, they risk losing pay and conditions they’ve fought hard to win and that’s just not fair or acceptable.”

But NUW NSW is fighting back and has successfully won the right to hold a ‘ballot on taking industrial action’ from the Fair Work Commission. The Electoral Commission is now expected to hold that ballot on 3rd of May which will determine whether the union can take protected industrial action.

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