Unions rally against car valet’s AWAs
An AAP report says that Unions are asking Qantas customers to boycott the company’s valet service after workers were made redundant and told they needed to sign Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) to be employed under a new contractor.
About 50 union members rallied outside Qantas’ valet service at Tullamarine Airport on Saturday in support of the 70 workers affected in Melbourne.
Equity Valet Parking took over the Qantas valet parking contract from Hertz at airports in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane on Saturday and about 170 workers nationally have been affected by the changes.
Only one of the 70 Melbourne workers attended Saturday’s rally. Michelle Girdler, 39, who worked for the business for 18 years, said workers were made redundant by Hertz on Friday and paid their entitlements.
She said they had to reapply for their jobs with Equity Valet Parking.
“Ninety-five per cent of us got our jobs with Equity Valet Parking but we decided not to work for (the company) because we are not going to sign an AWA,” she told AAP.
Ms Girdler, a night shift worker, said to her knowledge the AWA did not include shift allowances and she would lose $10,000 a year without that condition.
Unions also say the new AWAs cut workers’ pay and conditions, a claim Equity Valet Parking strongly denies.
Equity managing director John Demetre said the unions’ claims that workers stood to lose up to $300 a week under the new contracts were “totally unfounded and totally untrue”.
“What these people were actually offered were similar terms and conditions as to their previous employer,” he told AAP.
“Plus, an immediate four per cent pay increase and an additional four per cent each for the next four years, regardless of productivity.”
Mr Demetre said every worker who reapplied for their job was interviewed and about 94 per cent of those were offered a position.
“The issue is they want a collective agreement,” Mr Demetre said. “AWAs are legal.”
But ACTU president Sharan Burrow blamed Qantas for letting the contract go ahead without respecting workers’ rights. “This is a Qantas service,” she told the rally in Melbourne.
“So Qantas can’t hide behind the contractor who treats the workers with a lack of respect.” She said the AWAs were being offered just weeks before the Rudd government was due to abolish Work Choices.
Ms Burrow asked union members to return to the airport every day from Monday to ask valet customers not to use the service, “because it’s not a service that respects the right to bargain collectively, respects the right of workers to representation”.
A Qantas spokesperson said: “We understand Equity is offering the same level of pay and conditions. “This appears just to be a union issue with AWAs.”
A Report by The Mole from AAP
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