Thursday, November 29, 2007

Barry Hemsworth reinstated: Climate Change!

End of an era … Barry Hemsworth's vigil ends.

Barry Hemsworth, a crane driver for Botany Cranes in Banksmeadow, returns to work today after his solitary 441 day protest outside his former employer's gates.

On Tuesday afternoon, 72 hours after the polls closed in an election that brought Labor to power on a promise to abolish the Howard Government's Work Choices laws, the company told Mr Hemsworth he could have his job back.

"I had vowed to stay on the picket line, even if it was just me, until Howard went," he said.

Mr Hemsworth, a 35-year veteran of the construction industry, worked for the crane company - owned by Anne Bradstreet, the sister of former NSW Liberal politician Ted Pickering - for more than a decade.

Mr Hemsworth, a long-time representative of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, said the company had realised the unfair dismissal laws were about to change.

Under Work Choices, firms with fewer than 100 staff, such as Botany Cranes, were exempt from unfair dismissal laws.

The prime minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, has pledged to restore unfair dismissal rights to employees of small businesses who have been employed for more than a year.

Mr Hemsworth said he had enjoyed good relations with management until May last year, soon after Work Choices was enacted. "It had always been a great place to work and I had always praised the company," he said. "But then things turned sour. Management believed their authority was absolute."

Mr Hemsworth maintains he was dismissed for opposing inexperienced workers certifying the safety conditions on worksites.

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