Chicken workers have won significant restrictions on the use of contract and cash-in-hand labour, with Baiada Poultry agreeing to pay temporary workers the same rates as permanent staff.
The National Union of Workers has said cash-in-hand workers were paid as little as $8 an hour at Baiada in Laverton North, and a mass meeting of workers yesterday welcomed the news of a two-year collective deal with cries of ''no more $10 [an hour]''.
Union organiser Godfrey Moase told workers they would get a 4 per cent annual pay rise, redundancy entitlements would be more than doubled, and all casual and contract labour would be paid at least the minimum site rates.
The agreement is a significant shift from Baiada and the NUW has said nearly half the 430 workforce at Laverton North were contractors, cash-in-hand or temporary labour. Most of the workforce are migrants and yesterday's meeting was translated into Vietnamese.
NUW organiser Tim Gunstone told the meeting that the court action, along with a $1.7 million damages claim against the union, had been dropped as part of the settlement.
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