AMWU: Million Dollar Backpay Recovered

A plastics packaging company which underpaid workers for years has been forced to hand over more than $1 million to its employees after AMWU officials identified flagrant breaches of award pay rates and conditions.

One employee at Sunrise Plastics has been paid more than $250,000 to make up for many years of underpayment as a casual worker while others will receive amounts up to almost $100,000 before tax.

The exploitation of the workers was discovered when the AMWU’s National Organising Unit first gained access to the factory in outer eastern Melbourne in June 2011.

As most of Sunrise Plastic’s 60 workers gradually joined the union, AMWU organiser Robert Nguyen found all were incorrectly employed as casuals and paid a flat hourly $15.50 rate for years, with no overtime, penalty rates or meal allowances.

These new members should have been paid at least $19.95 an hour, based on award skill before extras, such as 25 per cent loading for casual employment, and overtime rates.

Shift workers were entitled to up to $30.00 an hour, almost double what they were receiving. The union has now successfully delivered backpay going back six years.

People who have since become AMWU members commonly did between 50 and 80 hours a week, some working seven days at the factory in Boronia.

“Most of these new members have lived in Australia for some time but some use English as a second language which meant they had little knowledge of their workplace rights, and being fearful for their job, they were too scared to speak up,” Mr Nguyen said.

“There was an atmosphere of intense intimidation.”

Union officials worked hard with members to break through the language barriers, to understand the gravity of members’ plight.

Sunrise Plastics at first refused to engage with AMWU officials, but reluctantly agreed later through its lawyers when the unity of the newly-signed union members became obvious.

Sunrise Plastics has since agreed to negotiate its first enterprise bargaining agreement and our new members will have all the support they need from our Victorian branch.

The company has converted 45 long-term casual workers to permanent employment, as required by the modern manufacturing award.

“We were just happy to have a job, we worked here long hours for many years but we didn’t know the law until the union came in here, now we know we have rights,” said one AMWU member who did not wish to be named.

Organising unit coordinator Paul Chirgwin said Sunshine Plastics was the “tip of the iceberg” and estimated about 40 per cent of non-unionised companies the unit checked on were underpaying employees.

“A lot are ignorant of their obligations as employers, but then a lot use the language barrier breakdown to cynically take advantage of their workers,” he said.