Media Release: Dairy Workers Union
Thursday September 10 2009
 
Open Country Cheese dispute centres around job security, not wages
 
The Dairy Workers Union says that the dispute with Talleys-owned Open Country Cheese will only be resolved when the company properly addresses its workers’ job security concerns, following mediation with the company yesterday.

“Despite the company fudging this dispute by saying that wages are the central issue, there is no wage claim at all on the table right now,” James Ritchie, National Secretary of the Dairy Workers Union said.

“The sticking points are hours of work and roster changes, redundancy and restructuring protection, length of time temporary workers serve and their ratio to permanent workers, and paid meal breaks.”

“Open Country Cheese has made it clear that they want to seasonalise the dairy workforce.  Most workers would have no security of employment, but would work as seasonal and temporary workers with large gaps in their income during parts of the year.”

“The company also wants to push through major roster changes, that would mean that at short notice a worker could be required to work 12 hours a day for 6 days in a row, by changing their shift from 4 days on – 4 days off, to 6 days on – 3 days off.” 

“This would be highly disruptive for workers, who have childcare and other commitments to think about.  This is a big change which the workers are rightly concerned about, especially in the current economic climate.”

“Open Country Cheese needs to stop being distracted by its over-the-top lockout threats and the setting up of a front employment agency to avoid bargaining collectively, and instead come to the table with a willingness to look at the workers’ very real concerns about their job security,” James Ritchie said.
 
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