The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has confirmed that nearly all of SPC Ardmona’s plant staff are entitled to lucrative redundancy payouts of up to two years’ wages.
According to The Australian, Victorian Liberal federal MP, Sharon Stone, whose Murray electorate takes in SPCA’s major operations, sent a media release to her Coalition colleagues stating that excessive redundancy payments at SPC had been reined in to 52 weeks in 2012, but the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has confirmed that almost all of the more than 400 employees at the cannery were employed under a previous enterprise agreement that provided redundancy of four weeks’ pay for every year of employment, up to 104 weeks.
AMWU food and confectionary division secretary Tom Hale said the company comprised mostly of long term employees, who’ve been with the brand for at least 10 or 20 years. "There would still be a fairly long term workforce because it's one of the few jobs in town," he said.
Last week the federal government rejected SPC’s request for a $25 million co-investment, with prime minister Tony Abbott claiming that the restructuring of companies should be led by business, not government.
“This is a government which will make sure that the restructuring that some Australian businesses need, that some Australian sectors need, is led by business as it should be,” he said.
This prompted the Victorian Opposition to offer $30 million in assistance should it be successful in the November election.
Discussion surrounding the redundancy entitlements of SPC workers follow implications by the federal government earlier this week that workplace conditions played a role in its decision to knock back the fruit processors calls for help.
Abbott said SPC needed to renegotiate workplace conditions which were "way in excess of the award" and "extraordinary", including that workers are paid up to 58 percent above award wage levels and receive nine weeks’ paid leave. SPC quickly refuted the claims, releasing a statement that details what its workers are entitled to.