THE meatworkers union has chipped in on political stoushing in the run-up to Saturday’s New England by-election with sensational claims against a red meat processor in Tamworth.
The Australian Meat Industry Employee’s Union (AMIEU) today released a report accusing prominent family-owned beef business Thomas Foods International (TFI) and Tamworth Regional Council of “supervising an underground system of work exploitation, intimidation, humiliation and harassment.”
The accusations have been firmly denied by the parties concerned, and representatives of the meat processing sector, and have been labelled melodramatic and politically-motivated by the wider beef industry.
However, AMIEU says it is definitely not doing Labor’s bidding here.
Secretary of the Newcastle and Northern NSW AMIEU branch Grant Courtney refuted the claim the report was released to coincide with the by-election of former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s seat.
He said the release came in the wake of a Sydney Morning Herald story last week on the issue because “we wanted the complete report on the record as opposed to a snapshot of our concerns.”
“This issue has been bubbling away for two years, within the New England electorate in particular where youth unemployment is around 19.6 per cent - 8pc above the national average,” he said.
“In the country’s largest multi species meat processing region, you would think youth unemployment would be far less than that.
“This is not about Barnaby’s re-election chances - it is a major concern across regional Australia that abattoirs do not engage locals because they have a preference for migrant workers.”
The Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) said this was an issue “rife with mistruths and conjecture.”
All AMIC members strived to utilise locals first and the strict undertakings of 457 and 417 visa management means award rates must be paid, AMIC said.
A statement issued by TFI, which is one of the largest suppliers to Woolworths, Coles and Aldi along with an exporter to some of Australia’s most discerning international markets including Europe and Japan, said the company holds the safety and wellbeing of all its staff as an utmost priority and has well-established protocols in place to ensure a safe workplace for all staff.
TFI employs a diverse workforce at Tamworth consisting of both local and overseas workers and Tamworth was currently advertising for positions, with local job seekers encouraged to apply, the statement said.
“The Tamworth enterprise agreement, which was negotiated and agreed between employees and the union, sets out the rates of pay and conditions for all employees including labour hire workers,” the statement said.
“Both permanent employees and labour hire workers progress through to higher skill and remuneration levels in a short period of time.
“In addition to TFI’s staff induction process, all new labour hire workers are provided with onboarding packs available in a number of different languages that include clear information about their rights and responsibilities. This includes outlining that as a clear condition of working with TFI, staff are free to choose to live where they wish and cannot be forced to live in particular accommodation as a condition of being provided with work.
“TFI does not, and will not, condone any unlawful practices by a labour hire agency and will not engage an agency found to be operating illegally in any way.
“TFI takes allegations against a labour hire agency very seriously. If allegations around unlawful residential arrangements are proven to be true, and therefore in breach of TFI’s strict policy requirements, TFI will immediately terminate its arrangement with the labour hire agency.”
Tamworth Regional Council general manager Paul Bennett said there was “no factual basis” to the claim it was involved in “an underground system of worker exploitation, intimidation, humiliation and harassment”.
“The clear inference from the report is that Tamworth Regional Council is dealing with Thomas Food International differently to other local businesses but this is not the case,” Mr Bennett said.
“The AMIEU have not done their homework in checking the truth of the situation at all.
“For example, it incorrectly claims a research trip to China in August was for the purpose of investigating the development of a migrant accommodation centre in Tamworth and that “the old ADF Basic Flying Training School … has been earmarked as the … preferred location”.
“The aim of the visit to China was to investigate specific economic development opportunities with some key companies – none of those discussions related to accommodation developments.
“It is also known following the recent announcement that CAE Oxford Aviation Academy will be moving into premises currently being used by another company currently providing defence training.
“The AMIEU really needs to check its facts better.”