The union representing Ovato print workers who were forced to apply for their redundancies through the Fair Entitlement Guarantee (FEG) says former Attorney-General Christian Porter knew of the plan and did nothing to protect workers. “The Ovato case sets a dangerous precedent,” said the AMWU, which has called for legislative change.
“Recent questions provided on notice at Senate Estimates revealed Porter and the department knew about Australian printing giant Ovato’s plan to restructure on July 28 - months before workers and their union were told, and it did nothing to protect the 300 workers,” the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) said.
Ovato announced the redundancies in November 2020.
“Workers at Ovato were left without pay or entitlements at Christmas and by Easter some were still waiting to be paid through the FEG," the union said. "These same workers had fought around the clock in 2020 to support Ovato through the pandemic but were instead burnt by the company and the Morrison Government.”
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"A dangerous precedent":
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AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy called on Attorney-General Michaelia Cash to “close this loophole.”
“These workers worked tirelessly to support Ovato and when it came to the crunch, they were failed not only by Ovato, but by the Morrison Government – it’s callousness and it’s a disgrace. The Morrison Government had the chance to protect working people at printing giant Ovato and it deliberately chose not to.
“Our new Attorney-General Michaelia Cash needs to close this loophole – a tool used by big businesses like Ovato to not pay working people what they’re owed. The government expects to spend over $850m on the FEG in the next four years. If solvent businesses start using to avoid paying redundancies during corporate restructures. It will be a lot more than that.
“The Ovato case sets a dangerous precedent for big business to shirk their responsibilities to working people, using public money. Enough is enough – this must stop.”
