Australian workers could strike
Mail delivery bans and postage-free days are among strike measures looming as 18,000 Australia Post workers vote to take industrial action, reports The Brisbane Times. The article continues:
The Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union will lodge a ballot application with Fair Work Australia for a widespread industrial campaign including bans on mail delivery, collection and sorting, which will allow through unstamped mail. Staff will also refuse to comply with rules that stop them from sitting down on the job.
The union’s national president, Ed Husic, said negotiations over 18 months with Australia Post over a collective agreement had broken down.
The union has been involved in a bitter dispute with Australia Post over its use of company doctors to assess sick employees. The union says sick and injured staff are being forced back to work.
A resolution was passed at the ALP national conference calling for an inquiry into the treatment of employees who have suffered work-related injuries and repeating the union’s concern that rights to workers compensation entitlements were being undermined.
An Australia Post spokesman said: ”The quicker you can get a worker back, even if it is to different duties, the better it is for that person. … but we are not going to force someone back to work if they are not fit.”
The union said it wanted to protect full-time jobs and maintain workers shift penalties, and has accused the company of refusing to reinstate key job security conditions.
The Australia Post spokesman said the company was disappointed the union was planning industrial action given the economic climate, and said it had been negotiating in good faith.
