Exclusive golf course shafts workers

Date: 12 October 2007

The Australian Workers' Union will picket an exclusive Victorian golf course until its workers - terminated yesterday with no notice - are reinstated.

AWU State Secretary Cesar Melhem said the 14 workers at The Golf Club - St Andrew Beach's Gunnamatta Course were being punished for raising alarm bells regarding outstanding wages and superannuation payments.

"All these workers are guilty of is chasing up their wages - which had not been paid for up to six weeks - and their superannuation payments -which had not been paid for ten months," Mr Melhem said.

"It is unbelievable but sadly true that in Australia today workers can be terminated for simply asking questions when they don't get their pay packet," Mr Melhem said.

Mr Melhem said the maintenance and clubhouse workers had approached the AWU in September when they had not received their wages for several weeks.

The AWU took their employer GC Operations Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Golf Club Properties Ltd, to the Industrial Relations Commission. The company's lawyer admitted to the Commission last Thursday that more than $160,000 worth of wages and entitlements were outstanding.

While the workers were paid some of their outstanding wages in recent days, they are yet to receive their superannuation entitlements and did not receive their full redundancy entitlements upon their termination yesterday.

"We understand that the parent company Golf Club Properties Ltd has employed workers from another of its subsidiary companies to maintain the Gunnamatta course," Mr Melhem said.

"We are calling on all of the club's members to boycott the course in support of our members, who only ever sought to receive fair payment for the services they had rendered," Mr Melhem said.

"We have also called on the Australian Securities and Investment Commission to investigate whether the company's directors have complied with their duties to prevent trading while insolvent."

For further information

Union:	AWU Victorian Branch
Phone:	(03) 8327 0888
WWW:	http://www.awu.net.au/

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