AWU members at BlueScope in Western Port are reaping the benefits, after their employer returned an estimated $3 million worth of unfairly deducted annual leave entitlements.
For over thirty years, BlueScope had been deducting annual leave hours for rostered days that fall on public holidays, while paying 250% penalty rates for the deducted leave.
The deduction of annual leave on public holidays has become standard practice for many manufacturing facilities and mine sites across Australia, particularly sites with 24/7 operations.
In 2021, the issue was first raised by a delegate at the Western Port site, who was told by management it was company policy, and had been agreed to by members several decades before.
However, in April 2023, the Mining and Energy Union (MEU) recently won a critical case in the Federal Court, which has provided further clarity on public holidays in the NES. The Court found they are not to be considered 'regular' work days for shift workers or annualised roster workers, and workers cannot be automatically rostered on.
After this judgement was handed down, the union delegate at BlueScope pressed the matter harder with the assistance of the AWU Victorian industrial team, calling for the bosses to recredit annual leave that had been unfairly deducted.
At first, BlueScope refused to co-operate with the union's claim, and tried to argue that workers would only receive single time for public holidays worked under a new policy going forward - which would mean workers would be out of pocket when compared to the previous arrangement, and some may have been overpaid.
The AWU argued the public holiday penalty rate was a separate entitlement to the deduction of annual leave, and persisted in the claim for back payments. Eventually, management backed down, and agreed to recredit the full amount of annual leave unfairly deducted by all workers for the past six years, and retain the 250% public holiday allowance.
For the 468 current and 169 former employees, this totalled an estimated $3 Million in recredited leave and payments.
AWU Victorian Branch Secretary Ronnie Hayden hailed the victory. "Shift workers deserve to be properly compensated when it comes to public holidays," he says.
"We hope this sends a message to employers who try to use tricky policies to undercut our members' hard-fought wages and conditions - we will not give up when we know something is unfair."
"Workers fought hard for the right to public holidays, and I am proud to see our industrial team successfully uphold that right for our BlueScope members."
Mr Hayden has put other facilities on notice. "We know this is standard practice for many manufacturing sites - but the fact is, it's an unfair practice. We're in the process of pursuing claims for members of several other employers and will keep those members updated."
