The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/0002/03/text/national21.html Textile workers 'to walk away with nothing' Date: 03/02/2000 By BRAD NORINGTON and MARK ROBINSON Most of the 300 workers who lost their jobs with the closure of National Textiles last month would walk away with nothing from an entitlements protection scheme proposed by the Federal Government, it was claimed yesterday. The scheme, which the Employment Minister, Mr Reith, will take to Cabinet on Tuesday, is meant to offer employees a maximum of $20,000 in cases where they lose entitlements when a company goes broke. But criticism of the proposal is growing amid State Government and union complaints that almost no workers would receive the maximum payout because of the way the scheme is structured. Employees also could be left in the position of having to pay back government funds in cases where an administrator appointed to oversee an insolvent company's affairs paid workers' entitlements after the sale of assets. The NSW Industrial Relations Minister, Mr Shaw, yesterday said the administrator appointed to the Hunter Valley-based National Textiles company had joined in the chorus of complaints that Mr Reith's proposed scheme was inadequate. Mr Shaw said his staff had met Mr John Starr on Tuesday night, and the Federal Government's scheme was discussed. "The administrator explained the technicalities as to how the payments would be made and how the Federal scheme would work," Mr Shaw said. "They say there would be some money, but the details simply emphasise it is very far from a generous package - in fact, it is plainly inadequate." Mr Starr is also understood to have relayed his complaint directly to Mr Reith's office. He declined to comment yesterday. A spokesman for Mr Reith confirmed discussions had been held with Mr Starr but declined to comment on what was discussed, saying he was surprised the meeting had been made public. He said the virtue of the Federal Government's scheme was that it could be "up and running now" and was meant to be "an extension of the social security welfare net, not a top-up scheme". Under the plan, employees would be eligible for up to $20,000 in a scheme jointly funded by the Commonwealth and States, back-dated to January 1. However, the maximum allowed is not guaranteed to workers whose total in lost entitlements exceeds $20,000 because the benefits are split into a maximum of four weeks' leave, five weeks' redundancy pay, 12 weeks' long service leave, four weeks' unpaid wages and four weeks' pay in lieu of notice. The secretary of the NSW Labor Council, Mr Michael Costa, claimed it was "dishonest" of Mr Reith to say $20,000 would be available because of the way payments were compartmentalised. Mr Shaw said he would push the Federal Government to increase the benefits offered to the sacked workers. He said NSW was prepared to match the Federal Government's contribution no matter how generous it was in an effort to ensure the workers were paid all the money they were owed. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
