In a bizarre turn of events from beleaguered sugar giant Wilmar sugar, they are now not making an offer to their employees, instead offering a “window” which involves removing employees right to take accrued RDO hours when they chose.
Despite the unions providing indisputable data that the cost of living over the last four years has dramatically outpaced the wage increases Wilmar have paid to mill workers, and the published pay rates of surrounding mills, Wilmar have instead stuck to their discredited, questionable figures which include aggregate quarterly inflation figures to artificially lower the rate.
“I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that Wilmar have got the figures wrong again, this is a company that claims four days of industrial action have delayed the start of the crush by several weeks.” AWU Northern District Secretary Jim Wilson said.
“Despite profits having gone up dramatically, Wilmar are still trotting out the same old disproven lines which have twice failed to fool more than 80% of their workforce.”
It has now emerged that at least one mill may have to stop for up to six hours a day due to Wilmar being unable to attract staff at the wages they offer.
“No doubt Wilmar will try to blame this on their workforce as well, and not the below industry standard rates they pay,” Mr Wilson said.
The AWU will meet with delegates in the coming days to discuss industrial action moving forward.
