Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A couple of weeks ago I attended a family day in Burnie to support Saputo Burnie maintenance workers. Twenty-four members of the AMWU and CEPU are currently on strike, seeking pay parity with their colleagues at the Victorian sites of the company. These workers have now been on strike for more than six weeks, seeking a 23.5 per cent parity wage claim with their Victorian colleagues that has been denied by the company.

Two years ago Saputo took control of the Kiewa site in Victoria from a joint agreement with Murray Goulburn. Overnight of owning that site totally, they increased the wages of those employees by 25 per cent as what they said was that 'it was only fair'. Yet that policy doesn't apply to Burnie, a more technical factory and a higher skilled workforce. Saputo refused to accept that difference and have instead offered a single-figure pay increase. Both the skill level of the maintenance crew at Burnie and the technical requirements of the site are in fact greater than the Victorian site.

The age-old argument that it's cheaper to live in Tasmania is long gone. Last week the workers took their plight to the Tasmanian parliament to send a message to Saputo in the form of a motion, which was fully supported by all sides of parliament, to recognise the skills of their team in Burnie and pay what they pay their Victorian workers. If the wages costs were an issue, then the higher wages in Victoria would have closed those sites long ago. In fact, the Saputo business model is well-proven and supports those higher wage costs very profitably.

When I had a look at Saputo's website, it talked about their values. It says:

The values of Saputo Inc. are at the heart of the Company's corporate culture. Through our growth, we remain committed to these values as they have contributed to our success.

They go on to say:

Trust, respect, competence and loyalty of our employees have enabled us to become a recognized global dairy processor. In addition, entrepreneurship is at the root of employee relationships, both internally and with our business partners—

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