It is unfortunate for some meat workers that they have signed Australian Workplace Agreements. Often workers have signed AWAs for a period of 3 years and are stuck with lesser wages, conditions and entitlements.

 In the AWAs that we have seen there are some common elements:
- Ordinary hours are regularly 40 hours per week that may be rostered on any days of the week from Monday to Saturday (inclusive) and between 5.00am and midnight;
- Employers get to nominate whether they want any section of the plant on five 8 hour days or four 10 hour days; and
The minimum working hours required to be paid are only 5 hours a day.
 
This means that workers on those AWAs do not get paid penalty rates on evenings or Saturdays whereas most workers on Enterprise Bargaining Agreements do receive penalty rates. Also it means that there are no Rostered Days Off on AWAs.

Extending the hours of work in one day can dramatically increase the risk of injury to workers. For example, jobs that require standing for lengthy periods or forceful or repetitive movements places more strain on muscles and joints, and exposure standards for many hazardous substances are based on 8 hour days.

One of the major entitlements that does not appear in any of the AWAs that we have seen is the right to Make Up Pay. This has a major effect on those who are injured or made ill as a result of work. In all of the enterprise agreements to which AMIEU is a signatory there is a right to make up pay in some form. Even the Federal Award includes make up pay for those workers who receive workers' compensation in Victoria, despite the fact that the Federal Award is far less than AMIEU Agreements.

The impact of there being no Make Up Pay on workers who are on AWAs who are seriously injured or made ill by work is horrific.

Under WorkCover, people who cannot do any work after 13 week, suddenly have cuts in their WorkCover entitlements. Suddenly they are expected to live on 75% of their pre injury average weekly earnings. For example, a labourer on an AWA at Yarrawonga would suddenly get only $322, instead of the $430. A labourer who is covered by an AMIEU agreement would be entitled to make up pay paid by the employer when the WorkCover payment drops to 75% of pre injury average weekly earnings.

The situation is even worse for an AWA worker who is unable to perform pre injury work and whose employer does not (or will not) provide suitable alternative duties. In that instance the WorkCover payments drop to 60% of pre injury average weekly earnings. In the case of a worker who had the $10.75 pay rate quoted above, if Yarrawonga could (or would) not provide duties after 13 weeks, while the worker's doctor certified that the person was not fit to do the original work, but could do something else, the worker would only get $258 gross per week.

When the Kennett government reduced injured workers' weekly payments to 75% or 60% at 13 weeks, they said that it would not hurt workers because of make up pay. The publications of WorkCover say that workers get a top-up from the employer, on make up pay. However this is not true in any AWA that we have seen.

Certainly one of the AWA workers who developed leptospirosis at O'Connor's had pay drop to 75% at 13 weeks despite being totally unfit to do any work. Whilst the AMIEU could not alter the statute that the worker had signed, we were able to make sure that the worker got WorkCover in the first place when O'Connor's tried to refuse the claim.

We believe that workers who are under the AWAs that we have seen are:
Often paid badly compared with our members who have penalty rates for which they bargained collectively;
More likely to be injured than the people who can fight collectively and have Union trained health and safety representatives; and
Much worse off when they are injured or ill as a result of work.

Overall, workers who are on Australian Workplace Agreements are in our industry are severely disadvantaged.