Union fury over Thiess spy scandal

By Ewin Hannan and Hedley Thomas
The Australian, November 19, 2010

Photo caption: Workers at the Wonthaggi desalination plant in southern Victoria walk off the job yesterda after news of the spying scandal spread. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: The Australian

THE builders of the Brumby government's $5bn-plus desalination plant last night stood down two of the project's senior executives over claims of spying on workers.

This comes as union fury threatened to spread across the nation.

Workers employed by giant building company Thiess will stop work around Australia from today as unions demand a federal police probe into the revelations, published in The Australian yesterday.

Ahead of crisis talks with unions leaders in Melbourne this morning, Thiess announced last night that the Wonthaggi plant's project director, Greg Miller, and human resources manager, Marcus Carroll, had been stood down pending an investigation into the engagement of notorious strike-breaker Bruce Townsend and his company, Australian Security and Investigations.

Thiess's chief executive in Australia, Nev Power, said: "Due to the serious nature of this matter, this decisive action is necessary."

There is no suggestion Mr Power knew of the secret arrangement with Mr Townsend, which was dubbed Pluto Project.

A source told The Australian last night that Thiess had sacked another manager who was one of the operatives secretly recruited by Mr Townsend to spy on the workforce and make regular reports.

That manager had remained as a worker at Wonthaggi despite Pluto Project being terminated in June.

It is understood the man was given no reason for his sacking yesterday, but there were concerns for his safety in the event of union members discovering his identity.

The Australian understands the sacking means that all the operatives who were reporting covertly to Thiess on the project from March to June are now gone from the desalination plant.

At crisis talks at the plant yesterday, Thiess executives demanded to know the full scope and penetration of Pluto Project.

Workers were sent home from the plant on Victoria's south coast yesterday morning as union anger mounted at the building company's alleged monitoring of workers.

Electrical Trades Union Victorian secretary Dean Mighell reiterated last night that the desalination project was "dead" until the full truth about the spying activities was revealed.

He said work would not resume until Monday at the earliest.

Thiess executives have agreed to attend crisis talks with union leaders at the ETU headquarters in North Melbourne this morning.

Mr Mighell said the future of relations between Thiess and the workforce hinged on the company's response to its investigation into the scandal.

"It's a bit like finding out your partner's been cheating on you," he said. "It's jeopardised the future of the project, no doubt."

Earlier yesterday, Thiess admitted hiring a company to spy on its workers, but insisted it was done without the knowledge of senior management and was "totally inappropriate".

Mr Power said ASI had worked for Thiess for about 15 weeks between March and June.

He said ASI was appointed to review security, recruitment and subcontracting processes at the site, but project management subsequently concluded that ASI was not appropriate for the project and terminated its services.

"The use of this consultant was totally inappropriate and contrary to Thiess business practice," Mr Power said.

"While the investigation has so far found no evidence of privacy breaches, we will continue to investigate to determine what action should be taken."

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union yesterday wrote to the Australian Federal Police seeking an investigation into the monitoring of employees, as it believed the conduct appeared to be in breach of federal telecommunications laws.

The building industry watchdog, the Australian Building and Construction Commission, also announced an investigation, expressing concerns at the claims of covert monitoring of employees.

The Brumby government has sought to distance itself from the scandal, which comes just eight days out from the state election.

Premier John Brumby yesterday described the news as "deeply concerning" and said that if the conduct was proven, it was "completely unacceptable".

"We would expect the company to address these issues," he said.

"They are obviously running that site; I would expect them to conduct their industrial relations and employment policies within the context of the law, by the letter of the law and in the spirit consistent with what makes a good workplace."

Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said it was not right for the government to try to absolve itself of responsibility for the scandal.

Mr Baillieu said he was also worried about the taxpayer paying for the costs of industrial action.

"(My) principal concern here is if this leads to increased costs at the desal plant, then families will be paying more," he said.

Officials from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union said the union would visit every Thiess site across the country to hold meetings with workers as the employees felt they had been "stabbed in the back".

Dave Noonan, the national secretary of the union's construction division, said workers wanted assurances that covert operations were not being carried out on other Thiess projects.

Prior to last night's standing down of Mr Miller and Mr Carroll and the sacking of Mr Townsend's operative, Mr Noonan said Thiess should identify the managers responsible and sack them.

"It is unacceptable that working people should be monitored in this way," he said.

"The ripple effect of this covert activity will be felt on Thiess jobs all around the country.

"From (this) morning, the union will be visiting every Thiess construction site to hold meetings with members.

"The union will be advising members of their rights to privacy on every Thiess construction job and questioning management on the use of illegal and unethical spying tactics.

"Workers want assurances that they are safe to work alongside their colleagues without wondering if their conversations are being recorded."

ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence demanded a full, open investigation into the company's conduct, particularly the hiring of Mr Townsend.

"No worker should expect to be spied upon by people paid to pose as work colleagues and secretly gather information," he said.

"The employment of Bruce Townsend, who has a criminal record for receiving stolen goods and is a known agent provocateur, was an appalling error of judgment by Thiess."

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said the company's alleged activity highlighted the need for the retention of the ABCC.

"This is a prime example of the developing deterioration of the industrial relations climate in Australia (that) companies feel forced to resort to these activities," Senator Abetz said.

A spokesman for Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans said last night that "the government is pleased that the appropriate authorities are thoroughly investigating this matter".

A spokesman for Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the minister was not aware of specific allegations being made regarding access to communications. "Whether a breach of the Telecommunications Interception Act has occurred is a matter that can be investigated by law enforcement agencies," the spokesman said.



URL: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/union-fury-over-thiess-spy-scandal/story-fn6tcs23-1225956013098

Even illegal workers have rights

Even illegal workers have rights
By Danielle Celermajer
The Sydney Morning Herald, September 23, 2010

The death last month of Myung Yeol Hwang, a South Korean who had been working in Australia for 12 years, brings into sharp relief not only the tragic vulnerability of the world's millions of migrant workers, but the reality of their suffering in our backyard.

The Australian government can no longer turn a blind eye to the suffering of migrant workers - whether they have legal status or not. Both ethically and according to international law, all migrant workers, no matter their official status, are subject to the basic human rights covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

At the minimum, that includes emergency medical care in the face of irreparable harm to one's health, something that would probably have saved Hwang's life.
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It is disturbing that so much of the reaction to Hwang's death, reported in the Herald this week, has circled around objections Australians have to people working ''illegally in our country''.

Australia, like any sovereign state, has a right to make and implement laws about who has permission to enter and to work. The very international laws protecting the rights of migrant workers explicitly recognise that states have this right.

But we live in the real world where not only finance and financial crisis, but also labour (mostly cheap labour) circulates fairly freely and globally.

Like it or not, the Australian labour market includes many more people like Hwang, working at the periphery for low wages, often in dirty, dangerous and degrading jobs (the three Ds of migrant work conditions).

Despite our objections at an official national level, clearly we, as employers, don't seem to mind.

We like to be able to pay lower wages, to employ people casually and to run our businesses outside a formal economy that might curb our flexibility and our profits.

These are the indisputable facts, and the Australian government has an obligation to ensure basic human rights of those workers are not violated.

But disturbingly, Australia has ensured that technically it would be incorrect for me to claim that it has an obligation under international law to afford illegal migrant workers such protection.

That is because it has refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

In refusing to do so, Australia has effectively said that the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do not apply to this subclass of human beings.

Let me make it clear: we are not talking about guaranteeing illegal migrant workers the same type of welfare and social services we provide people who are legally in the country. Australia retains, and should retain, the right to draw distinctions between legal and illegal workers.

What we are talking about are those most basic rights that the nations of the world declared belong to every single human - rights to be protected from discrimination or abuse, to be treated with dignity and not be left to die without basic medical care.

Irrespective of the legal technicality of whether Australia has ratified the convention that explicitly states those rights apply to migrant workers, our obligations under the international bill of rights already require that we do so. That's the thing about human rights - they apply to everyone, without distinction.

And irrespective of concerns that Australian citizens might have about the negative economic impact of an unregulated labour market, surely we still believe that our shared humanity with the people who lay the tiles in our bathrooms or wash the dishes when we eat out makes it unacceptable for us to treat them like refuse.

There are 90 million migrant workers around the globe, many of them working under irregular conditions or without documentation. This is a part of the reality of globalisation that we cannot ignore. And yet our international system of protection lags behind this global reality.

No longer protected by the laws of their countries of origin and not yet protected by the laws of their host countries, these millions - who care for our children, deliver our groceries, construct our buildings and indirectly fuel our economies, dangle in a dangerous gap where they are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and the vagaries of sickness and industrial accidents.

We live in a world where there is a disconnect between the global movement of workers and the failure to ensure the protection of their fundamental human rights. We want to receive the benefits of globalisation, but seem unwilling to swallow the responsibilities. A few weeks ago, Australian news carried the shocking story of a Sri Lankan woman who returned from her work as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia with 30 nails in her body. I am sure most Australians who read it recoiled in horror that someone could be treated in this way. But this is just the acute end of an epidemic that has followed hot on the heals of the globalisation of cheap and unregulated labour.

If Australia wants to hold its head up not just as a prosperous nation, but as an ethical one, too, it should take the step of ratifying the Convention to Protect Migrant Workers and advocate their protection throughout the rest of our common world.

Dr Danielle Celermajer is director of the University of Sydney's masters of human rights and democratisation program.

URL: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/even-illegal-workers-have-rights-20100922-15mw9.html

Pluto contractors to sue workers for strike damages

By Debbie Guest, The Australian, posted February 19, 2010 12:00AM

THIRTEEN contractors at Woodside's $12 billion Pluto project have thrown down the gauntlet to Pilbara unions, telling a Federal Court judge they would be ready in April to sue more than 1600 of their employees for taking part in a wildcat strike that could see them slapped with individual fines of $22,000.

The contractors are suing the 1668 workers and said yesterday they also planned to pursue them for damages, expected to run into tens of millions of dollars.

The workers were not represented in court and nor were the three unions whose members took part in the illegal action in January.

The actual damages bill from the eight-day strike over an accommodation dispute known as "motelling" will not be known until the project is completed.

The contractors' lawyer, Konrad de Kerloy, told Federal Court judge Neil McKerracher yesterday they would be ready for an April trial.

The action is similar to that taken by the Australian Building and Construction Commission in 2006 against workers at the Perth to Mandurah railway. In that case, 91 workers were found to have taken illegal strike action and were fined about $10,000.

Mr de Kerloy told the court yesterday all 1668 workers would receive a letter telling them they had the right to access the material.

The details of the impending trial came as the contractors successfully won an extension of an injunction against the workers taking industrial action.

Justice McKerracher granted an extension until the trial began, but on the condition that mediation occurred. He said material filed by the contractors showed there was a "real risk" of further industrial action.

The injunction extension means if the workers take industrial action they will be in contempt of court and face the possibility of jail or fines.

URL: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/pluto-contractors-to-sue-workers-for-strike-damages/story-e6frg9ef-1225831965650