AWU national wine award push

A NATIONAL push by the Australian Workers Union to force wineries onto a new Federal award does not seem likely to affect producers in Western Australia.

However, the WA branch of the AWU is still pushing ahead with plans to set up a new State award covering the wine industry.

The national arm of the AWU has started a campaign in Victoria to draw wineries – including those that crush fewer than 500 tonnes of grapes a year – onto the new Federal award.

AWU national secretary Bill Shorten has reportedly said that it was a push to unionise wineries.

WA AWU secretary Tim Daly said he was more interested in getting a State award in place than trying to bring wineries onto the new Federal award.

However, he said the State AWU would also be seeking to remove the 500-tonne exemption.

Mr Daly said he was not using the State award push as a means of increasing AWU membership.

The Wine Industry Association of WA is understood to be closely following developments in Victoria while also waiting to see what the State AWU branch will do.

Association CEO Sarah Dent said there had been a fair bit of work done by industry to draft an award and the results of that had been put to the AWU last September.

“We’re working to ensure a flexible award is in place for the whole WA wine industry,” she said.

The AWU served the WA wine industry with a log of claims about three years ago.

Both the wine industry and the union had agreed that the State award, which was struck in 1969, needed to be updated.

Mr Daly said one of the problems the union was facing in negotiating the award had been the number of parties involved.

He said besides the Wine Industry Association and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was negotiating for the association, he also had to deal with WAFarmers and the WA Fruit Growers Association.