Union members have had another great win at Baiada’s Beresfield site, after the national poultry giant agreed to make good on its promises around restoring rostered days off to their workforce.
Members at the site were guaranteed two RDOs per month – one which was to be taken at Baiada’s discretion, and another which was to be taken at the employee’s discretion. Last year, when the company was struggling to find chicken to process, they came to an agreement with their workforce that all hands were needed on deck and that only one RDO each month would be available.
A bargain was reached – once Baiada was processing more than 740,000 birds a week at their plant, numbers would be deemed to have returned to normal and the RDO would be restored.
The magic number of 740,000 birds per week came and went. Two months passed, and even though our members on the afternoon shift were doing excessive amounts of overtime, Baiada were still make excuses about why they could not possibly restore the second RDO.
It was abundantly clear that the company was hoping for the best of both worlds – great production levels, and no paid time off for staff.
Our members at Beresfield are smart and motivated people, who weren’t going to take this lying down. They organised meetings with Baiada staff and demanded the return of the second RDO and a relaxing of these unnecessary restrictions.
Now, thanks to the hard work and determination of our union members, an agreement was reached between the workforce and the company. As of today, the rights of Baiada’s Beresfield workers have been restored. Without the presence of an organised, motivated and highly unionised workforce, this would never have happened.
This is another great example of how union members consistently get better results. Every time the bosses try to push workers around, it’s union members that stand up and say NO. Just like at Bindaree Beef this year when bosses tried to force members into work on a public holiday, the only way to stop a company from walking all over you is to join the union and speak with one voice. Follow this link to join now or speak to your delegate on site.
Congratulations to all of our hard-working delegates and members at Beresfield for your courage and conviction.