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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2951 ..

MR DE (continuing):

in respect of wages and conditions. We have four months to complete the consultation process. We clearly recognise our obligations under the EBA to consult with the unions about the proposal and agree to a consultation process. All unions were advised last Thursday that a formal meeting of the Urban Services single bargaining unit is to be held on Friday, 6 September 1996. That is this coming Friday. This is the formal process under the EBA. In other words, what the EBA said we should do we are doing.

They were also advised of our timetable for consultation over the next few months. The CFMEU put out a press release last week saying that all the responsibilities would go from DAS to Totalcare at 5 o'clock on Thursday night. That was the press release from the CFMEU. At 5 o'clock that night everything was going to happen.

Ms McRae: Had you told them any different?

MR DE DOMENICO: Ms McRae sticks her nose in where she should not be sticking it. Yes, we told them that this was going to happen on 1 January 1997.

Ms McRae: When did you tell them - on Friday? You told them on Friday.

MR DE DOMENICO: No, Ms McRae. You are wrong again, Ms McRae. You have a touch of the Berrys. Every worker was given a piece of paper on Thursday that said, "Any transfer will occur from 1 January 1997". What did the CFMEU do? Did they bother to read the piece of paper? No; they went away from the meeting and issued a press release that said two things. It said that workers had the potential to lose $4,000 a year, which was wrong for a start, and that the transfer was going to occur at 5 o'clock on Thursday night. This is from the same union that was up there on the hill two or three weeks ago plundering after smashing through the door at Parliament House. What credibility - - -

Mr Berry: Why do you not go and say it outside, Tony? Say it outside if you have any real guts.

MR DE DOMENICO: I do not need to say it outside. Mr Pyner has admitted to the fact that he was involved in that demonstration, so I do not have to say anything outside. You should not come in here and be the protagonist, the supporter, of the union that is prepared to do that. What happened two weeks ago, Mr Berry, was unAustralian. What was done on Thursday by the same union was unAustralian, Mr Berry, because that union lied to its members.

I think "industrial turmoil" were the words Mr Berry used. About 20 members of the CFMEU decided to go on strike on Thursday night. Mind you, they went on strike at 10 to 4 - they are supposed to finish at 4 o'clock - but they all went back again the next day when they actually read the piece of paper which was handed to them and which said, I repeat, that there would be no changes in the EBA; that 600 workers would go from DAS to Totalcare on 1 January 1997, following nearly five months of consultation which began last Thursday with the unions in accordance with our obligations under the EBA.

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