AMWU National Secretary, Dave Oliver has called for the AiG to repudiate comments by its outgoing president, Don Matthews, who criticised Labor’s plan to protect workers’ entitlements from company collapses.

Matthews called on the Federal Government to abandon its election comitment to increase the protections of workers’ entitlements in comments to the Australian Industry Group’s annual dinner on Monday. 

Labor’s commitment will ensure workers will not lose out if a company’s mangement has failed to set aside sufficient funds to meet its obligations to its employees in the case of liquidation.
Matthews said: "The proposed changes to [GEERS] are unfair, risky, and would create major moral hazards. They should be abandoned."

Dave Oliver said that workers had fought for over 20 years to protect what was rightfully theirs, and had proposed multiple schemes which had been opposed by the AiG.

“The AiG has never sought to co-operate on any mechanism to protect workers who face redundancy from losing their entitlements.

“AMWU members have negotiated hundreds of agreements in good faith with employers, only to see company collapses take away the security workers had bargained for.

The AMWU is now working with the federal government to ensure that the Fair Entitlement Guarantee, announced during the 2010 election, will be implemented as quickly as possible by the new parliament.

The union has also raised options for interim arrangements to protect workers until the new legislation is in place.

“Labor’s solution delivers protection to workers which they fully deserve. If Don Matthews or the AiG has a better suggestion, we’ve been waiting 20 years to hear it,” said Dave Oliver.