Former AMWU members at Ansett Airlines have welcomed a final entitlement payment of $5.3 million to workers made redundant when the airline collapsed ten years ago.

Scott Stanford, formerly an engineer and delegate who spent nearly 14 years working in heavy maintenance hangers in Brisbane and Melbourne, said he clearly remembered the day AMWU members launched a fight for their entitlements.

“It was around 2am I received the call that the company was going to collapse. I got down to the gates and persuaded the manager to let me inside. I waited until the other workers got there. By the morning we had foam mattresses arriving and everyone setting up shop.  

“We stayed there for six weeks to fight for our entitlements. We were told we were going to get nothing. But we wanted to put pressure on to secure what we could.”

A national campaign lead by the AMWU soon followed in which the Howard Government buckled to public support and instituted a $10 levy to partially cover the cost of outstanding redundancies.

Although the levy closed in 2003, last week, company administrator’s KordaMentha paid the final dividend on the sale of Ansett assets to workers. The final payments mean workers will receive 96 per cent of what they were owed..

AMWU Assistant National Secretary, Glenn Thompson, said the union welcomed the payment announcement. 

“No worker in Australia should have to go through the stress and heartache Ansett workers went through and have continued to go through ten years after the collapse.

“It underlines why we need the government’s new Fair Entitlement Guarantee. It’s time for the scheme to be legislated.”

With none of the former Ansett executives or directors prosecuted by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Mr Thompson said the federal government also needed to change corporate laws.

“We need to reform corporation law to ensure that the directors of a company that goes into liquidation are held to account for their workers’ entitlements.”

Mr Stanford said although he was pleased to see the final dividend, the company’s closure had left an irreplaceable hole in the lives of its workers.

“The divorce rates amongst Ansett employees was three times the national average. There were people who felt they’d lost it all. It was a really sad time.

“Next week I’ll be meeting up with a lot them for a reunion. A few are still in aviation, but a lot haven’t been able to get permanent work in the industry.”