Unions alarmed by poultry workers' pay cuts

CONTRACT workers at an Adelaide chicken processing factory will have their wages slashed by $110 a week in a move unions warn could spread through other industries.

The hourly rate will drop by about $3 for 350 workers at Adelaide Poultry's Wingfield plant as parent company Baiada tightens its belt.

The cut applies to workers employed through two labour-hire firms and will affect more than 1000 workers across Baiada's national operations.

The NSW-headquartered company has three processing factories in NSW, two in Queensland, one in Victoria and one in WA - where the National Union of Workers says employees will have their pay slashed by up to $9 an hour.

In documents seen by The Advertiser, Baiada confirms it will reduce the pay of all "agency workers" across the country from April 10 to the award rate, due to "ongoing economic pressures".

All workers directly employed by Baiada will continue to be paid at the higher rate, while new production and distribution workers employed through labour-hire firms will be paid award rates from the moment they sign on.

"The company has for many years in good faith agreed to pay agency workers equivalent to the terms of the relevant site EA (enterprise agreement) or above award rates of pay although there was no legal obligation to do so," the document, signed by Baiada's national industry relations manager Sonia Takla, says.

"Due to ongoing economic pressures the company has now chosen to cease offering EA rates to all agency workers."

The pay reduction comes just two weeks after the Fair Work Commission ruled to reduce Sunday and public holiday penalty rates for fulltime and part-time hospitality, retail and fast-food workers.

National Union of Workers industrial officer Alex Snowball said the pay cuts were a massive blow for low-paid employees but were allowed to happen due to a "loophole" in industrial contracts.

"Baiada's shameful decision will slash the pay of up to a thousand already low-paid workers around Australia," he said.

"The decision means that there will be two classes of workers in Baiada's factories, earning different rates of pay for exactly the same work.

"This is yet another example of big companies using legal loopholes to slash the pay of workers and show how our existing workplace laws are fundamentally broken."

Both Baiada and Adelaide Poultry declined to comment.

The two labour-hire companies - Chandler Macleod and Australian Personnel Global - also did not provide comment by deadline.

Baiada will close the doors at its Victorian factory this month due to turbulent market conditions - with managing director Simon Camilleri saying last year that management had "agonised over, and tried to avoid" shutting the factory.

Originally published as Unions fear pay cuts at Adelaide Poultry's Wingfield plant will spread to other industries