Andrew Mathieson
A UNION boss claims a Geelong woodchip exporter has punished a supervisor for leading workers in their push for higher pay.
The Corio Quay workers accused Midway Geelong of refusing to honour a pay agreement for a five per cent increase over two years.
They said the company offered 3.8 per cent before backing down when Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union took industrial action last month.
But CFMEU organiser Julian Cook said the supervisor had paid for his role in the tough wage negotiations on behalf of the 15 employees.
“The supervisor has been told he will now go back on rotating shifts,” Mr Cook said.
“He’s been doing this supervisory role on day shift for eight years – a job that he applied for and he got it in that shift, so it’s certainly not a coincidence.”
The union wanted the supervisor compensated with a one-off “redundancy” payment for changing shifts.
“This member may feel there is a bit of payback involved because he can justify his job and he still has work to perform.”
Mr Cook said the company could employ a “manager on salary” to perform some of the supervisor’s duties.
He blamed Midway chairman Greg McCormack for penny-pinching on the pay rise.
The Independent attempted to contact Midway for comment but the company failed to return calls.
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