Eight Tamworth meat workers underpaid thousands, union claims

The Australian Meat Industry Employees’ Union (AMIEU) said the Thomas Foods International (TFI) Tamworth employees were casual workers who spoke only a little English.

The union has submitted documents and testimonies from the workers to Sydney-based labour hire company Ananda Australia, which recruits on behalf of the lamb abattoir.

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Ananda, however, says it has been paying them according to the Ananda Aust Pty Ltd Thomas Foods International Tamworth Enterprise Agreement 2015, approved by the Fair Work Commission.

“We checked the payments to those workers, and the payments are correct … There is no further inquiry nor claim from AMIEU and these workers, so there will be no further response,” chief executive Ken Qin said.

TFI, meanwhile, said in a statement it had “a robust process to ensure workers are paid appropriately as per our Tamworth enterprise agreement”.

“The Tamworth enterprise agreement, which was negotiated and agreed between employees and the union, sets out the rates of pay and conditions for all employees including labour hire workers,” it said.

“We have previously responded directly to the AMIEU in relation to its claims and invite the union to continue those discussions directly with us.”

AMIEU Newcastle and Northern NSW branch secretary Grant Courtney said that if the claim wasn’t settled satisfactorily, the union’s next steps were clear.

“We’ll be making the appropriate applications for a breach of the award to the Fair Work Commission or the Federal Court,” he said.

“They believe they’ve been underpaid, they believe they’ve been classified in the wrong position and they believe they’re not being paid the correct amount of overtime for that purpose.”

Mr Courtney said he was “fearful of what will happen to these people because they’ve been brave enough to come forward”.

”If the company targets them in any way, shape or form, we’ll be lodging adverse action applications with the court; we will be clearly going after this company if they treat these claimants any differently.”