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SYDNEY - Deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard has met workers at a Sydney factory at the centre of a redundancy row and warned the Howard government will be judged on whether it can resolve the issue.
Tristar Steering and Suspension has slashed its workforce by 90 per cent
during restructuring but maintains its Marrickville factory is operational and therefore its remaining workers are not entitled to redundancy payouts.
Ms Gillard, who is Labor's industrial relations spokeswoman, visited Tristar today with local federal MP Anthony Albanese.
"This is John Howard's Australia ... he's got a responsibility to get this fixed," Ms Gillard told reporters at the inner-city factory.
"And if he doesn't get this fixed, people will judge him on the basis that he wasn't prepared to lift a finger to fix it."
Ms Gillard said a Labor government could only avoid a repeat of what was happening to the Tristar workers.
"With the election of a Labor government we've got decent laws that don't allow a circumstance like this to happen again," she said.
"Decent laws which mean that redundancy entitlements are valued.
"And decent laws which mean that there is a strong industrial umpire you could go to to get a problem like this fixed in the first few days of the problem, not months and months and months later."
Industrial Relations Minister Joe Hockey this week failed to persuade Tristar to pay out its remaining 35 workers and said he is sceptical about the company's claims about the plant.
It's claimed the workers are being paid to go into work and listen to the radio and read the paper until a redundancy agreement, promising them four weeks pay for each year of service, expires.
Tristar said in a statement today that there was two years of work at the plant, reconditioning existing stock, but that workers were refusing to do it, despite being directed to do so by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
"Tristar will not close down the business when there is work to be done," the statement said.
"The question for the union and the workers is whether they will work."
But Tristar workers say none of those who remain employed are qualified to carry out the work.
"The people who are left here are not experienced in remanufacturing old steering gears to sell to the public," toolroom supervisor Marty Peek said.
"It could become a safety issue for people who buy the assemblies for their cars.
"The people who knew how to do all that stuff have been retrenched and are no longer here."
The remaining workers, many of whom are aged in their 50s and 60s, say they are relying on their redundancy payout because they believe they will not be able to get another job.
The remaining workers have an average of 30 years service each with the company and are entitled to four weeks pay for each year.
Mr Albanese said loyal workers were being treated with contempt by the Howard government.
"What we have in John Howard's Australia is a new morality whereby unscrupulous employers ... can get away with whatever they can try on."
Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) secretary Greg Combet said there was no doubt the government's Work Choices laws had contributed to the Tristar dispute.
- AAP+