McPhersons accused of breaching OH&S Laws
The union today accused McPherson’s Consumer Products of breaching OH&S Legislation. McPherson’s Human Resources Manager – Trish Richards has refused to respond to these claims and has also refused to meet with the union and comply with the NSW Occupational Health & Safety Act.
McPherson’s Merchandisers have become increasingly concerned that they are being injured by McPhersons and that Management refuse to adhere to safe work practices and implement change to prevent these workers from being injured whilst performing their work. McPherson’s have never even allowed these workers to sit on any safety committee and when the union stepped in to correct this, the management rather than allow for nominations and proper elections, instead hand picked their own representative which would appear to be a clear breach of the OH&S Legislation.
The manager responsible for this decision Jennifer Lackey has also refused to respond or answer allegations of legislation breaches. There has also been separate complaints made against McPherson’s management in regards to bullying and harassment. McPherson’s management have even sunk to the depths of excluding managers from performing their roles because they got injured and then chose to join the union.
The union is now calling for workers who have been injured by McPherson’s to organise and meet outside of the Kingsgrove gates and publicly share their story as these workers are hard working woman simply trying to do their jobs, support their families and to be provided with a safe working environment by their employer – McPhersons Consumer Products.
The union will continue to fight for their members until they work in a safe environment and McPherson’s put safety ahead of profits.
Union Serves ‘Agreement Claim’ for Sales Staff
The union has today sent the Managing Director Paul Maguire a notice pusuant to section 172 of the Fair Work Act 2009 to commence Enterprise Bargaining Negotiations for McPherson’s Sales Workforce aimed at improving existing conditions of employment. This is a long time coming as the company has continued to ignore the concerns of the sales workforce who are vastly underpaid and overworked with many not being paid for work undertaken.
McPhersons’ have made record profits for the 2009-10 financial year and they must recognise some genuine parity for the workers the company have forgotten. McPhersons’ has previously refused to negotiate or recognise the concerns of the sales workforce but they now have the opportunity to genuinely negotiate with these workers through commonsense and fair negotiations.
For more information and a complete list of claims please click on the link here. McPhersons Merchandisers Log of Claims
We will be updating this site with up to date information on the progress of negotiations. Please feel free to add your comments here and your participation in the campaign will be important to secure improved conditions.
McPherson’s agree to pay $150,000 in worker underpayments
The company have today agreed to the union’s claim of underpayments for phone line rental that merchandisers have not been receiving as part of their Award entitlements. The union through one of the NUW delegates, Sharon Morris welcomed the company’s position as a positive step forward in ensuring all merchandisers were given what they were entitled to as part of their working conditions.
“We welcome this decision to recognise our legitimate right to pursue this claim on behalf of all merchandisers. By joining the union and supporting each other we can make a difference and this demonstrates our collective strength. There are some important issues we are now working through with our union the NUW, and jointly with the company to achieve improvements to our working conditions that will enable us to meet customer demands and deliver improved outcomes right across the company.”
McPherson’s Management commence talks with the Union
McPherson’s Management met with the union last week to hear the concerns raised by the merchandisers and the union. The meeting was productive with the key issues identified and outlined by the Merchandiser representatives present at the meeting. There was agreement on the process moving forward with further scheduled discussions to take place with the merchandisers and their representatives over the next week. There will be meetings with the merchandisers across the regions to communicate the outcomes over the coming weeks.
For further information please contact us at mcphersonscampaign@gmail.com You can also receive our online news bulletin emailed directly to you.
McPherson’s again posted impressive net profits of $19.5 million in the 2008-09 financial year. McPherson’s management have stated that the pre-tax profit of $29.6 million profit “compares with the previous year’s $38.2 million.” The outgoing Managing Director David Allman said that a “positive trend in trading has continued” over the past few months heading into 2010.
In a year where many companies have recorded substantial losses McPherson’s whilst slightly down on profits continues to go from strength to strength. It makes you wonder why then McPherson’s continues to drive down and strip away working conditions from its sales staff. To rub further insult to injury for the sales workers, the new incoming CEO will be awarded 1.5 million share options commencing in 2010.
Does McPhersons employ Women to drive down wages & conditions?
There are some disturbing signs that are causing great concern for the Union and women who work in sales at McPhersons. The National Union of Workers have been requesting urgent meetings with the company to address the poor employment conditions that Sales Staff are employed under. The Management including the CEO Mr Paul Maguire, has refused to speak with the union regarding these concerns.
Interestingly, it seems that one of the main reasons sales staff are ignored, underpaid and undervalued appears to be largely due to the fact they are women. The following statistics appear to confirm our worst fears. According to McPherson’s required submission in May 2008 to the Australian Government’s Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA), McPherson’s employ approx 795 staff which 86% are women with Men making up for the other 14%. Of the 86% of Women employed at McPhersons, only one is employed in a Senior management role with 86% of Men enjoying Senior Management positions. The concerns do not end there with more then 500 of these woman employed on a casual or part-time basis even though many need and have requested additional hours but again, this is not the case for Men employed in the company. Of the 104 men employed in the company 100 are employed on a full-time basis. These figures are more alarming given that women do not usually make up the majority of staff in most EOWA Company Submissions.
The obvious question is: how do you have the clear majority of women in the workplace that get less opportunity in all aspects of work in regards to pay, conditions, progression, recognition and fair hours of work? This is even after the report that indicated that promotion opportunities for Women were identified as one of the key issues at McPherson’s. A year after the report was submitted, we still have the management refusing to discuss these employment issues with the union representing these women.
Another disturbing question is why did McPhersons request to have their EOWA evaluation of actions taken in this report confidential from the public report? The National Union of Workers will be writing to the EOWA to notify them of the company’s current stance in relation to Women at McPherson’s.
The most significant and alarming question is: Does McPherson’s Consumer Products deliberately employ Women as a way to reduce business costs with respect to pay and conditions of employment?
Click here to read the EOWA report and judge for yourself.
Record Profits but workers’ worse off!
McPherson’s continues to rake in massive profits but are ‘hellbent’ on stripping away the working conditions of their sales workforce. How do you explain a 27% increase on net profits with workers losing conditions at the same time? Are McPherson’s ripping off their workers? No one it seems including the elusive CEO are prepared to discuss these concerns. Why?
ASX request McPherson’s to explain
In a letter from the Australian Stock Exchange on 29 July 2009 to McPherson’s Management the ASX queried the movements over McPherson’s trading price. This comes off the back of serious questions being asked by McPherson’s employees regarding the employment practices currently in place particularly for the sales staff. There are major concerns over their employment conditions along with employment contracts which remove all existing entitlements to any redundancy pay for these workers. Management has so far refused to meet with the union to answer these concerns.
McPherson’s CEO ignores workers’ concerns
The Sales Merchandisers at McPherson’s Consumer Products are being treated like third world workers. They have attempted through their union, the NUW, to hold talks with Senior Management to have their concerns heard and resolved through sensible discussions.
Correspondence was sent to the CEO Mr Paul Maguire requesting an urgent meeting to address and resolve the long outstanding issues for the Sales Staff. He instead chose to ignore the request to talk instead hiding behind the Human Resources Department which we consider as a further insult. What has McPherson’s got to hide? What are they afraid of?
We will not be silenced and will continue to campaign until our concerns regarding our working conditions are addressed and that our rights and our work are respected and valued by McPherson’s Consumer Products. We deserve much better from a multi million dollar company.
