Feltex closure highlights IR reform injustice

The closure of a Feltex mill has thrown the injustice of industrial relations (IR) reform into sharp relief, according to the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA).
The yarn mill - located in Braybrook in the western suburbs of Melbourne - closed earlier this month after a review of operations revealed over capacity in its spinning operations given current and expected market demand.
Some 200 staff were made redundant as a result of the closure.
TCFUA Victorian state secretary Michele O'Neil said the move would have a devastating effect on workers and the local community, particularly given high levels of unemployment in Braybrook
"We're concerned the workers at Feltex will have great difficulty in finding other work," she said.
"My great concern with these workers is that they are hitting the labour market at exactly the same time as John Howard's drastic changes to the industrial relations system will apply."
Workers' negotiating power to find re-employment in the labour market had been seriously eroded by the Federal Government's IR reforms, she said.
She cited a study undertaken by Monash University for the Victorian Government in 2003 that found more than half of retrenched workers in the TCF industry do not get re-employed.
"Only a fifth find comparable employment in terms of full-time work with similar wages and conditions," O'Neil said, while the remainder survived on casual or insecure jobs.
Feltex will concentrate its spinning business in New Zealand while the remaining Feltex operations in Australia will continue to produce synthetic and woollen carpet and control distribution, sales and marketing.
Feltex head office will remain in Melbourne.
The company has agreed to honour its redundancy requirements as well as provide a post-retrenchment support program whereby workers would be assisted with up to an additional $2000 each for the cost of training.
It has also undertaken to assist the union in employing a representative to provide support for workers accessing training and job opportunities over the coming months.
Feltex spokesman John Walsh claimed out of the 200 redundancies around 40 staff were thus far likely to find re-employment.