MELBOURNE: Workers from Melba Textiles yesterday (May 4) rallied outside Centrelink in Geelong to demand payment of their entitlements following the company's collapse.
Textile Clothing & Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) national secretary Michele O'Neil said workers had launched the action as an appeal to the Rudd Government to protect entitlements owed to the 170 workers affected.
O'Neil said where workers could get some of their entitlements back through the government's General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme, they often had to wait up to six months.
"In the case of our members at Melba, GEERS will cover less than half of their entitlements. It's a disgrace that this can happen and that the directors of he company, who repeatedly told the workers that their entitlements were safe, will not be held responsible."