... I am not aware, and nor could I be expected to be, of the individual employment circumstances of the thousands of Australians ...
Whilst we do not expect the PM to be aware of every Australian’s employment circumstances, it is, however, appropriate to bring to the Prime Minister’s attention the plight of Australians whose lives are thrown into disarray as they fall victim to his government’s industrial relations policies. Karen Palmer is not an opposition stunt; she is a real Australian. Karen Palmer is one of the Howard battlers. She is a hardworking widow, a mother to four children and grandmother to seven grandchildren, and before her trip to Canberra last week Karen had never been on an aeroplane.
Prior to getting the sack from work, Karen Palmer had worked for Greer Industries in Coolaroo for 14 years. During this time she was a model worker who had never, as she said to me, been ‘sent upstairs’, meaning that she had not once ever been subject to any reprimand. On the contrary, she was highly valued by her workmates, to whom she was affectionately known as ‘mamma’. Yet on 29 May 2006 Karen Palmer upon her arrival at work was pulled aside and ‘sent upstairs’, where she was handed a letter terminating her employment and told she had only a few minutes to pack her things and get out. She was given no opportunity to say goodbye to anyone; she was simply told to leave the premises.
Karen’s job has of course since been filled by two casual workers. Not only did Karen receive no prior warning of what was about to happen to her but to this day Greer Industries have not given her a reason for her dismissal. In fact, it was in separate comments made by Greer Industries to Karen’s Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser that she learned that she was considered a liability. Karen had recently undergone a second round of surgery for a shoulder injury sustained at work. She had been off work for a little while and had returned, and then after getting sick with the flu she required a few days off. Both operations were covered by WorkCare, and her return to work was authorised by the company doctor. It was on her return to work after the flu that she was sacked.
Karen’s is one of many stories emerging of employees working in companies with fewer than 100 employees who will now be at the mercy of this government’s industrial relations laws that put company profits ahead of workers’ rights and welfare. Companies like Greer Industries are now free to treat their workers in exactly the way Karen Palmer has been treated, without concern about the impact of their actions on their workers’ lives and families. Karen is 60 years old and only four years out from her retirement. After her husband’s death in 1998 she moved in with her daughter, and their dream upon Karen’s retirement was for mother and daughter to buy a new house and to live together. That cherished dream is now in disarray.
Karen is a humble, dignified human being struggling to understand what has happened to her. Although she feels betrayed by her employer she is heartened by the support she is receiving from her family, her neighbours and her workmates. Karen is lucky to have the support of her union, the AMWU, which has taken up on her behalf the fight against her dismissal. While the Howard government demonises unions, the union movement across this country is busy fighting for workers’ rights and providing support for their membership because, when all is said and done, it is the unions who are left to pick up the pieces of those who are dumped as a result of the government’s IR legislation.
What underpins the union’s support for Karen Palmer and other workers is the principle of solidarity, the essential ingredient of the Prime Minister’s great Australian values, the great Aussie tradition of mateship and a fair go. These are the values that the PM is constantly telling other people to adopt if they want to be good Australians. Yet while invoking these values on the one hand, the Prime Minister and his government, on the other hand, pass IR laws that run counter to the values he claims to espouse. Karen has been a worker all her life. She is honest, likeable and decent. She is not asking for special favours and she will even take her job back to see out her last four years before retirement and make her dream of buying a new house with her daughter come true. She will take it back despite the appalling treatment that she has received. She will take it back because she knows that at her age she is unlikely to ever get another job. The mateship, solidarity and guts that the PM champions as the battling Aussie spirit is there in plenty amongst Australian workers like Karen and the union movement. Long may it live!
