The Age April 27, 2010
Electrician Mirek Grzegorek was stunned to receive a letter from the building industry watchdog warning him he could be fined $22,000 for attending a couple of short union meetings.
Mr Grzegorek said the meetings were to discuss workplace entitlements, with claims his employer, Maxim Electrical, was trying to escape its award obligations to pay redundancy when its work finished at the ANZ project in Docklands.
''Obviously a lot of guys were concerned. We had a couple of union meetings in relation to that,'' he said.
''At the time there was an understanding if you go on a union meeting during working hours then your employer rightfully can deduct up to four hours of your time, even if the meeting takes 10 minutes.''
But the letter warned that Mr Grzegorek could face a much bigger penalty for attending an unauthorised union meeting.
Mr Grzegorek said the two meetings ran only a short period into work time. He said it was after he had lost his job and had to visit his sick father in Poland that he received the letter from the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
He said he had ''some big expenses because we went to Poland''. He said the letter also wanted him to provide evidence of what was said at the meeting.
''Such things really upset me in a democratic country … I didn't even realise such a law exists in Australia,'' he said.
Electrical Trades Union assistant state secretary Troy Gray said the letters were aggressive. He said the union had tried to get an authorised meeting on the issue of entitlements but that had been rejected by the employer.
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