Labour Court recommends five redundancies and a higher allowance buy-out at Woco

The Labour Court recommended that Woco Industrial Components Limited resume a stalled workplace-change process and implement five additional redundancies on the terms used in January 1998. The recommendation, following a clarification dispute involving the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, was signed on 6 January 1999. The parties had agreed voluntary redundancies and a buy-out of the peeling and trimming allowance after an earlier Court recommendation. The Court said their later agreement had gone beyond that recommendation and that the dispute concerned how it was applied. It also noted wider workplace problems, including difficulties working together on new products and protecting the plant’s viability and employment. The Court recommended phasing the five redundancies over no more than six months and increasing the company’s buy-out offer for the peeling and checking allowance to 1.5 times the annual allowance, conditional on implementing work-practice changes. It noted that proposed industrial action would not proceed and that disputed lay-offs would be rescinded.