Fed: Child care workers lose pay but no promised laws Bevis

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-1999
Fed: Child care workers lose pay but no promised laws Bevis

A child care centre in Western Australia is the latest casualty of the lack of federal
laws protecting workers caught up in company insolvencies.

Labor said five employees at the Tomato Lake Child Care Centre in Western Australia
will lose their jobs on Christmas Eve.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman ARCH BEVIS says they are owed amounts ranging
from $365 to $8,528.

Mr BEVIS says the closure follows the collapse of the Oakdale coal mine and Domino
Mining in New South Wales and nursing homes in Yeppoon and Rockhampton, Queensland, owing
workers millions of dollars in unpaid accrued entitlements.

He's attacked Workplace Relations Minister PETER REITH for failing to have in place
promised laws to protect workers' entitlements by the end of the year.

Mr BEVIS says Mr REITH hasn't even introduced a bill into the parliament let alone
set up a protective system.

Mr REITH, who is currently on holidays, earlier this month blamed the states for dragging
the chain on setting up a national employees' entitlements scheme.

He said the form of the scheme had not yet been decided but should take shape early
in the new year.

AAP RTV dep/rcg/jn

KEYWORD: OAKDALE (CANBERRA)

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