Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) State Secretary John Camillo has urged Holden workers that have already found an alternative full-time employment to immediately transfer to their new jobs.
According to Yahoo, the car maker had offered its Adelaide workers a final workplace agreement package for an average redundancy payout of $85,000, which was accepted by 80% of the workforce.
Mr Camillo said workers who will be successful in finding another full-time employment ahead of the company’s planned exit in 2017 would receive reduced redundancy packages.
“We have in the provision of shutdown the opportunity for people who have found employment to be able to leave at an earlier date,” he said.
“They won’t get full redundancy, but if you can find full-time employment, I say to people, you should take up the offer now.”
He said the package agreed to by Holden workers – which equates to four weeks’ pay for every year of service plus four weeks’ severance pay – would be the final package offered to workers before the company withdraws from Australia.
“For every 10 people, eight voted for the package, which shows you they were extremely satisfied,” he said.
“But people really didn’t want to take a package. They wanted to continue working for Holden.”
Holden’s withdrawal from Australia is also expected to severely affect a string of smaller component suppliers along with other associated businesses that have become established alongside the car manufacturing network.
A Workplace Futures Survey that conducted interviews at more than 450 businesses in northern Adelaide this year found about 40 per cent of businesses indicated there was a risk of closure associated with the collapse of the automobile industry.
