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Terry Costello
Luke McMahon, an Australian Services Union delegate and
occupational health & Safety rep at the Brosnan Centre was
dismissed in November 2008 dismissal of Luke McMahon. The Brosnan
Centre is run by Jesuit Social Services. A Jesuit priest by the
name of Father Frank Brennan is currently chairing the Federal
Government’s Committee on Human Rights. Perhaps it is time that
Father Frank and other notable Jesuit priests who support the
existence of Human Rights such as Father Peter Norden be asked if
they agree with Jesuit Social Services use of the Howard
Government’s anti worker workchoices legislation to dock 4 hours
pay of Brosnan Centre workers who attended an Occupational health
and Safety meeting. Father Frank and Father Peter should also be
asked whether or not they support the sacking of a union
delegate and OHS rep under very, very dubious circumstances
which revolve around Luke being an effective OHS rep and union
delegate. Both Father Frank Brennan and Father Peter Norden have
been supporters of Human rights. It is time that they and other
progressive Jesuit priests and followers insist that Jesuit Social
Services provides a fair and just workplace for its staff. The
first step in this process must involve the complete and
unconditional reinstatement of Luke McMahon to his position as a
Youth Worker at the Brosnan centre in Brunswick. The Jesuit Social
Services mission to build a just Society needs to start in its own
workplaces. The Brosnan Centre and its umbrella organisation the
Jesuit Social Services organisation as an anti worker and anti
union employer whose stated aim is to “build a just society” lies
in tatters as it is unable to provide a just workplace for its own
employees.
Not only did the Brosnan centre dismiss a union rep and OHS rep
in very dubious and questionable circumstances involving the
Australian Services Union delegate Luke McMahon having to
reapply for his job and then being dismissed on the grounds that he
was on probation as he was supposedly in a new job due to being on
a new contract despite working at the Brosnan centre for the past 3
years. The Brosnan Centre named after the Pentridge prison chaplain
Gerard Brosnan also invoked the workchoices legislation against
workers who attended a meeting concerning an Occupational
health and Safety issue that Luke had chaired. These workers were
docked 4 hours pay and informed by management that attending this
meeting constituted illegal industrial action which could result in
notification to the AIC and the levying of fines of upto $6000.Luke
was asked by management to provide them with the names of workers
who had attended this meeting. Does this sound familiar? It appears
that there is a similarity between the request made by management
to ASU delegate Luke McMahon to provide the names of people who
attended an OHS meeting and the request made to CFMEU official Noel
Washington by the Australian Building and Construction Commission
to provide the names of workers who had attended a union
meeting.
So the Jesuit Social Services – an organisation whose stated aim
is to “Build a just society” has used or at least condoned the use
of the Howard anti worker workchoices and now Alp Rudd government
anti worker workchoices lite provisions against its employees who
merely held a meeting to put formulate and articulate their
legitimate Occupational health and Safety concerns. Not only that,
management of the Brosnan Centre and the Jesuit Social Services has
dismissed a union delegate and Occupational health and Safety rep
who has effectively organised staff which has resulted in
improvements to the workplace which has also translated to the
provision of a much better service for the Brosnan Centres clients,
many of which are disadvantaged and vulnerable members of the
community. Today Class Actions will examine how the Brosnan Centre
went from a non union Greenfields site to a highly unionised
workplace and how the winner of the Australian Services Union
young Unionist of the year award for 2008 was dismissed by Jesuit
Social Services whose stated aim is to build a just society but it
would seem instead has built an unjust workplace. 5min
Jesuit Social Services has used the workchoices and now
workchoices light Industrial relations laws in a similar manner as
organisations on the cutting edge of anti worker IR practices such
as the Australian Building & Construction Commission.
The Jesuit Social Services group has dismissed Australian
Services union delegate and occupational health & safety rep
Luke McMahon under very dubious circumstances. Why would a such a
caring and sharing employer whose stated aim is to build a just
society dismiss an union and OHS rep is a very reasonable
question which we are going to try and get to the bottom of. When
Luke McMahon became employed by the Brosnan centre which is run by
Jesuit Social Services it basically was a greenfields site.
Greenfield sites are workplaces that have little or no union
members.
Brosnan Youth Services was transformed from basically being a
greenfields site where there is no union on site to a highly
unionised one with elected OHS delegates on every site How did this
transformation take pace
Luke McMahon
Yes look really slowly really really slowly basically with the
help of the ASU a bloke at the ASU called Clancy Moore who is the
Membership Development Officer we sort of started a little bit of a
recruitment drive and focussed on sort of issues around the
campaign which the ASU is running at the moment which is the
respect the workers sustain the services campaign which speaks to a
lot of things that are going on in the community sector and it
really resonated a lot particularly the younger workers there and
you know look because I was the OHS delegate I guess I was in a
unique position where I could actually demonstrate that having
someone as the union delegate and the OHS delegate could get
wins around just really basic sort of material things within
the office getting management to recognise things like Occupational
stress.
One of the examples we got management to purchase about $60 or
$70 worth of fruit every week to place within the office because we
do outreach and we are out all the time and our you know we are
dealing with people in crisis often you don’t have time to eat
lunch so you’d find people are eating really unhealthily you
know things like chips and dim sims and whatever so one of the
things we got management was to recognise actually you know look
its important that our workers are actually eating healthy food not
eating unhealthily and keeping themselves in good health so
we had wins like that which unfortunately in the last 7
months since the start of the new Director have been eroded slowly
she has got a much more hard core managerial style and so but you
know look it’s a constant battle with these things I think
Terry Costello
I guess your workplace breaks the mould in the sense that
normally sort of services which have I guess is the fast growing
sort of sector has been a sort of sector that unions have sort of
had trouble organising but in your case you have got nearly a 100%
union coverage
Luke McMahon
Yes yes its very unique in fact within look in Non Government in
the Non Government sector you know it is really difficult maybe you
will have may be one or two members maybe 3 at the most
scattered throughout the organisation and you see in other programs
in the organisation that still exists ones that I haven’t been able
to get my hands on. You’ve got one or two members no real unity a
lot of different voices and no real forum to discuss issues which
are affecting you guys collectively so yes we are an anomaly we are
an anomaly and I think it is a testament to the hard work of not
just myself as the delegate but also a couple of other people
within the who initially weren’t that keen on being involved in the
union but actually saw that there were tangible benefits
Terry Costello
People see themselves acting together that they are stronger
than if they act alone
Luke McMahon
Yes totally they see that those problems that they used to raise
individually that would fritter off into the ether actually got
resolved it is amazing what a letter can do when its backed by
everyone so it was sort of practical stuff and often it was
small stuff like getting first aid kits in vehicles or proper
maintenance on vehicles and really just basic stuff it actually
demonstrated to people that collective action is the way to
go when you want to get stuff done when you want to get it sorted
if you do it together your odds of getting what you want are
increased in multitudes
Terry Costello
You could probably even say I worked in a telecommunications
company and was the union delegate that quite often for an
effective management you are almost doing their job for them
because you are bringing concerns of the membership to their
attention and it is an opportunity for management to actually
improve the workplace
Luke McMahon
Yes and that is right and especially in the area of OHS I mean
in my workplace when I started the OHS campaign I think I
downloaded the OHS list off the intranet which by law they are
meant to advertise within the organisation and I think out of the
15 names 10 of those people hadn’t been working for the
organisation for more than 2 years and one of the guys god rest his
soul was dead so I was doing them a favour by running elections
in the workplace and getting delegates elected to each site.
I was doing them a favour because they were failing under the
Victorian OHS Act 2004. What they were doing was in breach of
that act so they should have been showering me with thanks but all
I got was really hostility. I had to fight them the whole way
through, never got any slack it was just a constant battle in order
to make that happen and I had to be quite a sneaky manipulative
prick basically, I mean in their eyes to get it
happening to get people conscious of some of the issues in
relation to OHS that we were facing
Terry Costello
Sacked ASU delegate and OHS rep Luke McMahon who worked at the
Brosnan Centre which is run by the Jesuit Social Services group
outlines a serious occupational health and Safety issue which
emerged in 2006.
Now in terms of OHS can you give me some details about the
Workplace dispute you had in 2006 and the outcome of that
dispute.
Luke McMahon
I worked in a residential property it was shocking absolutely
shocking It was poorly staffed the building was falling to pieces
things wouldn’t get fixed from the electronic starters in fluoro
light tubes wouldn’t be replaced when requested. We had clients
which were massively higher risk who were often really substance
affected and would leave gas on all evening unlit things like
gas cutoffs which were requested and just weren’t attended to so it
got to the point where I’d been through all the channels for over 7
months I sent letters requests and da da da I though look the
only way this is going to get sorted get worksafe involved.
They came down they did an investigation and essentially they
issued a lot of compliance orders to the organisation which
basically resulted in a total revamp of the property and it made
them look there were things like no policies around anything for
the organisation so workers would come on shift and essentially
they were driving the shit completely. They had no guidance as to
what to do in case of if this happens or what kind of formal
procedures need to be followed if there is an emergency. It was
just devoid of anything. Workers didn’t receive any supervision so
if a critical incident happened it wouldn’t be followed up so
it was just horrible it was a really horrible place to work and so
the outcome was a massive win for not only the workers there but
the clients as well because they got a lot of blokes come out
of prison and they go from a clean prison cell to a ***
dump of a place and it always used to shit me they
always used to gripe on me when the fellows would complain
about it because you’d be thinking mate god the least
you can do is provide them with a decent place to stay so
they feel good about themselves it’s a fresh start and they
can get on with their lives but instead they have to come
into graffitied rooms stinking of paint like often we
have people using inhalants and it wasn’t properly cleaned
Lights would get smashed in the rooms and not get replaced so
guys would be in darkness. There would be no lamps provided to
them. Just horrible I thought it was a real affront to people’s
human rights. It seems I wasn’t the only one who thought that in
the end of the day.
Terry Costello
In a sense once again you could probably say
that could you say that management might have been open to
given legal liability in terms of if things hadn’t of been
fixed
Luke McMahon
Oh Absolutely Look absolutely again it’s the same case
they should have been showering me with thanks and look if I
wasn’t protected I’d say if I wasn’t protected from that
worksafe procedure I probably would have got the arse the. At the
time the bloke in charge and I’ve got to give it to him the bloke
in charge a man named Peter Coghlan I sort of have even though he
was the boss I’ve sort of got a bit of respect for him
because he was able to take a couple of punches and roll with
it . He wouldn’t hold a grudge so I’ve got to give it to
him he took it on the chin and he got on with the job
which is I’m sad to say is not what the current manager at
the Brosnan centre is able to do
Terry Costello
Whilst the management of the Brosnan Centre may not have
appreciated Luke McMahon’s work as a union delegate and OHS rep the
Australian Services Union had awarded Luke its young unionist
of the year award for 2008.
Brian Parkinson ASU
Occupational health And Safety and of course one of the
concerns that we’ve had for many years is the ASU is the high
injury rate that our members whether it be physical injuries or
stress related injuries, they have been high and we’ve always
been concerned and we have a fantastic Occupational health and
Safety delegate network who do a great job for our members
and the winner of this award is Luke McMahon. Luke was employed as
a Youth worker at Brosnan centre in Brunswick and when he won a
dispute over conditions in a residential property in
2007 which led to major changes for both workers and clients and
this process was successful and he engaged worksafe and
sought advice from the ASU member contact centre. As a result of
his organisation initiated an overhaul of the Occupational health
& Safety within the organisation. Luke acted with some
then branch delegates being elected at all sites some that
had not been present for at least 5 years. Luke then set out
improving general conditions within the workplace and was proactive
in initiating discussions around occupational stress prevention
which led to a greater recognition by management. His
activism and support to others led to increased
union membership and strength of the workers at the Brosnan
Centre Congratulations to Luke McMahon
Luke McMahon
I’d also like to thank Clancy he has been taken off to play
basketball. Clancy has been fantastic as well as Graeme for the OHS
at the ASU really good one of the struggles that I’ve had is one of
the many struggles is trying to get training and so not having that
training obviously there is gaps in my knowledge and Graeme
was fantastic at like the speed at which he could get faxes
off to me was absolutely amazing so I think in the community sector
OHS is a real winner for the ASU it’s a real way for people
to join . its just you look at the conditions within the
organisation which I did work for until very recently was probably
mirrored across the sector and it really resonates with workers
when you actually get solid outcomes for them. It shows that
the unions actually relevant and you can practically get them
straight then Thanks
Terry Costello
Despite Luke’s fantastic work as a youth worker, unionist
and OHS rep at the Brosnan Centre which had resulted in
improvements for both staff and clients he was targeted by
management. A number of events which occurred in October 2008
which included an Occupational health and safety issue and OHS
meeting of staff and Luke notifying management of the result of
that OHS staff meeting, Luke being forced to reapply for his job
and the reapplication process, the intimidation of workers who
attended the OHS meeting and being docked 4 hours pay and
management’s treatment of Luke’s complaint against management
are evidence that there is a strong possibility that he was being
targeted by management.
Now a lot of times I know as an OHS rep I was disciplined
once and it was about training and management didn’t want me
to go and I insisted on going and of course it is all
just a coincidence and everything but can you give some details
about the OHS issue that arose around the time you were
reapplying for your job and what was your role in trying to resolve
this issue and do you think that had some was a factor in
terms of your dismissal
Luke McMahon
Yes totally. I think it was the instigator of my dismissal. I
think it highlighted basically this guy is the problem and
this is an opportunity to get rid of him. The issue itself . I mean
it is almost laughable The issue itself was twofold 1 that there
was no consultation at all they were moving quite a number of staff
and not consulting with anyone about the moves. I’d organised an
OHS meeting I gathered together those who were affected by the
issue and out of that meeting I did not participate in
that meeting I merely chaired it I allowed them to
formulate their own conclusions I did suggest that they should put
their request in the form of a letter. They were quite intimidated
by the manager so I offered to send it in my role as their union
delegate and as their Occupational health and Safety Delegate
because they are also union members so I felt it necessary that I
inform management also that it is in the interests to the union
members as well as people who were there it just happened
that everyone who was there was a member. Look I wrote up a simple
letter it got sent off. I got a couple of explosive responses back
then we got threatened with we got threatened they said that we
conducted illegal industrial action Blah blah blah and the
manager was fixated on the fact that I’d introduced myself as the
union delegate as the reason as to why we had that illegal
industrial action which I pointed out to her that was
absolutely ridiculous
Terry Costello
You said in your blog that for example you were
required to give names of the people that attended that
meeting I think that one Noel Washington of the CFMEU
was asked the same question by the ABCC. It seems there is a
similar philosophy going on there
Luke McMahon
Yes yes Well I was really surprised to hear the
director of the Brosnan centre jumped to that. She stated
that the organisation had got legal advice and they were
considering making a notification to the AIC and that I would
have to front the AIC and potentially name those who were at the
meeting and the way I understood it was that if I
refused that I would face 6 months imprisonment so I was
pretty outraged I was really angry
Then within a week the OHS issue arose and the OHS meeting
happened and I exchanged I got some heated emails from the
director within a few days after that I had to I was told I would
having to submit to a second interview . At the second
interview the acting CEO attended that interview which
I found quite odd
Terry Costello
Luke explains what happened to him after he lodged an
incident report that documented how he was treated by
management
Luke McMahon
I was quite distressed I thought that I should submit an OHS
incident report that I had
been sitting on for the last since the 3rd of
October so a couple of weeks before then which was in
relation to a meeting I had with the director where I was
screamed at, so look I put that in because basically I
saw what was happening which was that I was being
shafted. I felt that I needed to contextualise it to management at
the central office so I put in that incident report and I went home
I left for the afternoon. I told my supervisor I was going home.
Within an hour of me submitting that incident report I
got a letter delivered to my house telling me that I was they
were suspending my offer of employment and they were going to
conduct an investigation into the incident report that I submitted
and that I wasn’t to come to work until that investigation had been
completed
Terry Costello
Now as the union delegate I’d assume you’d be aware of the
formal disciplinary processes that Jesuit Social services
management would use probably agreed to between the union and
management I’d assume that for example for a person to be dismissed
with a proper process there would have to be form like
incidents written warnings, etc etc now none of this seems to
have happened in your case
Luke McMahon
No No well they are claiming they did pay out my contract my
former contract until December 16th which I might add I
have never seen nor signed but they claim it ended on the
16th of December and I got paid out a pittance they are
essentially saying because I started a new job I was under the
terms of a new contract I was on a probationary period therefore
they were able to remove it and I had no recourse to complain
basically and that is their argument at the moment.
Terry Costello
It doesn’t seem much social justice there
Luke McMahon
No not really no not really look they just want to get rid
of me as quickly as possible and they want as little fuss as
possible.
Terry Costello
So it seems they are saying you weren’t dismissed you were
simply not reappointed to your existing position ie your
position was spilled and then it was filled by someone else or
maybe it hasn’t been filled yet
Luke McMahon
They’ve advertised for it
Terry Costello
If the OHS issue on October 2008 hadn’t of emerged do you think
you would have been appointed to your position
Luke McMahon
Yes absolutely without a doubt
Terry Costello
I asked former Brosnan Centre ASU Union Delegate and
occupational health and Safety rep Luke McMahon to sum up the
implications of his dismissal for the occupational Health &
Safety of workers and the level of union activity at the
Brosnan centre
What are the implications of your dismissal for the Occupational
health and Safety of workers at Jesuit Social Services and that the
position of other OHS Reps and I remember you also said that the
Brosnan Service is seen as a sort of a leader in terms of the
way it manages staff so what are the implications of you
being set up like this?
Luke McMahon
Well they are really devastating devastating not just
within Brosnan I mean no one is going to put their hand up for an
OHS position again now no way I mean who would I mean all of
the staff have been a witness to what’s happened to myself so no
one is going to do it. No one is going to put their hand up and
I’ve been informed that they are actually calling for people I
think they are trying to sort their, I think they realise what’s
the wave is coming they might be under a little scrutiny so they
are trying to get their house in order and they have been calling
for OHS delegates to put their hand up and so far no one has.
I think the fact that they have threatened to use the
Workchoices legislation over such a trivial minor OHS issue. I
think it is devastating I think it’s absolutely
devastating. The Brosnan Centre and Jesuit Social services work in
consortiums with other agencies. News travels fast within the rank
and file as I’m sure within management look I’m sure the Director
of Brosnan will probably be gloating over the wonderful manoeuvres
she has made to get rid of their trouble maker union person
and that they should follow the lead if they get anyone else
in their workplaces who are acting similarly to defend
workers interests.
Terry Costello
On Monday December the 8th the Australian Services
Union held a Solidarity Breakfast outside the offices of the Jesuit
Social Services in Church Street Richmond and Luke’s fight is
continuing. Log on to the web at terrycostello.com and click on the
Class Actions page to find out information about his reinstatement
campaign as well as to find the links to his blog Justice4Luke and to the Union
Solidarity involvement in Luke McMahon’s reinstatement
campaign. I contacted Jesuit Social Services Chief Executive
Officer Julie Edward’s Office and put in a request for an
interview but my call was not returned.
Links
Justice 4 Luke
Union
Solidarity says Reinstate Luke McMahon
Jesuit Social
Services Strikes Trouble Over Dismissal | 