By CASEY NEILL
SANDOWN Racecourse’s garden and grounds workers clocked off for the final time last Friday.
On 15 January 34 workers at the Sandown and Caulfield tracks learnt that Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) would contract out their jobs from 1 February.
The announcement followed six months of enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) negotiations.
Australian Workers Union (AWU) Victorian secretary Ben Davis said that the final eight employees at Sandown finished up on Friday.
“All 34 of them are so disenchanted and embittered that they don’t want to work there anymore,” he said.
“They feel that they can’t work there anymore. They’ve decided to move on.
“I’m deeply saddened by it, deeply troubled by it, but it’s their decision, it’s their working lives.”
Two workers had given more than 40 years’ service to the track and many more had 20-plus years under their belts.
“All this club thinks about is money, not the trauma and stress that they cause,” one worker said.
Another told the Journal that the MRC had offered a zero per cent pay rise over three years during negotiations “which basically equates to a pay cut”.
He said the MRC encouraged employees to apply for a job with the contractor.
“The pay will be half the money we’re earning now and the conditions won’t be the same,” he said.
“We fought for years to get these conditions and pay.”
An MRC spokesman said the decision followed a broader 18-month efficiency review to tackle rising losses in its racing business, which topped $6 million per annum in recent years.
He said MRC was forced to explore other options because the AWU made unreasonable demands.
