Union infiltration - What do you do?

[Qld IR Consultant]

I am currently researching a paper for inclusion in an overseas publication and was wanting to know the following:

1. Is the organisation you represent exposed to a trade union, and if so, which one?

2. What processes do you currently have in place to ensure the unions presence is not disruptive?

3. Do you have any knowledge of an organisation known as "Workpartners" who are used by trade unions to enter workplaces and recruit on their behalf on a fee per sign up basis?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[gary collis]

I am currently assisting a group of employees to access some underpayments,hopefully by this week all will be resolved,they were sent to me by the local media, as the former employee ombudsman I receive requests for assistance however most of my clients these days are employers

[Cottoneyes]

Currently not exposed to a union, however in previous HR roles worked for a company of electricians and was exposed to the ETU very much. Regular Friday afternoon appointment was with the shop steward to discuss the EBA areas he felt we were not complying with. I remained courteous and gave him ample time to discuss his concerns each week and we had no industrial problems initiated internally during this time, only stop work occured when the whole industry stopped due to a death on a work site somewhere in the state etc.

Previous role as a manager in the agricultural industry was alot worse. We had the AMWU turn up one day wishing to investigate a 'sexual harrassment claim' towards one of our contractors. We assisted and found nothing, still believe this was a made up claim by the union. They then leaned on us to only use union approved contractors and wished to have time to meet our employees. We complied with the request to meet with our workers, however the union officials did not turn up on the day arranged and then tried to claim we were setting them up. They went into a full investigation of our practices which we complied with, only to discover we had been overpaying the overtime rates on Saturday work. Long story short, union then stuffed up printing photos without permission in their union magazine which lead to legal action by our industry group, and an out of court settlement. Never saw them again after that. This was back in mid 90s though.