Abattoir inspectors and vets strike for ‘decent pay’ as meat industry slams ‘unions gone wild’

The meat industry says it will take days to recover after hundreds of workers walk off the job around Australia today.

Plant veterinarians and food safety meat assessors — from the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAF) respectively — will strike for the last hour of their shifts today.

The strikes are part of broader industrial action taken by public servants after they rejected the federal government’s pay offer of 11.2 per cent over three years earlier this year.

Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said the strikes will cause a backlog of work for meat processors.

“Those members going on strike will basically shut down our export-related abattoirs,” he said.

He said meat is required to be inspected in order to export to international markets, so some products will have to be sold domestically instead.

“[The domestic market] is already burgeoning under the weight of huge livestock increase in supply,” he said.

“Don’t think for a second that they won’t also take the lunch break and they won’t also then be looking to then try and extract overtime from this process.

“This is unions gone wild.”

Cost-of-living pressures 

CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said the action was intended to apply pressure on the federal government and DAFF to return to the negotiating table.

“Union members want to see the Albanese Labor government come back to the bargaining table with a revised pay offer so that we can continue to move forward in the bargaining process,” she said.

“Right now, there aren’t risks to delays but if the government doesn’t come back to the bargaining table with a revised pay offer soon, timelines could begin to blow out.

“It’s time to get on with the job of giving APS [Australian Public Service] workers the long overdue decent pay rise they need and deserve.”

The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said it is actively engaging in good faith negotiations.

“The department is working closely with key stakeholders of the meat industry and individual export meat establishments to minimise the impact of the protected industrial action,” a spokesperson said.

“The department respects all rights of workers, including their right to take protected industrial action during an enterprise bargaining process.”

Disruptions likely

Patrick Hutchinson said there were 86 registered export establishments in Australia.

“If you’re a lamb processor of a certain magnitude you could be processing ten a minute, all of a sudden that’s a number of lambs that you then can’t process within that [strike action] hour, especially if you’re bulk export,” he said.

“Turning a factory off for an hour is akin to turning it off for six hours, trying to get everything back to functionality again.

“So there is a lot at stake here.”

Mr Hutchinson said the action is unlikely to affect prices but could cause disruptions and put animal welfare at risk.

“Producers may be sending livestock in on those days, or days around that, and they will have to wait another week, another 10 days potentially, while companies then reset themselves,” he said.

“Because our members are considered big business, the view is that, basically, who cares.”

He said the meat industry is “collateral damage” in the wage row as it is a third party that is not involved in the negotiations.

“We don’t employ these people but they have to operate within our facilities in order to ensure that we meet the requirements of our export markets,” he said.

“Farmers, feedlotters, stock agents, transporters, everybody should be calling this out, because they’re all going to be affected in some ways across Australia.”

The strike action will be staggered throughout the day, with workers striking one hour before their finish time.

A further one-hour strike is approved for Friday.

The protected action also includes a ban on overtime.