Pacific Brands sackings

[Pinch]

Most of us have heard the story about the Pacific Brands sackings.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/pacif...0227-8jih.html

It was bad enough if the sackings were the result of the 'Global Financial Crisis', but alas they are just appear largely the result of individual corporate executive greed. This is pure old school exploitation of the workers to benefit wealthy board members. If there is money to pay 300% executive salary increases, there is money to pay shop floor workers who make the company.

All this to the demise of their shareholders too.

To also restrict the employee's ability to leave with the redundancy package if they find another job in the meantime (now their jobs have been declared 'excess') is an act of sheer bastardry. Such a practice is uncommon in contemporary, socially responsible corporate citizens. Some employees have decades of service, if they simply leave to get another job, all their service resets to nought. If they are then made 'genuinely' redundant from a new job due to the GFC, then on a last on-first off basis they will lose everything.

Some here may know my background. I am an Industrial Relations adviser for a major employer, and on the board of another. I am also an ex white collar union organiser, and have been a union delegate for a lot of my working life. I have been on both sides of the fence and appreciate the conflicting arguments.

But this action gives all employers a bad name. There are other live threads explaining the difficulty and apparent lack of understanding by wage or salaried staff of the difficulties in being a buisness owner. However these largely valid messages get overriden by headlining acts of cavalier executive greed such as this. The bourgeoisie (of the negative connotation) aren't exactly a figment of imagination or even history it seems, and wage staff remember these instances. Acts like this by Pacific Brands perpetuate the class stuggle and the conflict between labour and capital. The Howard government years, for all its faults, did result in a weakening of at least the perception of this class stuggle. For various macroeconomic reasons, particularly the housing bubble, most people felt pretty well off. It only takes some corporate bastardry amongst a genuine economic downturn to start to reignite a perpetual conflict that makes Holden v Ford look like 'best friends forever'.

The protest however should be directed at the Pacific Brans executive, rather than the company as a whole. Boycotting products will largely result in more hurt for remaining wage employees and small time shareholders. Maybe the executive will get theirs by an ASX investigation. In any case Karma will find them in the end. Maybe we can take heart in the prosection of other recent corporate bastardry like Mr Rodney Adler.

Mods: I know this may fit within the periphery of topic of some other live threads, so move if you must - But I did feel this warranted its own thread.