Brisbane City Council attack on bus driver shows - it pays to belong

Over the last year, the Brisbane City Council has been trying new ways to avoid paying workers their entitlements when they are sick or injured. They have followed workers with video cameras, phoned at home and generally harassed workers who take sick leave.

Employees of Brisbane Transport have been one of their targets. Recently, they apparently decided to just sack injured workers, rather than offer rehabilitation and alternative duties.

For some unknown reason, they settled on one of our members, Graham McKean, to try the new approach. Graham had been injured some 18 months prior, and despite undertaking two major operations, was still too injured to resume Bus Driving. He had indicated that he would look at retirement on his 65th birthday, when he would have 20 years service and a lifetime bus pass.

On Friday March 1, 2002, Graham was called in from the job, where he was working as a Customer Service Officer, to meet with the manager of the Garden City Bus Depot, and the new Human Resources Manager. The union delegate, Martin Trimble, also attended. The Council requested Graham to either resign, and finish up now, or alternatively, to take the sack.

In their generosity they allowed him the weekend to consider this generous offer to terminate his 19 years of employment with a dismissal notice.

The delegate told the Secretary of the Bus Division, David Matters, of the choices offered to Graham. Senior management refused to meet the Bus Division Secretary until after Graham was gone.

Graham McKean, the delegate and the Bus Division Secretary again met with the Depot Manager and the Human Resources Manager, but they refused any alternatives, such as allowing Graham to retire with dignity at his 65th birthday, or even an offer from the member himself to allow the medical certificate to run its course. Nothing but immediate departure, either by dismissal or resignation, was acceptable. The meeting ended when they handed Graham a letter of dismissal. When copies of the letter were circulated to the members, on-the-spot meetigns voted to stop work at all locations in Brisbane Buses, and that a mass meeting be convened. They received the full support of the new RTBU Branch Secretary Owen Doogan, and of the Bus Division Secretary.

When the Brisbane public began to hear the reasons for the dispute through union media conferences, the overwhelming public sentiment swung towards the union and the dismissed driver.

The Brisbane Lord Mayor, Mr Jim Soorley, attacked the union officials. In one of the first interviews, he suggested that the interviewer was 'not Bob Hawke' and even if she was, and lost her voice, she would be dismissed by the ABC. He felt it ridiculous to suggest that injured workers should be kept on, particularly if they could not work any more.

The union message was simple - the right of the worker to continue in his or her employment, the disgust with employers who dispose of workers as if they were just one more piece of equipment, and disgust at the treatment meted out to Graham McKean. Graham and his wife were both interviewed, and the honesty and justice of their case shone through.

The Arbitration Commission ordered a return to work. The union complied only on condition that the order was limited to that day, and that the Commission would resolve the dispute.
Commissioner Blades sat in conference with the parties till late at night with no result.

The dispute continued to generate controversy, and still the public sympathy was with the driver. The Lord Mayor attacked the Bus Division Secretary as a defender of rorters. He attacked Graham for having the audacity to have an overseas holiday (while he was on long service leave and planned before his injury). Then the Lord Mayor launched what amounted to racial vilification on the RTBU Queensland Branch Secretary, calling him a "foreign imported union leader". He also called the union members "terrorists".

The Bus Division Secretary pointed out that the Lord Mayor had offended over 40% of the people of Brisbane, whom he had said have no right to any public office because they are not born in Australia. Owen himself said he was proud of his Scottish and Irish ancestry and did not respond personally to these attacks.

The RTBU asked the Commission to order Graham's reinstatement and to put restraining orders on the Lord Mayor. If the Commission had power to issue orders on the union, then it should issue orders equally on the Council and on the Lord Mayor, who was now seeking to extend the dispute, the RTBU argued.
The Commission then recommended Graham's reinstatement, an $8,000 compensation by way of a redundancy, and provided for him to keep the five weeks pay. He was also allowed to continue on Workers' Comp and to finish his employment with his dignity intact. Graham was extremely happy with the outcome.

The union members, who have also been treated in a poor manner by Brisbane Transport, shared in the dignity that was restored to Graham.

It truly does pay to belong to a union with the traditions and history of struggle that make up the many segments of the Rail, Tram & Bus Union, a union that has the proud tradition of the rail industry unions combined with the tram and bus industry union. The RTBU proved that it works as a team.