At the Toll Distribution Centre in Somerton, located in the solid working class northern suburbs of Melbourne, bullying and intimidation tactics by Toll management were revealed in a recent survey conducted by the site’s occupational health and safety representatives.

The workers at the Somerton Distribution Centre, members of the National Union of Workers, service Coles supermarket stores across Victoria. In June 2012, the NUW members at Somerton waged a heroic two week strike, fighting for justice with other Coles distribution centres around Australia.

In February, the workplace union delegates took up another fight, this time in defence of casual workers at the Coles shed. Toll management, in a pathetic example of human relations, sent a threatening text message to these casual workers.

The text read: “We require you to work. If you are unavailable to work, you will need to speak with HR and explain your circumstances. Pls reply YES. If you are unavailable, pls reply NO AND THE REASON, and contact will be arranged with HR. Pls DO NOT ignore this text. Texts ignored will result in no further shifts being sent.”

Currently, more than one-third of Australian workers are in insecure, precarious employment. The National Union of Workers is leading the fight back against casualisation, ensuring dignity, respect and permanent, secure jobs are reinstated into workplaces.

In early May, results were released of a survey relating to the treatment of Toll Somerton workers. The Toll Somerton OHS survey was conducted by the site safety representatives. It gave workers the opportunity to voice concerns about management bullying and harassment.

Seventy-three percent of respondents said that they had experienced harassment or bullying while performing their warehouse duties. Seventy-two percent felt that they had been pressured into meeting pick rate targets. Most workers surveyed stated that management bullying left them humiliated.

Container rates, not hourly rate

Just a few container lengths from the Melbourne Toll shipping yard where MUA member Anthony Attard was killed in May, Toll operates a warehouse in which a majority of workers are believed to be employed through a labour hire company.

Reportedly, these casualised workers are on piece rates. One worker says that this is creating an unsafe workplace and an individualised environment: “We don’t receive an hourly rate; we are paid by how many containers we unload in a day. This causes workers to take short cuts and work unsafely, just so they can get a shift the next day.”

International struggle

In 2012, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union produced a report, Toll Group: An Inside Look at Toll’s Exploitation of Workers in the US. The Teamsters investigated low wages and poor working conditions inside Toll facilities in the United States. At one site in California, Toll had provided only dirty portable toilets for workers to use as bathrooms, did not provide drinking water and did not provide sheltered areas for workers to take breaks or eat their meals.

At the Somerton site, workers say that management often come onto the warehouse floor in groups of two and three to question and intimidate workers who they consider have not met their “pick rate”. But, as the workers point out, the enterprise agreement does not provide for pick rates. Nor did the company seek this in the latest round of negotiations.

Toll Holdings mission statement in relation to safety states: “Embedded in our Toll values is the belief that all injuries are preventable and everyone has the right to go home safely.”

Anthony Attard should have had that same basic right. Every worker has the right to go home safely and in the same condition they started work that day.