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Autumn 2004

Bob and Dennis' Windfall

It was just an innocent question at a Christmas get together. HACSU member, Bob Thompson, was yacking with his brother, who asked him what he got paid for his call outs. Bob told him, then his brother followed up and asked him “What about stand-by?”

Good question. Bob just looked at him and said "Nothing".

"That can't be right," Bob's brother replied. "They should be paying you for stand-bys."

The next day Bob followed up the matter with HACSU official, Paul Burford. "Your brother's dead right", Paul told him.

For over a decade, Bob and his workmate Dennis Austin, maintenance workers and bus drivers at the Masonic Memorial Hospital, hadn't been getting paid their stand-by money, and they were owed big time.

Bob then contacted the employer to alert them to the fact that he had an entitlement, and an offer was made by the employer.

The offer was to pay the arrears going back only two years. Bob and Dennis didn't want to accept the first offer, so HACSU officials met with the employer to negotiate a settlement.

Both Bob and Dennis wanted to get the issue settled quickly and reasonably, not wanting to take it to the Industrial Commission.

They settled on an amount that saw them pocket a goodly amount ofback pay.

"We're very pleased with the way the HACSU officials handled it, don't worry about that," Bob said.

"Once the HACSU officials got involved things moved along quickly."

"We are also happy with the way the pay office fixed things up promptly once we had an agreement. There wasn't too much fuss."

"They knew there was a legal entitlement and things basically went pretty smoothly."

So what are Bob and Dennis going to do with their windfall?

"I'll use it to pay off my bloody loan," Bob said. As for Dennis "I'm going to do up the BBQ area, finish a few areas around the house, and I'll probably have a beer or so," Dennis said. A frothy one indeed.