Cracks are starting to appear – keep fighting!
We would like to give you all an update on recent and ongoing activity in our efforts to keep the pressure on our Federal Government. We are still working extremely hard to convince them to allow Dnata to be eligible for the JobKeeper payments.
Our Union has submitted several written requests to the PM and Josh Frydenberg – Federal Treasurer, in order to explain and make clear to them the predicament and unfairness put on Dnata employees by the Morrison Federal Government.
We have been lobbying for an immediate change to the JobKeeper rules, however, however it appears that our Government doesn’t believe Dnata employees should be entitled to the JobKeeper payment.
We’re still fighting and lobbying to have this changed.
Notwithstanding the above, our Union has directly (and via the ACTU) been in communication with several Federal ALP Shadow Ministers and many Members of Parliament who have thrown their support behind dnata employees to have the JobKeeper scheme made available to you.
Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese along with Catherine King (Shadow Minister for Transport & Infrastructure), Tanya Plibersek (former Deputy Leader), Bill Shorten (Shadow Minister for Government Services and NDIS) and Brendan O’Connor (Shadow Minister for Small and Family Business) have all thrown their support behind the union campaign to support Dnata workers. They’ve not only raised the issue in Parliament but also made their own representations on behalf of Dnata workers to the Liberal Government. Moreover they have continued to push for change and are also doing everything to get the cross-bench senators on board to force a change to the legislation.
The Cracks are starting to appear!
The cracks are starting to appear within the government and the Liberal Party. Some of their own are also of the view that Dnata should be eligible and the rules should be changed. Liberal MP, Craig Kelly has now stated publicly that “I think that these airport workers should be included – they didn’t decide to work for a company owned by a foreign government.” It’s not often we see or hear of a Federal Liberal member breaking ranks and supporting what workers and unions are pursuing but this is a good sign.
The ALP has in the last 24 hours raised questions in parliament, asked questions and put pressure on Morrison during question time, lobbied cross bench Senators and are in the process of tabling a “Disallowance Motion” in the Senate which is aimed at further pressuring the Government to change its JobKeeper rules. If successful, this may force the Government into rewriting its JobKeeper rules within the next 2 weeks.
Emails to PM and Local Members.
There has been a great response from our ASU Dnata members since our teleconference last week where we’ve had 388 members email the Prime Minister and the Federal Treasurer in addition another 134 members that have emailed their local MP’s.
If you have not yet done this you can still do so buy following this link.
Hang in there and keep fighting.
We understand that at times we may feel frustrated and unsure about how effective our actions are but we need to continue to keep doing all we can to change the status quo. Your efforts and the work that the unions are doing is having an impact and we need to keep chipping away….if we do nothing we achieve nothing.
If you have any questions or queries, please contact your ASU Organiser, Victor Jose via email on vjose@asupsvic.org