Manufacturing: Telecommunications cabling

Investigations of 77 contractors operating under NSW Government contract 2067 Telecommunications cabling were conducted by the Office of Industrial Relations between July 2007 and February 2009.

Investigations of 16 contractors were terminated after the businesses concerned indicated that work was no longer performed under the contract. Four other businesses had no employees, while two have ceased trading.

The investigations of the remaining 60 contractors identified that 25 businesses were fully compliant at the time of the inspection. A further 14 businesses achieved full compliance during the course of the investigations. Inspectors issued the remaining 16 businesses with formal cautions regarding identified non-compliance with industrial relations legislation. At the conclusion of the compliance activities, no businesses had been fined or prosecuted.

The businesses investigated fully engaged 518 workers at the time of the inspections. An assessment of the workers identified that 76 per cent were engaged on a full time basis, 14 per cent were apprentices and trainees, five per cent were engaged on a casual basis and three per cent were employed on a part time basis. The majority of workers were male (70 per cent).

Inspectors identified 47 breaches of industrial relations legislation across 28 workplaces, as detailed in the following table.

Four businesses were identified as underpaying staff and this has resulted in $5,566 being paid to employees.

The Office has recommended that 20 businesses be inspected at a later stage.  Pending other commitments, it is anticipated that these follow-up inspections will occur during 2009/10.