Vic auto workers reach deal, end dispute

12 Aug 2012, 9:49 pm   -   Source: AAP
A Melbourne car parts manufacturer has made an offer to employees in a bid to end a pay dispute. (AAP)

A Melbourne car parts manufacturer has made an offer to employees in a bid to end a pay dispute. (AAP)

A Melbourne car manufacturing plant's striking workers will return to work on Monday after the company reached an eleventh-hour pay deal with unions.

A stand-off between a Melbourne auto parts maker and its workers that threatened to shut down Victoria's car-making industry is over, after the workers agreed on a new pay deal.

About 100 employees voted to accept a deal on Sunday night following urgent conciliation talks at Fair Work Australia between DAIR Industries and unions representing the workers.

Australian Workers Union (AWU) Victorian secretary Cesar Melhem said all the site's 140-odd workers involved in the dispute would return to work on Monday after agreeing on details of redundancy packages for long-serving employees.

"The majority of (the site's) members were there, and they voted the deal up so it's all back to normal," Mr Melhem told AAP.

"Our members are happy with the outcomes, so the car industry can continue producing cars next week and there won't be any threat to their operations."

Workers voted to go on strike on Wednesday after talks broke down over the company's plan to limit redundancy payouts.

Sunday's talks saw the company and the union break the deadlock by agreeing to a payout cap of 104 weeks, Mr Melhem said.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Victorian secretary Leigh Diehm also welcomed the agreement.

"It (will) help provide workers with job security in a tough industry at a difficult time," he said in a statement.

On Friday, the Victorian government had warned the dispute could shut down production at Holden and Ford as early as this week, with up to 4000 workers facing being stood down as their assembly lines ran out of parts for bumpers, brakes, clutches and bonnets.

Mr Melhem praised Federal Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten for talking with both sides to help secure a result.

Mr Shorten criticised the Victorian government for failing to attend Sunday's talks, saying it had been "missing in action".

"They were very quick to issue press releases about how dreadful this dispute was," he told reporters.

"Why didn't the Victorian government attend today's conciliation hearings?"

Victorian Manufacturing Minister Richard Dalla-Riva welcomed the breakthrough, but again criticised the union-led strike, which he said was effectively a threat to shut down the state's car industry.

He said the dispute - and Mr Shorten's decision to mediate - highlighted the failings of federal Labor's Fair Work Act to deal with "reckless and irresponsible union behaviour".

"The fact is it should never have come to this before sanity prevailed," Mr Dalla-Riva said in a statement.

"Until the Gillard government adopts sensible reforms to its workplace laws, vital industries like manufacturing will continue to face irresponsible and reckless threats like we have seen in these past days."

DAIR's general manager of operations Kevin Boyle said the dispute had hurt everyone involved.

"It's been damaging to everybody - the company financially and individuals financially," he told reporters outside FWA.

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