Embassy flouts French unions and faces court
NATALIE O'BRIEN
22 Apr, 2012 03:00 AM
It is one of the most sought-after diplomatic postings, but Australia's embassy in Paris has been a hotbed of industrial disputes including claims of unfair dismissal, harassment and union bashing.
The saga, involving three former embassy staff who are French, is being played out in that country's industrial relations court.
An investigation by The Sun-Herald into the embassy, picturesquely located next to the Eiffel Tower, has revealed a long-running legal stoush with former workers.
Documents obtained under freedom-of-information laws show the Australian government is being sued for a raft of claims, including unfair dismissal, unpaid pension payments and damages related to a medical disability caused by unsafe working conditions. Allegations of harassment have also been made against a former senior embassy official.
The former employees will be represented by France's biggest trade union, the Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, when the matter returns to court in October.
In the meantime, other French staff in the embassy have been forced onto non-union workplace agreements, imposed by the Australian government in the past 18 months, and have lost the right to be represented in negotiations by a French union.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said it would not comment on legal action while the matter was before the French courts.
The spokesman confirmed the department would not negotiate working conditions with French unions. But he added conditions at the Paris post ''exceed those required by local labour law''.
The president of the ACTU, Ged Kearney, said she had not been aware of the problem but would be ''surprised'' if the government was refusing to recognise the right of French workers to be represented by a union, ''an international right that does not end at borders''.
The action is one of four separate cases in foreign courts initiated by locally engaged staff against Australian embassies according to the department's latest annual report.
Documents obtained by The Sun-Herald show problems in Paris began in 2006 after an internal audit of the workings of the embassy revealed a range of ''financial, administrative, and management issues''. The audit was conducted about the same time the embassy was publicly chided for a boozy cocktail party hosted by the then foreign minister, Alexander Downer, during which damage was done to a valuable painting that was on loan from Australia.
Not long after, the then Australian ambassador to France, Penelope Wensley, now the Governor of Queensland, initiated a staff restructure. Ms Wensley declined to comment this week.
According to documents, officials in Canberra pushed for the restructure, which involved retrenching five staff including the union delegate.
But Canberra was worried about the changes, too. ''We can expect accusations of unfair process and discrimination âĶ We cannot rule out some type of union action,'' a memo stated.