Wilmar's Australian sugar mills to bar workers on strike

Source: The Straits Times

CANBERRA - Australia's largest sugar producer - owned by a unit of Singapore-listed Wilmar International - will bar workers who take part in strike action from its mills.

The industrial dispute over wage hikes has already delayed the start of the sugar production.

"Today, Wilmar Sugar and Renewables advised more than 1,200 wages employees that anyone participating in industrial action from start of shifts tomorrow morning (Wednesday 5 June) will be locked out until further notice," the company said in a statement on June 4.

Locked-out workers would not be able to enter Wilmar's facilities and would not be paid until the measure was lifted, it said.

Workers have already walked out for four 24-hour periods in May and planned a range of work bans and stoppages extending into early June.

Wilmar Sugar and Renewable has eight mills on Australia's east coast that run 24 hours a day during the cane processing season from June to November, producing over two million tonnes of raw sugar, more than half of Australia's total.

Most of Australia's sugar production is exported.

The company said on May 29 that industrial action had already impacted its 2024 sugar production season, with work stoppages over the past two weeks forcing it to further delay the start of production at a number of its factories.

Wilmar said then it was offering a 14.25 per cent wage increase over 3½ years and a A$1,500 (S$1,346) sign-on bonus. Workers were asking for 18 per cent over three years, having initially asked for 25 per cent, a spokesman for the Australian Workers' Union had said.

Shares of Wlmar International were trading up 1 per cent at $3.11 as at 3.11pm on June 4. REUTERS