Twenty-five full-time staff at Brisbane's XXXX brewery could be made redundant in what the workers' union has described as "a sad day for Queensland".
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The brewery owner, Lion, said the proposed redundancies will be across a range of roles and equate to almost one-sixth of the brewery's workforce being lost.
"In order to remain competitive in the marketplace against a backdrop of a range of cost pressures,
a reduction in volume within our brewery network, and the continued decline in the mainstream
beer market, we are proposing to reduce the number of shifts at the Milton brewery, which may
result in 25 full-time roles being made redundant," a Lion spokesman said.
"We acknowledge that we are in the midst of negotiations towards a new enterprise agreement,
however, these proposed changes are separate to those negotiations and reflect external market
conditions.
"While XXXX is the best-performing mainstream beer brand in Australia over recent years, and XXXX Gold remains the most popular beer brand in both Queensland and Australia, in today’s market, no brewery is immune from the need to be competitive.
"Anyone that may be impacted will have extensive access to outplacement, job transition or
retirement planning, to be made available on top of the potential redundancy packages."
The Milton brewery employs 144 staff in total, all of whom have full-time positions.
The news comes after brewery staff walked off the job earlier in the year over fears the brewery's owners were planning to shift to casual workers.
United Voice, the union that represents the workers, claims Lion is planning to create a cheaper workforce by employing contract staff at a lower pay rate through a third party.
"This is just the latest part of Lion’s appalling behaviour by trying to cut wages and conditions, now they’re doing it by stealth by trying to make people redundant," United Voice spokesman Damien Davie said on Wednesday.
"Now we’re concerned they’re going to replace them with cheaper contractors that are employed at lower rates.
"Lion has been completely dishonest, we’ve asked them several times if there are going to be any job loses and they have said no.
"The fact is Lion has centralised beer production in Australia to New South Wales. We’ve been saying that for a long time, today is just more proof of it.
"You have to question how long Queensland can remain on the label of XXXX if the majority of XXXX is eventually made out of New South Wales.
"It’s obvious that they are consolidating their production to New South Wales. Queenslanders just won’t tolerate our great beer being made in New South Wales ... This is a sad day for Queensland."
In August, the Fair Work Commission banned the union from blockading the site or making these "misleading" and "false" claims that the site was closing or jobs were being moved interstate.
In response to Mr Davie's claims, a Lion spokesman said the company had rejected the claim that jobs were being moved interstate for the past 16 months.
"We brew more beer in Milton that goes into New South Wales, than ever comes from New South Wales into Queensland," he said.
The spokesman said the proposed redundancies would not be limited to brewery technicians and casual contractors would not be brought in to replace lost staff.
