Japan based automaker Toyota was on April 24 dragged to the court by the sacked Australian auto workers. The workers, who were holding health and safety officers post claimed that they were unlawfully for being union stewards.
Some 350 staff workers were laid off by Toyota in the month of January, out of which 12 of them took up the court case. The company had then blamed the unprecedented pressure on the Australian operations due to the strong local currency, which led to job losses across the sector.
Maurice Blackburn, a law firm said there was a “disproportionate number of health and safety representatives and shop stewards” which was made redundant and added that a suit was filed in the Federal court alleging “targeted and unlawful discrimination in the job cuts.” Lawyer Josh Bornstein said that the workers will now seek immediate reinstatement as well as compensation in a hearing.
Toyota while talking about the workers who were sacked, said that the demand failed to recover from the global downturn as the production slipped to 36 percent since the year 2007, when 149,000 cars were made and just 95,000 cars were made in the year 2012.
