VIC: Application for Anzac Day holiday in arbitration today

AAP General News (Australia)
04-17-1999
VIC: Application for Anzac Day holiday in arbitration today

MELBOURNE, April 17 AAP - The bid by building workers in Victoria to retain a public
holiday for Anzac Day this year was being heard in the Industrial Relations Commission this
morning.

The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union wants Monday, April 26, to be declared a
public holiday because Anzac Day falls on a Sunday this year.

The union has told its members not to work on April 26.

Employer groups had an application deferred yesterday for the Commission for an order to
force the workers to work that day.

The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the row has been forced into
arbitration.

Its Workplace Relations Director for Victoria, Paul Gaynor, told 3AW: "Our view is that
Anzac Day is a day of union remembrance, not a union picnic.

"And like the Victorian Government, we believe it should be honoured on the day and there
should not be a holiday in lieu of.

"As far as we're concerned, the holiday is only there if it (a weekday) falls on the 25th
of April and that is exactly what the precedence and the law is in Victoria."

AAP wjf/kr

KEYWORD: ANZAC HOLIDAY

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