10m back pay for indigenous workers 1 All-round Country Edition

The unanimous decision of the full bench of the Federal Court has brought to a close more than 10 years of litigation by eight residents of Hopevale and Wujal Wujal communities in far north Queensland. In a test case, the eight Aborigines, who worked on the Lutheran Church-run Hopevale and Wujal Wuj...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Australian (Canberra, A.C.T.)
Main Author Tony Koch, Ian Gerard
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Canberra, A.C.T Nationwide News Pty Ltd 22.11.2006
Subjects
Beattie, Peter
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Summary:The unanimous decision of the full bench of the Federal Court has brought to a close more than 10 years of litigation by eight residents of Hopevale and Wujal Wujal communities in far north Queensland. In a test case, the eight Aborigines, who worked on the Lutheran Church-run Hopevale and Wujal Wujal missions between 1975, when the Racial Discrimination Act was introduced, and 1986, appealed against a decision by Justice John Dowsett in August last year in which he found the Government had not been in breach of the act in underpaying the workers. The Queensland Government has acknowledged that until 1986 Aborigines were not paid award wages, and offered a $7000 one-off payment to those who had worked on government-run missions. But the Government refused to extend it to church-run missions, claiming the churches were responsible for the underpayment of wages.
ISSN:1038-8761