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Trade Union Royal Commission
As a plumber, we can choose to belong to a union to help when it comes to all sorts of industry issues.
A plumbing company in Canberra, however, has had a bad experience when dealing with a union official.
The trade union royal commission has recently been told by the manager of a Canberra plumbing company, that a union official had an aggressive confrontation with her when they failed to sign a union agreement.
Nikki Lo Re said the company she owned with her husband Joe was negotiating an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), but negotiations stalled over apprentice pay rates.
She told the commission a plumbing union official confronted her at the company's office and the discussion turned aggressive.
"Basically he was saying that we were trying to stall the whole negotiations………I believe I raised my voice back at him to say I had more important things to do at this time…"
Ms Lo Re alleges she was left in tears ... and was upset for days afterwards.
Plumbing Union lawyer Brendan Docking, said the exchange was not in her witness statement to the commission, and that she was making up the incident.
The hearing continues.
