A contractor’s decision to tell hundreds of traffic management workers they were out of a job via a text message has been labelled inappropriate by WA Premier Roger Cook.
Advanced Traffic Management (ATM), which is involved in some of the state’s largest road projects, was placed into liquidation earlier this week.
Workers were notified by text message on Wednesday.
Mr Cook said the company’s closure, and particularly that aspect, should have been handled better.
“People deserve the right to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace,” he said.
“To dismiss someone simply by sending them a text message is not appropriate. It’s not on.
“Our thoughts are with those workers, I understand it must be a very distressing time for them at the moment.”
Mr Cook stopped short of committing to that audit, saying the government had a number of ways to have oversight on different industries.
“We don’t want to be heavy-handed on that, but we want to ensure that they treat their workers right and they treat their customers right, so we’ll continue that,” he said.
The government met with the CFMEU today to discuss a path forward.
