James Packer's Crown Resorts is preparing to sack its poker machine technicians and outsource the work to a company directed by former state premier Jeff Kennett.
Crown has told the workers, who install, fix and transport the gaming machines at its Melbourne casino, that they will be laid off at the end of July.
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Packer's Crown slips in Asia
Crown's network of offices from Macau to Indonesia appears to have vanished, leaving the business model of its flagship Sydney resort in question.
The service will be contracted out to Amtek Corporation, of which Mr Kennett is a director and the largest shareholder.
In a staff memo, seen by Fairfax Media, Crown Resorts management this week confirmed that a tender process had closed and a "decision has been made for an external supplier to deliver services, parts and labour to gaming machines at Crown Melbourne". The move is expected to drive down costs.
Electrical workers and the union movement are now gearing up for a large-scale campaign targeting Crown and Amtek, which they say will "dwarf" the union-led attack on beer giant Carlton & United Breweries last year.
In response to a contract change that left 55 brewery staff out of a job unless they took lower pay, Carlton & United was hit with a six-month protest at the gates of its Abbotsford plant and a national boycott of its beer and ciders, until it agreed to reinstate the workers.
"We are putting together a campaign now," Electrical Trades Union secretary Troy Gray said.
"And we call on the casino, which is very profitable - and the bloke who runs it isn't doing too badly either - to reconsider the decision."
As premier of Victoria in the 1990s, Mr Kennett was responsible for approving the massive Southbank entertainment complex and granting the casino licence to the Crown Consortium.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who has previously criticised Mr Kennett's links to his gaming machine company while he was chairman of mental health group beyondblue, said the details of Amtek's new contract should be made public. He said the deal revealed a need for new disclosure obligations for former government ministers.
"Ex-politicians, particularly if they are continuing to receive a pension from taxpayers, ought to disclose the details of their business dealings which are related to their previous parliamentary duties," he said.
"This is not to prohibit them ... but if you as a minister were involved in a decision that you later benefit from, people ought to know."
The 16 Crown workers who will lose their jobs on July 31 are highly experienced and many had been with the company for nearly two decades, the union said. Crown's redundancy policy prohibits laid-off workers from re-applying for any work at the casino for six months.
The base rate of pay in Crown's existing workplace agreement for its gaming machine technicians is currently $40.88 an hour, or $76,527 a year.
But, without an enterprise agreement, Amtek wages are set by the industry's safety net, known as the award. This has prompted union speculation that Crown's new pokies technicians could earn much less under the new arrangement.
Crown this week said it had conducted an "extensive operational review and procurement process" before deciding to contract its gaming machine services to the Melbourne-based Amtek.
"During the review we have consulted extensively with our 16 employees who have been affected by this change and the union to ensure full transparency in relation to the process and decision," a spokeswoman said.
"Crown Melbourne will continue to offer support to the employees involved as we transition to this new model."
Amtek said it had been invited to participate in the tender process "along with several other maintenance providers".
"Following the outcome of this process, Amtek was deemed the most suitable provider given its experience and capability," an Amtek spokesman said.
Neither Crown nor Amtek would comment on the rates of pay that would be offered to the new technicians who will work at the casino, but Amtek said it "meets all workplace obligations to employees according to the law".
Comment was sought from Mr Kennett.