The increasingly bitter fight over control of the PIAA is headed for a showdown with the board calling a Special General Meeting (SGM) in less than two weeks to address the demands of an angry members action group.
In a surprise move late last week, the board announced a SGM - only the second in the association’s 170-year history - following calls by the 90-plus Member Action Group (MAG) for a SGM to address a range of grievances over the direction of the national industry association.
The group’s demands include the immediate departure of CEO Jason Allen, who’s due to leave the job in a couple of months, and the reinstatement of two sacked workers in Queensland and former state managers in the South Australia and Victoria branches. A sometimes controversial figure, Allen has reshaped the Association during his brief tenure, firing and forcing the resignations of a number of senior staff across the country. He refocused the organisation’s strategy to concentrate on increasing the number of members, appointing specialised sales staff in different states.
The change in strategy shocked many association members and has coincided with the resignations of PIAA president David Leach and honorary secretary Susan Heaney (both in December) and the new honorary secretary Steve Edwards (late January). Earlier this month, former deputy Ross Black of BJ Ball in Melbourne was named the new president, ACT-based director Kieran May stepped into the role of deputy president and Tasmanian board member Craig Pearce became honorary secretary.
The MAG set a deadline of last Friday for the board to respond to its call for a SGM. Late on Friday afternoon, in a move seen as an attempt to take charge of the meeting's agenda and remove a proposed no-confidence vote, the board itself called a SGM, which is scheduled to take place in less than two weeks at 2pm on Tuesday, 23 February at the Graphic Arts Club in Mascot, Sydney.
The members group responded to the announcement by making an official complaint to the Fair Work Commission (FWC) over the PIAA's actions.
“I am concerned that aspects of the Notice of SGM and the Proxy Form are biased, misleading, deceptive, wrong and/or do not comply with the PIAA Rules,” said MAG spokesperson Tom Eckersley of Print Approach, Brisbane, in a four-page letter delivered to the FWC on Monday. The PIAA is registered with the commission - a federal government body that oversees registered employer and union organizations.
Proxy votes are for those where, instead of attending the meeting themselves, members can direct their ‘proxies’ to another member – or to the President/Chair of the meeting, wrote Eckersley.
Misinterpreted by the proxy wording, a member may feel that their only alternative in allocating their Proxy Vote is to the President/Chair of the meeting, who ultimately would result in a vote in favour of a “business as usual” approach that appears undemocratic.
Eckersley said the board’s proposed agenda could give undue (and arguably misleading and deceptive) prominence to the ability of a member to appoint the President as their proxy…this gives the President an unfair and unjustifiable advantage.
Eckersley has also written to the PIAA board to request the following motions be added to the SGM agenda:
* That there be recorded a vote of no confidence in the Board of the PIAA, arising from the Board’s management of the business of the PIAA and the Board’s control of the PIAA.
*That each Board position immediately become vacant.
*That any decision or action relating to the tenure of staff and/or status of PIAA property be put on hold, at least until a new CEO starts his or her employment with the PIAA.
The PIAA has declined to comment.