Category Archives: Employment

Employment, early 1950s

An assortment of employment advertising durinig the early 1950s.

 

Foreman Maintenance Fitter
Williamstown Advertiser, 21 April 1950, p. 8

 

Junior Draftsmen
The Age, 5 August 1959, p. 28

Engineering Apprentices
Williamstown Chronicle, 24 November 1950, p. 4

Female Capstan Lathe Operator
ToolSetterorTurner
Williamstown Advertiser, 22 August 1952, p. 5

 

Process Workers
Williamstown Advertiser, 9 October 1953, p. 5

Tool Setters
Williamstown Advertiser, 1 October 1954, p. 5

Jobs – Dutch-Australian Weekly 1960s

During the 1960s, W. G. Goetz & Sons advertised for workers in the Dutch Australian Weekly, published from Sydney.

Here are a couple of ads with translations from Google Translate… possibly not totally accurate, but hopefully you’ll get the idea of what Goetz was offering and the sort of workers the were seeking. Please contact us if you have a better translation than Google!

Click images for larger views

Dutch-Australian Weekly (Sydney),18 Nov 1960. p.10
Original (left), Google Translate (right)

Dutch-Australian Weekly (Sydney), 8 Oct 1965. p.10
Original (left), Google Translate (right)

Superannuation

Employees of W. G. Goetz and Sons had a superannuation fund available to them by arrangement with National Mutual Life. Unfortunately when Goetz was bought in the late ’90s, the new owner did not fulfil his obligations to make sufficient contributions to the fund, leaving employees entitlements in the hands of Administrators. Read about how the business practices of the new owner caused the ruin of the company here.

Below: A letter to a Goetz employee to advise that his application for superannuation had been successfully processed. The booklet and nomination form referred to in the letter are shown below. Click image for larger view.

 

Below: Accompanying the letter above was this information booklet signed by company secretary Frank Craddock c.February 1969, including a Nomination Form for payment of the employee’s benefits, should the employee die whilst working at Goetz. Click images for larger views.

 

 In a Report to Creditors on 12 October 1999, the Administrators “estimated the value of the entitlements at $587,229, including redundancy & notice.” However, a report to creditors from the Pattisons (business advisors and insolvency specialists) on 28 June 2004 advised “that the employees of W. G. Goetz, as priority creditors in the liquidation have been paid approximately 91 cents in the dollar out of their total claims of $862,806.44. Regrettably as there are no further assets to be realised there will be no further dividends paid to employees.” The Pattisons report also mentioned that the liquidators of Goetz subsidiary Goetz Manufacturing P/L had finished their administration.

A newspaper article in The Mail, 29 March 2000, reported that Goetz Manufacturing’s 48 employees had been paid off in full, “including redundancy, entitlements, superannuation, annual leave and long service leave.” (see newspaper clipping ‘Hammer falls on history’ on this page.)

Below: During the demise of W. G. Goetz and Sons, employees received notice from the ATO advising them of the lack of superannuation contributions by the company (under its new owner) and that they would need to contact the Liquidator for further information.Click image for larger view.

5 Years Service – coasters

Goetz employees were given a memento of their first five years service in the form of a set of six square metallic coasters, each 95mm x 95mm.

The coasters shown below were given to Terence Linehan, who worked at Goetz as an engineering pattern maker from 1969 to 1982.

The coasters were “Designed and Crafted” by Paul Stephen-Daly, trading as Louchrilau Nominees P/L of Malvern. The company was known for producing limited edition and custom metallic drink coasters, including a souvenir drink coaster to help publicise the Phar Lap movie in 1983. An example is held at Museum Victoria as part of the Phar Lap collection.

Between August and December 1992 Paul Stephen-Daly also registered designs with Intellectual Property Australia for a bottle rack, bottle rack/trophy and a presentation wall plaque trophy.

The company received various government export and expansion grants during the 1970s and 1980s, however, according to Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Business (National : 1987 – 2004), the company was deregistered and dissolved as of 4th August 1990.

Thanks to Terence’s daughter Robyn for the coasters. Click images below for larger views