CELEBRATING Christmas may soon be a thing of the past for Caterpillar employees.

It has been revealed staff at Caterpillar Underground Mining (Tasmania) were recently told they could no longer use the word “Christmas” when referring to any company function. The decision is said to have outraged the company’s staff.

One Caterpillar employee who wished to remain anonymous said many staff had expressed their disappointment about the new rule. However, they were advised by management not to push the issue.

“They have been told to shut up & not to take it further”, the employee said.

It is understood a survey was distributed to all staff recently advising them they were no longer to refer to their end-of-year get-together as a Christmas party but as a “holiday celebration”.

“To respect the diversity of all our employees, all future references to Christmas parties will not be referred to as holiday celebrations”, the document said.

The document also stated there would no longer be alcohol served at any holiday celebrations.

The employee said workers had not known of any problems with references to Christmas in the past & worried how much further the company would go in its quest to be politically correct.

“The reason they have done this is because they don’t want to offend anybody”, the employee said. “(What about offending Australians? N.M.)The people I have spoken to about it just can’t believe this sort of thing happens.”

Caterpillar is the Coast’s largest employer, with more than 600 staff.

 

The surveys in which the notification was contained were distributed to obtain feedback from staff about their preferences for this year’s holiday celebration. They were then to be returned to Caterpillar communications consultant Nigel Tapp. Mr Tapp yesterday refused to comment on the issue.

Managing director Tammy Nelson was also unavailable for comment.

(submitted by John John, Tasmania) 

 

 

This editor’s (acp@aapt.nmet.au) suggestion would be for those fair dinkum Aussie workers who are offended by the management’s intolerance of Australian traditions - organise their own Christmas party at another venue, separate from the company’s ‘holiday celebrations’, & leave the management team to sit on their own with just their anti-Australian attitude for company.