Programmed Maintenance Services Limited, also known as Programmed is a Japanese

Labour hire Labour hire is a form of employment in which an employer directs their de jure employees ('labour hire employees', or 'agency workers') to perform work at an external workplace, belonging to a client of the legal employer. In a labour hire arrange ...

and

Recruitment Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the processes involved in choosing individual ...

company, specialising in

blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...

services. It is headquartered in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

. Programmed is a wholly owned subsidiary of

Persol Holdings Persol Holdings (rebranded from Temp Holdings) is a Japanese human resource management company, that provides labour hire Labour hire is a form of employment in which an employer directs their de jure employees ('labour hire employees', or 'agen ...

, a human resource conglomerate headquartered in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Corporate history

Programmed Maintenance Services originated as a business named 'Miles Paint Service' in 1951. It was founded as an Australian company, headquartered in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. In 1999, Programmed was listed on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

(ASX) under the ticker (PRG). In 2015, Programmed acquired

Skilled Group Skilled Group is an Australian company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. Its core business is labour hire. It is a subsidiary of Programmed Maintenance, which is itself a subsidiary of Japanese labour hire conglomerate Persol Holdings. The ...

, for $650M. The acquisition resulted in financial troubles for the company. Programmed was acquired by

(Japan's largest labour hire corporation), in 2017 for $778M. Following this acquisition, Programmed was delisted from the ASX.

Controversies

Carlton & United Breweries dispute

In 2016, a major industrial dispute arose at

Carlton & United Breweries Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) is an Australian brewing company based in Melbourne and owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi Breweries. Its notable brands include Victoria Bitter, Carlton Draught, Foster's Lager, Great Northern, Resch's, Pu ...

' (CUB) Abbotsford plant, after workers at the facility were told that their

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...

employer would become a subsidiary of Programmed. This resulted in a strike after it was proposed that applicable

enterprise bargaining agreement Enterprise bargaining is an Australian term for a form of collective bargaining, in which wages and working conditions are negotiated at the level of the individual organisations, as distinct from sectoral collective bargaining across whole industr ...

at the workplace would have a significantly lower rate than previously; with a wage only 50 cents above the applicable

Industrial award An industrial award, sometimes known simply as an award, is a ruling in Australia handed down by either the national Fair Work Commission (or its predecessor) or by a state industrial relations commission which grants all wage earners in one indu ...

. The controversy heightened when it was realized that the agreement had been established in 2014, by a subsidiary of Programmed named Catalyst Services; and was voted upon by just three casual workers at the time. Most of the workers at the facility refused to sign onto their new employment contracts under those conditions, and began a

picketing Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the pick ...

campaign that lasted 6 months. In December 2016, an agreement was reached between the

Electrical Trades Union of Australia The Electrical Trades Union of Australia (ETU) is an Australian trade union. The ETU is a division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), and is the largest of the three divisions. Under State Government laws, the union ...

and CUB resolving the dispute.

Sponsorships

In 2009, Programmed became a major sponsor of

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represent the port city of ...

, being featured on the teams Away Guernseys.

References

Australian companies established in 1951 Business services companies established in 1951 Companies based in Melbourne Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Recruitment 2015 mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions {{Australia-company-stub