The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has called for employees’ rights to be protected in a planned private equity takeover of Coates Hire, Australia’s largest equipment rental company. United States-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group and Australian rental company National Hire Group recently agreed to acquire Coates.

Union organizers said workers in a rental business receive none of the benefits in large buyouts of rental companies. The assistant national secretary of the AMWU said private equity companies need to guarantee workers’ conditions, especially protecting their entitlements should the takeover go badly.