http://www.theaustralian.com.au/index.asp?URL=/national/4357563.htm Reith tells builders: take on unions By MICHAEL BACHELARD 18mar99 WORKPLACE Relations Minister Peter Reith singled out Victorian builders yesterday over their "failure" to stand up to the building unions, saying they were the worst performers in the country. Stepping up the pressure on Victorian building employers and their representative bodies to end union monopolies on building sites, Mr Reith said the industry was worse off in Melbourne than in Sydney, because NSW employers were "more willing" to insist on better standards. The number of complaints in Victoria about illegal "no ticket-no start" policies, and alleged coercion of employers on building sites, outnumbered those in other States, he said. Employment Advocate Jonathan Hamberger has already identified the Victorian industry as a target for tough scrutiny under the Government's Workplace Relations Act. But despite Mr Reith's urging, the Master Builders Association of Victoria and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union met yesterday and agreed to renegotiate an existing exclusive deal. Mr Reith denied he had a "vendetta" against unions, but exhorted employers to take them on, despite their fears of an expensive industrial action on sites: "They (unions) are seeking to be exempted from the law," he said. A lower-cost building industry would be in the national interest, would create more jobs, as well as being in the companies' commercial interests, he said. "This is not a question of 'If I take a stand I'm going to pay a price' � the fact is you pay a price every day of the week." Mr Reith offered employer bodies the Government's full support "in any reasonable, lawful way" to reform the building industry. Mr Reith reserved particular vitriol for the Victorian Building Industry Agreement, signed every two years by all the unions and the employers to ensure industrial harmony. He said the agreement was overly prescriptive and delivered too much to unions, including higher-than-average pay rises. "When this agreement is to be renegotiated at the end of the year, my view is that you would be like lambs to the slaughter if you agreed to a continuing support of the VBIA," Mr Reith said. But Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union secretary Martin Kingham said he had met with the Master Builders Association yesterday and agreed to organise a "seamless renewal" of the VBIA in negotiations later this year. Mr Kingham said he was "confident that Reith's call will continue to go unheeded". A spokesman for the Master Builders Association of Victoria said Australian building companies were "efficient and operate on very high productivity levels" compared with the rest of the world. The Master Builders Association would only take on the unions on behalf of, and at the direction of, their members, the spokesman said. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
