Thursday, May 27, 1999
Reith dumps 'sack unionists' law
By HELEN TRINCA
The Federal Government hastily dumped last night plans which would have
made it legal for bosses to sack workers for being union members, but said
the idea would be "reworked" in a different form.
The backdown by the Minister for Workplace Relations, Mr Reith, came
several hours after his office was asked by the Herald for comment on the
controversial legislation announced by him in a paper released three weeks
ago but not reported till today.
The embarrassing retreat came as the Government continues tough GST
negotiations with the Democrats, already angry at many of Mr Reith's
planned workplace changes.
The Government had planned to legislate to allow employers to sack workers
on the grounds they were union members as long as the employers could show
they were trying to break down union closed shops. Mr Reith had planned to
take the change to Federal Parliament in the second half of the year as
part of his package of amendments to the Workplace Relations Act.
The move would have given Patrick, the stevedoring company, a ready-made
defence against the maritime union's claims the company had breached the
act by locking out its unionised workers in the docks dispute last year.
And it would have added ballast to Mr Reith's fresh assault on closed shops
in the construction industry.
Last night a spokesman said that the plan would not go ahead because it was
"too broad". It would be reworked in a different form.
Asked when the decision not to go ahead was taken, he said: "I don't know.
Some time after it (the paper) was put out."
The paper, More Jobs, Better Pay, said the act would be amended to
strengthen the freedom of association laws which make it illegal to
discriminate against workers on the grounds they are unionists or
non-unionists. The act would be changed to "provide a defence to breaches
of freedom of association where the conduct complained of was designed to
overcome a closed shop".
This would have meant employers could sack or refuse to employ people on
the grounds they were unionists as long as this was part of a strategy to
break down a totally unionised workforce.
The Government sees the freedom of association laws as a powerful weapon to
help free up the labour market by ending the monopoly provision of labour
by unions.
The move to provide a defence to breaches was described earlier yesterday
as "arrant nonsense" by one of Australia's leading industrial lawyers,
Professor Ron McCallum of Sydney University. He said that it would have
meant unionists would no longer be protected in workplaces where there was
100 per cent union membership.
Professor McCallum said the Government had been caught out in the Patrick
case because its move in the 1997 act to strengthen the right not to belong
to a union had also strengthened the right to belong.
Now the Government was trying to redress that by saying that freedom of
association would not operate where there was 100 per cent union membership."
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