ACTU call to dump anti-union laws The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 13th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~cpa Subscription rates on request. ****************************** By Anna Pha The ACTU has called for the withdrawal of the Federal Government's regressive anti-union Bill (second wave legislation) now before Parliament and for basic amendments to the Workplace Relations Act. In particular, the ACTU has called for amendments to strengthen the award system, collective bargaining and the right to strike. by Anna Pha On October 1 the ACTU put its case to a Senate Inquiry into the 1996 Workplace Relations Act and the Government's proposed second wave amendments. While the ACTU was putting its case, 30 "security guards", complete with balaclavas and dogs, were in front of Parliament House providing some trade union street theatre as a grim reminder to the Senate Committee of the use and intent of the laws. The ACTU submission pointed to the long hours, increased workloads, casualisation, the difficulties of balancing work and family life, the many setbacks for women, loss of conditions and other impacts on health and safety that workers are experiencing. "Even clerical and sales workers, in industries like banking and hospitality, are now expected to train in their own time, to attend meetings in their own time, and to take work home if it is not finished at the end of the working day", said the ACTU. The ACTU raised the increased use of casual and contract employment which has "led to an explosion in precarious employment without security or the entitlements which attach to permanent employment." "There is a serious problem in relation to distribution of work between those who have no work, those who have too little work and those who are working excessive hours." The ACTU called for the Industrial Relations Commission to be provided with "the power to arbitrate on all employment-related matters in order to ensure that employees have the protection of effective awards which provide fair and relevant terms and conditions of employment." This would enable many important conditions that have been stripped from awards to be restored and improved on an ongoing basis. In particular the ACTU recommends that the Commission be given the powers to regulate the hours of work of all employees, particularly part-timers and casuals, including setting minimum and maximum hours of work. The strengthening of awards is one of a number of recommendations that would make the system more centralised and reliant on collective bargaining. As the ACTU says in its recent unions@work report, "It is impossible for full-time officials to meet the demands of bargaining and negotiating at every workplace..." The present Act basically rules out collective agreements covering more than one employer. The ACTU proposes that multi- employer agreements could be negotiated on the same basis as single-enterprise agreements. Right to strike "The right to strike is integral to the right to bargain collectively." In this regard the ACTU makes a number of important recommendations: * Trades Practices Act be amended to make industrial action legal in respect of multi-employer agreements, and sympathy and protest actions; * repeal of Section 127 of the Act - relating to powers of the Commission to order industrial action cease or not commence and court injunctions for breaches. * Protected industrial action to be taken on a multi-employer and multi-union basis in relation to any issue of concern to employees (unless specifically prohibited by a certified agreement). "In particular, protected action should be possible in support of multi-employer agreements, and for the purpose of indicating sympathy and support for industrial action by fellow unionists, and for protest on economic and social issues which are seen by unionists as affecting their welfare." The new Bill specifically outlaws sympathy and political strikes. There are a number of ACTU proposals on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs - individual contracts) which focus on making (collective) Certified Agreements prevail over AWAs and outlawing AWAs where workers have voted in favour of a Certified Agreement. They also call for the abolition of the Office of the Employment Advocate and the return of powers to the Commission. "The Act does not prevent employees being compelled to sign AWAs in order to obtain or maintain employment." The ACTU seeks to amend the Act to end this situation which allows bosses to force workers to sign AWAs. In effect the ACTU recommendations seek to give primacy to collective agreements over individual contracts, but they fall short of calling for the abolition of individual contracts and the full restoration of the award as the primary vehicle for determining wages and conditions. The 132-page submission also contains recommendations on wages, hours of work, job security issues, family and work, contract labour, protection of employees' entitlements, and trade union rights (rights of delegates, right of entry, trade union training, etc) and employee share ownership. It argues for the complete withdrawal of the Bill that is presently before Parliament. It was the Australian Democrats who moved for the Senate Inquiry to be held. It is the Democrats who still need convincing that this Bill should be thrown out and that the present Workplace Relations Act is unacceptable. -- 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
LL:ART: ACTU CALLS TO DUMP ANTI-UNION LAWS
Communist Party of Australia Tue, 12 Oct 1999 21:12:34 +1000
