By Peter Boyle
MELBOURNE — If anyone doubts that the Liberal and National parties plan to destroy the collective bargaining power of workers, they have only to look at the Employee Relations Bill introduced into the Victorian Parliament on October 29. Similar legislation, on a national scale, will be brought in if the Coalition wins the next federal elections.
The Liberals hope to destroy the union movement by severely restricting workers' right to take industrial action and by promoting individual employment agreements to replace collective agreements or awards.
The legislation begins the assault on wages and conditions by making penalty rates, overtime, accident make-up pay, bereavement leave, leave loading and rostered days off optional in the new agreements or awards. Workers compensation has been slashed. Undoubtedly, the plan is to deepen the attack as unions are weakened and destroyed.
Victorian unions have been given legal advice that all industrial action is outlawed under the Kennett's laws:
- if it occurs while an award or collective agreement is in force;
- if the disputes settlement procedure in any award or employment agreement has not been followed;
- if it occurs in an industry that provides an "essential" or "vital" service as defined by the Essential Services Act and the Vital State Industries (Works and Services) Act. "Essential services" include transport, fuel, light, power, sewerage and other services declared to be essential by an order in council, and the government may define any activity to be "vital".
- if it restricts or limits the supply or acquisition of goods or services; discourages or interferes with the production of goods and services or hinders or discourages or interferes with the provision of employment opportunities;
- if it denies a third party access to a commercial transaction;
Even if industrial action is not outlawed under these very broad provisions, it must be authorised by secret ballot. Individual
workers can be fined $1000 for participating in unlawful industrial action and unions fined $50,000. Pickets are to be strongly policed and subject to action under criminal law.
As from March 1, 1993, all Victorian state awards will be abolished. The Victorian Industrial Relations Commission will be replaced by a new Employee Relations Commission.
Workers can return to the award system only with their employer's consent. Otherwise they will be deemed to be covered by individual employment agreements on the terms of their award until new agreements, individual or collective, are agreed on. According to the union movement's legal advice it is arguable that over-award conditions will not carry over to the interim deemed "agreements".
Employment agreements can be entered into only between employers and employees, in groups or as individuals. This means that unions will not be parties to agreements. They will be involved only as "employee agents".
A collective agreement does not cover all employees in a workplace or new employees. This will allow employers to treat workers doing the same work differently, to overload unions with multiple agreements and negotiations and to offer new workers worse terms and conditions than current employees.
Kennett's legislation opens the way to "employee agents" (who could be lawyers, professional negotiators or anyone) replacing unions in the bargaining process, as did the Nationals' system in New Zealand.
Agreements — which may be made for up to five years — cannot be changed even if they are grossly exploitative, and industrial action is banned throughout the life of the agreement. But if there is a collective agreement, employers can still enter into individual agreements with workers covered by the collective agreement. So there is firm bias in favour of individual employment contracts.
Minister for industry and employment Phil Gude claims that the legislation contains sufficient protection of minimum standards. But the only terms that must be observed by all agreements or awards are provisions for annual leave, sick leave, minimum hourly pay rates at the basic rate provided under the relevant award on March 1, 1993 (a provision that will become worthless as inflation takes its toll), and parental leave. All other conditions, including even meal breaks, are completely up for negotiation. But no-strike clauses and stand-down provisions have to be included in any agreement or award.
Echoing notorious employment contracts from the last century, the legislation allows agreements to provide for monetary fines to be levied against employees if, in the opinion of the employer, the employees's behaviour, attendance or obedience are unsatisfactory!
The legislation is so heavily stacked in favour of employers that a number of media commentators who openly admit they support wage cutting have stated their concern over Kennett's Employee Relations Bill. Like the concern they have expressed over the federal Coalition's industrial relations package, it is motivated by a worry that such a full-on challenge to the union movement might wreck the industrial peace and wage control achieved under the Accord between the federal Labor government and the ACTU.