Sue Bolton
Large protests in France, Nepal, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands over the last few weeks have forced back-downs from their respective governments. Can Australian workers do something similar and force the Coalition to withdraw its hated Work Choices laws?
We can, but not without leadership and persistence from unions and the community. That's the lesson from overseas and it's also the lesson from our own history.
Despite Australia's new labour laws being far more draconian than those in France, union officials here organised just two national protests in 2005 and are at the moment planning for just two more this year. Yet Work Choices and some of the other anti-worker laws are so draconian that extraordinary action by the union movement is needed. It's not business as usual.
Consider some of the changes under Work Choices and other anti-union laws.
- "Fairness" has been removed as a criteria for the setting of the minimum wage.
- Federal workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews now has the same power as a Nazi government minister; he can intervene at any time to prohibit the inclusion of extra clauses in any enterprise bargaining agreement.
- "Prohibited content" in enterprise agreements includes clauses enshrining the right to collective bargaining with a union, unfair dismissal processes and clauses that commit an employer to not offer Australian Workplace Agreements. If unions or employers attempt to put "prohibited content" into an agreement, they are liable for fines of $33,000. (Work Choices also threatens employers who might be tempted to sign a union-friendly agreement.)
- Building workers face jail if they refuse to answer questions about union activity on-site.
- "Independent contractors" no longer have access to union agreements. This creates a big incentive for employers to sack workers and re-employ them as independent contractors, forcing workers to buy their own tools and register as a business with an Australian Business Number (ABN). This is happening to scores of workers around the country.
- There has been an epidemic of sackings since Work Choices was enacted. Andrews admitted on ABC TV's Lateline on March 27 that employers could sack a worker if they had a "personality clash". Employers have taken Andrews at his word, sacking people for no reason other than they are union delegates, or because they inquired about why the boss isn't making their superannuation payments, or simply because they don't like them. In Melbourne, Finlay Engineering's boss sacked the delegate and the health and safety representative after they went in to bat for an older worker who had been sacked. The bosses' reason? They had "talked back" to him.
- The government has changed the rules for unemployed workers on Newstart allowance. Previously, an unemployed person on benefits couldn't be forced to take a job with below-award pay and conditions. Now an unemployed worker has to accept any job so long as it has Work Choices' five minimum conditions.
- The government has made it harder for unions to take action around health and safety issues, so more workers will be killed or injured in workplaces. Official figures show that 500 workers aged under 25 have been killed "on the job" in the last 10 years, but the ACTU estimates the real figure as two to three times higher. Young workers are especially vulnerable because they often work in un-unionised workplaces with little or no enforced safety standards.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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