
Issue No 1		19 February 1999

News

The Greatest Act on Earth

Peter Lewis

The NSW Industrial Relations Act is the best set of workplace laws in the world, according to one of Australia's leading industrial lawyers.

Professor Ron McCallum, professor of industrial law at the University of Sydney, described Jeff Shaw's 1996 reform package as "sitting at the apex of international industrial law".

One of the architects of the Act, McCallum said he was proud the laws had remained true to principles of HB Higgins, who "believed that the state should intervene into working life for fairness sake."

He pointed to the easy access to enterprise bargaining, ground-breaking industrial awards like the one covering the 2000 Olympics and important inquiries like that into gender pay equity, to back his high ranking for the laws.

And he said the main industrial parties, both trade unions and the employer groups, had confidence in the system because of their central role in the drafting of the laws.

"Mr Shaw inherited a system that was in a shambles and he has definitely transformed it into the strongest and most dynamic system in the country, " Professor McCallum said.

Below NSW, he placed the Queensland system which is currently following the NSW path, followed by the moderate South Australian system -- although it is now facing the deregulators, followed by the "Federal slash Victorian" system, with the WA laws and their secret ballots and political donations at the bottom of the heap.

Internationally, McCallum said the NSW legislation could only be rivalled by Nelson Mandela's new South African laws, but that these were still "untested in a country only now coming to terms with democracy."

On other leading industrial countries, he gave the following evaluations:

- USA - "the laws have not been updated since 1959 and only cover about ten per cent of the workforce."

- Canada - "has been massively de-unionised in recent years".

- UK - "The right-wing Blair Government is going down the US path with laws designed to de-unionise Britain, including the US-style ballots before unions are recognised in a workplace. "

- Germany - "No reform since 1976, during which time you've had a very conservative government"

- Sweden - "the system is crumbling and they're looking for answers."

- Japan - "their laws are only good for the top third of the workforce.

Professor McCallum said the Higgins model of industrial law should have been a model for the rest of the world in the 1900s, and now as deregulation fails to deliver benefits to the workforce, predicted the NSW system could provide similar inspiration in the years to come.

"This really is legislation for a new millennium, it contains relevant provisions like protection from video surveillance in the workplace ... There'll always be a need to update the laws, but they set a strong framework for dealing with change," he said.

The biggest threat to the system, McCallum believes, would be a change of government.

"You can spend years building up a school, but the wrong appointment of the headmaster can send it crashing down. Likewise, the wrong attitude of government to this system will see it crash down quickly."

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Issue 1 contents

Interview: Michael Costa
The new Labor Council secretary explains factions, frictions and how to save the union movement.

Unions: Getting Under The Skin
The cash-in-transit industry - known for it's vulnerability to violence and theft - comes under scrutiny as the industry moves to a new "soft skin" operation

History: Remembering the Labor Press
Workers Online is just the latest in a long tradition of publishing by working people and their organisations.

Review: Powderfinger's Political Power Pop
We look at a band who still reckon they can mix music with a bit social commentary.

Campaign Diary: Hartcher Chokes On His Own Uglies
No-one would have been more surprised by last week�s announcement of the Coalition industrial relations policy than its spokesman on the issue, Chris Hartcher.

» The Overworked - We're Sick, Anti-Social and Sexually Frustrated

» Geeks Blow Up

» The Greatest Act on Earth

» Museum of Contemporary Art calls time

» MEAA Goes Country!