
Issue No 113		28 September 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

One Dollar Workforce Highlights Workcover Concerns

Revelations that employers are assessing their entire workforce as earning a total of one dollar per week for workers compensation purposes underline union concerns that employers are not paying their way.

Labor Council secretary John Robertson said that he had received evidence that firms - including sub-contractors to government projects - are systematically rorting the WorkCover system.

Examples include a sub-contractor on a RTA project at Oaks Flat estimated the wage of a six-person work team at $1.00 per year. The RTA has claimed it has no right to ensure that sub-contractors are complying with their workers compensation obligations.

"This highlights our concerns that the system is being rorted by employers," Roberston says. "It also shows that workers are being blamed for problems in the scheme that are not of their making.

"If a government contractor can pull a stunt like this, you would have to conclude that evasion of workers compensation premiums in the private sector is rife.

"The government needs to restructure the way premiums are collected from annual to quarterly - this is how business now operates under the GST. Quarterly contributions will ensure that rorts like this are identified earlier.

Injured Workers Should Not Carry Can

Meanwhile, unions have called on the Carr Government to ensure that injured workers do not bear the sole burden for the blow-out in the WorkCover deficit.

Robertson made the plea after the government released revised WorkCover figures released today asserting an actuarial deficit of $2.76 billion.

"At some point the government must recognise that employers should bear some of the burden for the workers compensation blowout," Robertson says.

"The reality is that for several years the Government has under-charged employers - that is, they have been paying below cost price for their workers compensation insurance.

"To attempt to reduce the deficit by merely slugging injured workers is not only unfair, it is contrary to Labor values.

Independent analysis from Access Economics shows that an increase in premiums would have, at worst, a marginal impact on employment.

"I call on the NSW Minister for Industrial Relations to immediately commence talks with all stakeholders on the appropriate premium level to meet the current scheme costs," Robertson says.

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  Issue 113 contents

Interview: The Custodian
Labor's arts spokesman Bob McMullan on the role government can play in nurturing national culture.

Media: Chucking a Wobbly
Veronica Apap meets Dan Buhagiar, the programmer of Labor Council's new online initiative, Wobbly Radio.

E-Change: 3.3 Unleashing a Networked Culture
Politics does not occur in a vacuum - it's is as much a product of its culture as it is an influence on it. In the post-Industrial Age how will this relationship change?

Unions: Are You a Terrorist?
Away from the talkback noise, Mark Hearn reports on how a Sydney workforce is taking up the cause of racial understanding and tolerance.

Organising: STAA Performers
Film industry workers are acting collectively to ensure they don't become Mexicans with Mobiles.

Workplace: Making Art Work
The Workers Cultural Action Committee is a community cultural development provider. What is this? And what does it mean for the union movement?

History: Creative Alliances
Neale Towart wanders through the archives to look at how unions' have worked with artists to promote progressive casuses.

Performance: Tales from the Shop Floor
Peter Murphy profiles Sydney's New Theatre and the role it has played in fostering working culture.

Review: Homegroan
In an extract from her new book, The Money Shot, Jane Mills argues that the local film industry needs more than patriotism to get bums on seats.

Satire: PM Pleads To Nauru: Take Our Aborigines Too
In the wake of Nauru�s acceptance of the Tampa refugees, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has struck a new deal with the small island nation to take our Aborigines as well.

» Abbott Stacks Commission on Election Eve

» Trades Hall to Be Fit for the Arts

» Olympic Builders Honoured in Oil

» Terror Shockwaves Hit Security Workers

» The Ansett Phoenix Rises

» 'The General' Makes Ansett Stand

» One Dollar Workforce Highlights Workcover Concerns

» Email Workers Saved

» Union Power Gets Tilers Paid In Full

» NSW Nurses (Pro)Claim Their Worth

» AOL Sheds Non-Union Staff

» Building Inquiry Faces First Test of Integrity

» Telstra Guilty Over Union Discrimination

» Paint Workers Finish the Job

» New Project Agreement A Template

» The Workers United, Need a New Slogan!

» Activists Notebook