Issue No 120 | 23 November 2001 | |
IndustrialAll In The Family
In his opening submission to the landmark case, ACTU assistant secretary Richard Marles argues working hours are vital to life.
********************** This a very big case. It is certainly the biggest case that the ACTU has run in some years. It may well become one of the biggest cases that this Commission has ever decided. So I do want to spend a little bit of time opening this case and putting into its proper context the witness evidence that you are going to hear over the coming weeks and months. But before I do, if you will indulge me for 5 minutes, I want to tell you a brief personal story. Last year was a great year for Australia, particularly because of the Olympic Games. I always felt that the Olympic Games would be an important part of this country's history. So even though he'd only just turned 4 years old I was very determined to take my son Sam to the Olympics. I didn't know and I still don't know whether Sam remembers his day at the Olympic Games. But I wanted him to grow up knowing that he had been there, knowing that he had been a part of that history. I was lucky enough to have tickets to the first session of the athletics. And so I took 3 days off work and together he and I made the pilgrimage to Sydney. The morning we left was a very exciting morning. It was an early flight and so we left Geelong - where Sam and I live - while it was still dark. Sam had that buzz about him of a boy who had been counting down the sleeps for some considerable time until this very morning. When I first held Sam up to the window at the airport to see how big the plane was that we were about to get in - a 747; well if the trip had stopped right there it would have been worth it just for the look on his face at that moment. Because this was one very excited boy. We got on board and even though we had booked economy tickets we found ourselves sitting in Business Class seats. And so Sam had a very large seat for a 4 year old with more buttons on it than he could possibly imagine. I can tell you that in the hour from Melbourne to Sydney the footrest was put up, the headrest put down, the seat was put back, the lumbar support was pushed out, the TV was turned on, the headphones were worn, the flight attendant was called and sent away (because we really didn't need the flight attendant) and the person in front was poked. I think it is fair to say that seat 15F of that particular jumbo has never before nor since had quite such a work out in its entire career. I took a photograph of Sam on that flight which I cherish to this day because I believe that I have captured on film pure bliss. Here was a being completely enraptured about being alive. We arrived in Sydney, met up with the cousins, had a fitful sleep that night, I was woken at 5.00am the next morning by a very hyper boy, and after a long and eventful train trip out to Homebush we eventually found ourselves going through the turnstiles and up into Stadium Australia. When I first saw the arena it was fantastic. There were athletes preparing, the Olympic flame was at the top of the stand and most moving for me was the Olympic flag. And the whole place was packed - 110,000 people. So we battled our way to our seats, sat down and finally settled. And then I looked across at my son's face. It had a look on it, which I had never seen before and I have never seen since. It was the look of complete and total awe. It was like his entire being had opened up and the enormity, the majesty of this event was pouring through his little face and filling up his soul. Every sight, every smell, every sound, every ounce of the atmosphere that was Stadium Australia on that magical morning was being absorbed by this little kid. And as I looked at him at that moment I was overwhelmed with a sense of triumph for having got there, by a sense of pride, overwhelmed by a total sense of happiness, but I think to be honest I was just completely overwhelmed. And so I am not ashamed to say that there and then I burst into tears - tears certainly of joy - but tears nevertheless, and all I could think of doing was just giving Sam a big hug. I have had better moments in my life - when Sam was born is an obvious one that comes to mind - but I would certainly rank that moment at Stadium Australia up there in the top five or ten. I tell you this story because while it is uniquely about me, my son, and our relationship, in so many other ways it is just an ordinary story. And I'm sure that everyone in this room and all of you on the Bench have similar stories about special moments that you have shared with people who are very close to you. And when I contrast this with my work life I realise that I have been incredibly lucky and privileged in my work. I have met fantastic people. I have been entrusted with great responsibilities. And I have been given great opportunities, not the least of which has been running this case. But of all the fantastic moments which have arisen in my work, and I have enjoyed them enormously, not one of them comes close to that moment at Stadium Australia last September. Because there is an old saying which is pertinent to this and very pertinent to this case. We work so that we can live, we do not live so that we can work. And while I am sure that everyone in this room would agree with and would aspire to that proposition, unfortunately Australian society and Australian workplaces are fast becoming characterised in precisely opposite terms. Australia is now the second longest working time country in the developed world. Only workers in Korea work longer hours than workers in Australia. And whereas working time in Korea is on the decline, in Australia it is on the increase. That is why we have made this application. And it is also why, in our respectful submission, that at this moment in our country's history, it is essential that the Commission does something about this issue. The Australian Industry Group in preparing its case opposing this application conducted some opinion research through the polling company ANOP. And in the ANOP report and indeed in the AiG submission itself there is a quote from a construction worker. This quote is presumably put forward to convince you not to grant this application. However, this quote for me is so imbued with sadness that it precisely expresses the reasons why this application must be granted. The construction worker said: You miss out on the quality things - like when Jack walked for the first time. You get pretty depressed that you don't get to see things like that. But on the other hand you want to be able to provide the best things for him, so that's why you do it. I have no doubt that this comment was made with complete sincerity. I also have no doubt that there are many workers out there who need to work extended hours of work in order to earn a living wage. And can I say at the outset that this application will not prevent them from doing that and I'll talk more about that later. But at a societal level, at a macro level, at the level at which you are considering this issue, this comment represents everything which is wrong in Australian workplaces today. For above all the negative things which go with extended hours of work, for me the most serious is the dislocation caused between parents and their children. And more significantly the lesson it is teaching our kids. Because they are fast being taught that the most important relationships that a human being has - with their parents, their children, their siblings, their close friends - that these all come second and they come second to work. If we continue to teach our kids this lesson then we will end up handing to them a country which will have become the sweatshop of the developed world. It is a prospect which does not bear thinking about. But think about it we must, for that is the responsibility with which we have all been charged in the weeks and months ahead as we hear this case. Excessive working time and all the negative aspects which go with it - an increase in family discord, a decrease in parenting, an increase in alcohol and cigarette consumption, an increase in cardiac disease, a decrease in fertility, an increase in mental illness to mention just a few of the issues associated with long hours - these are starting to characterise Australian society in international terms. It is what the world is starting to know us for. The ACTU is primarily seeking that it become an award standard: "that an employer may not require an employee to work unreasonable hours of work". If we manage to achieve this as an award standard we will not have changed the world. But we will have started the process of civilising our workplaces in relation to working time and redressing the balance between work and family life. It will be the first step down a very long path. But it is a path that we must tread if we are once again to have the civilized conditions of work of which we were once so proud. From the industrial revolution through until the immediate aftermath of the Second World War there were two issue which occupied the attention of organised labour, the negotiations between employees and employers, and the time of this Commission and its predecessors. They were wages and hours of work. Since 1947, hours of work have really dropped off the industrial agenda. And in that time Australia has gone from being the world's leader in relation to fair working time to almost being at the bottom of the pile. This case marks a return by organised labour, by this Commission and by industrial relations in general to the other major issue of the workplace - working time. It is why this case is so important. And it is why, when all is said and done and this case is over, that all of us who have participated in the case must be in a position where we can each say: "I did something to make working time fairer".
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Interview: Civilising Capital Peter Butler is a global investor with a difference. He believes that environment, shareholder democracy and workers rights make good business sense. Industrial: All In The Family In his opening submission to the landmark case, ACTU assistant secretary Richard Marles argues working hours are vital to life. Unions: Saving Cinderella It is a modern day fairy tale - a Cinderella from the suburbs, worked like a slave from morning to night injured and then abandoned. International: Recognising China Gough Whitlam draws the links, past and present, between recognition of China and the continuing struggle to achieve a genuinely inclusive Australian democracy. History: The Speakers Square A new book lifts the lid on Melbourne's radical past - including the soapboxes that dotted the city in the 1890s. Economics: Back to the Pack The big story in this year�s State of the States League Table is the end of the long reign of New South Wales at the top of the heap. Satire: Man Reneges On Promise To Leave The Country If Howard Re-Elected A Sydney man has decided he won�t leave Australia despite the re-election of the Howard Government. Review: When Hippes Meet Unionists A new book investigates how links between politics and culture reached a high point in the 1970s
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