
Issue No 121		30 November 2001

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News

First 'Lab Rats' in Bank Hold-Up

Bank workers involved in a hold-up in central Sydney this week may have become the first victims of the changes to workers compensation laws - even before the laws were through Parliament.

The workers at the Westpac Haymarket branch were involved in the hold-up at about 3pm Thursday - some nine hours before State Parliament passed the legislation.

But with a clause making the laws retrospective to last Monday, any workers seeking compensation from the hold-up will have to go through the new system.

The Finance Sector Union's Geoff Derrick says if the workers claim for psychological damage - a common affliction of workers involved in armed hold-ups - they will be subject to new untested assessment guidelines.

These guides attempt to judge psychiatric and psychological damage as a percentage of whole capacity, with a 15 per cent threshold to access benefits or access to the courts.

The Labor Council has been critical of the new guidelines, saying workers with psychiatric and psychological injury will be treated like 'guinea pigs and lab rats".

'Treachery' on Psychiatric Damage

Labor Council secretary John Robertson has accused key government negotiators of 'treachery' after they pressured cross-bench MPs to reject amendments to the psychiatric and psychological assessment.

A number of cross-benchers had agreed to move the amendments after meeting with union representatives of police officers and bank workers.

But negotiators for NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca told Nile them the entire workers compensation package would 'be damaged' if the psych and psych provisions were altered.

Robertson says the line was an outrageous distortion and called on Della Bosca to distance himself from the comments of McDonlald and his staffer.

Ongoing Monitoring

While the workers compensation changes are now law, unions are maintaining the battle is far from over and will begin a monitoring campaign to highlight the impact of the changes.

The Labor Council will be running advertisements in metro and regional newspapers over the coming week to report back to members on the changes.

Robertson says the campaign did force the government to improve their original package in important ways, including:

- increased the maximum level of lump sum compensation payments from $175,000 to $250,000.

- reduced the threshold to sue a negligent employer from 25 per cent to 15 per cent.

- ensured that you will have legal representation and right of appeal if you have a workplace accident.

- made them change the medical guidelines against which your injury will be assessed and

- repealed laws to allow the government to privatise WorkCover.

But he maintains the package remain unacceptable to the union movement, which will monitor the impact of the changes and publicise cases of injustice.

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  Issue 121 contents

Interview: Back to the Battle
Federal Labor's new industrial relations spokesman Robert McClelland outlines the challenges for the next three years.

Politics: The Baby and the Bath Water
ACTU secretary Greg Combet gives his take on the debate over the ALP's relations with the union movement.

Unions: We're Solid
Bradon Ellem charts the history of the Pilbara dispute, and finds a revitalised grass-roots unionism challenging BHP's individual contracts bulldozer

Organising: Benidgo Pioneer Comes Up Trumps
ACTU Delegate of the Year, Leonie Saunders, is living proof of the way unions are adapting to life under the strictures of a hostile Government.

Technology: India: Cricket, Computers and Corruption
Russell Lansbury cuts through the hype to look out the so-called hi-tech revolution on the sub-continent.

International: Soul Searching
The party of labour in Canada ďż˝ the NDP - is right now undergoing a massive struggle for its heart and soul.

History: A Timeless Debate
The ALP and unions - it's a debate that's raged for years as this extract from a 1947 Lloyd Ross pamplet shows.

Review: In Fear of Security
Launching his new book, Anthony Burke argues that the cry of "security" is the last refuge of the political scoundrel

» Union Journo on Death List

» First 'Lab Rats' in Bank Hold-Up

» Monk's Mad Power Grab from States

» Big Print Merger Threatens Jobs

» Anger as Labor Staffers Shun Unions

» Unions Are Well Advanced In Change Unions Tell ALP

» Unions Step Up Organising Drive

» Education, Call Centre Unions Sweep Awards

» Bank AGMs Focus of Worker Anger

» Gender Balance in Transport Concessions

» Concern As Sydney Collapses

» Bakers Seek More Bread

» CFMEU Forces Re-Think On Asbestos

» Call Goes Out for Union Summer

» Twelve Weeks Parental Leave For Kiwis

» Organiser of the Year Nominations Open

» Activists Notebook

» The Soapbox

» Sport

» Labour Review

» Tool Shed

» What's Wrong With Labor

» Why I'm Quitting the ALP

» Compo Flak

» Union Democracy

» Multi-Skilling Corrigan Style

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