E D I T O R I A L

Brand Spanking
Some of the biggest names in corporate Australia are copping a spanking right now � and while the troubles are of their own making the fall-out may have broader consequences.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Generation Next
The Australian Services Union's Luke Foley is one of a group of thirty-somethings taking the reins of the union movement.

Legal: We�re All Terrorists Now
The Government�s hastily cobbled security laws are so all-encompassing that jamming the boss�s fax could see you eating porridge in Long Bay for the rest of your life, reports Noel Hester.

Unions: Holding the Baby
The concept of Carers� Responsibilities doesn�t appear to have penetrated the ageing walls of the Australian Retailers Federation, reports Jim Marr.

International: Taking It To The Streets
In the past few days 22 million workers have taken to the streets in two countries over the global push to cut workers rights, as Andrew Casey reports.

History: Off the Wall
Creative campaign posters provide a colourful archive of worker struggles from the past, writes Neale Towart.

Economics: Financing International Development
John Langmore details the significance of the first International Conference on Financing Development held in Mexico in March.

Satire: Queen Mum's Life Tragically Cut Short
The world has been numbed by grief and shock, after Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother unexpectedly died last night at the tender age of 101.

Review: Return of The People�s Parliament
The last two weeks has seen the return of the most democratic program on the television, Big Brother. Cultural theoritian Mark Morey reports.

Poetry: Silent Night
Our resident bard, David Peetz, turns his hand to the Senate Inquiry into a Certain Maritime Incident.

N E W S

Tobacco Giant's New Smoking Gun

Evidence Proves McJobs A Reality

Workers Die Waiting For Justice

Abbot Sparks Nuclear Reaction

Sick As A Dog Or Pissed As A Parrot?

Workers� Anthem � Hip Hop or Grunge?

DOCS Crisis � At Risk Kids Slipping Through Net

Call Centre Workers Stiffed - Survey

Broadcast Blues at SBS

South Coast Medical Centre in Della�s Sights

Sydney Take-Off For Security Campaign

Israel On Dangerous Ground

Technicians Take Aim At Canon

Intel Faces Email Censure Challenge

Megawati Reopens Marsinah Case

Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The Politics of Unfair Dismissal
Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations Robert McClelland finally nails down the Labor line on the Abbott sackings laws.

The Locker Room
Tipping the Scales
Jim Marr argues that policing of the ten-metre rule is creating havoc for footy tipsters.

Bosswatch
Stand and Deliver
It might be tough for some - but for shareholders and executives, life is just dandy.

Week in Review
Stretching the Truth
The political porkie still reigns supreme on the big stage but, good news in the form of a warning, some tall tales from the past are unravelling with embarrassing consequences�

L E T T E R S

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Holding the Baby

Media onlookers, male and female, were non-plussed by the Federation's approach to sacked netball mum, Janette Wynbergen, during evidence in her IRC case against infant wear retailer, BabyCo.

Advocate, Dru Gillan, virtually told the mother of four she should have left two daughters in the care of anyone she could find in order to work changed rosters demanded by the company.

Mother of four Wynbergen had told the Commission of being offered alternative shifts on her demotion from a managerial position. She chose the Monday-Friday option and immediately signed-up pre-teenage daughters, Tiffany and Stacey, with Saturday morning netball teams.

Babyco, however, came back on the eve of the season and told her she had to work Saturdays, after all.

Wynbergen explained that, with both girls in action, she and husband Michael needed, and wanted, to be at netball on Saturday mornings. She volunteered to work Thursday nights, Sundays and even, every second Saturday, in a bid to "meet the company halfway".

But when she dug her heels in, insisting on being a netball mum for at least half the season, Babyco sent her packing.

After hearing of Wynbergen's unsuccessful efforts to have one daughter supervised by a mother she knew, the man from the Retailers Federation wanted to know why she hadn't farmed her daughters out to other netball families.

"Because I didn't know them," Wynbergen said.

"I put it to you, you were dealing with responsible adult people and you would have known that?"

"I think it's my responsibility to make sure my children are safe," Wynbergen contended.

"What I am putting to you, is that to make matters work we have to be practical and make compromises to find a solution."

Gillan then hammered away at why, months earlier, she hadn't enrolled the girls, 14 months apart, in the same team.

Told the girls were individuals, with their own friends, who wanted to make their own ways in life and sport, Gillan questioned whether, in fact, it was true they had special needs, educational or social.

Wynbergen told the IRC both daughters' netball careers finished within 24 hours of her losing her job at the Bankstown store.

"We withdrew the children the following day because we couldn't afford the couple of hundred dollars it was going to cost," she said.

Babyco managing director, John Langley, said the change to Wynbergen's roster had been brought about by his attempt to protect jobs in the wake of closing the company's Guilford shop.

One of the displaced workers, he said, had been relocated to Bankstown, necessitating a change in rosters.

Langley said, contrary to the union claim, Babyco ran a family-friendly operation but didn't like to "blow our own trumpet" on the issue.

Langley conceded the treatment of Wynbergen ran counter to normal work provisions in the retail award.

The case is being run as an award dispute by the SDA. A separate unjustified dismissal claim has also been filed.

The Wynbergen case is being closely monitored as the first practical test of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Amendment (Carers' Responsibilities) Act, which is supposed to give practical effect to the state Government's policy of allowing employees to balance work and family commitments.

It is being argue before NSW IRC deputy president, Peter Sams, and continues next week.

NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson is highlighting the wider implications of the case and his organisation has been granted leave to intervene in the procedings.

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005