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Issue No. 132 | 19 April 2002 |
Brand Spanking
Interview: Generation Next Legal: We�re All Terrorists Now Unions: Holding the Baby International: Taking It To The Streets History: Off the Wall Economics: Financing International Development Satire: Queen Mum's Life Tragically Cut Short Review: Return of The People�s Parliament Poetry: Silent Night
Tobacco Giant's New Smoking Gun Evidence Proves McJobs A Reality Workers Die Waiting For Justice 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 South Coast Medical Centre in Della�s Sights Sydney Take-Off For Security Campaign Intel Faces Email Censure Challenge Megawati Reopens Marsinah Case
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Week in Review
Where's the Silver Tail?
Labor Council of NSW |
News Abbot Sparks Nuclear Reaction
NSW unions are stunned at the Office of the Employment Advocate�s move to reject the Lucas Heights project award, agreed between the Labor Council and construction contractor John Holland. Industry sources say it has baulked at clauses covering delegates rights and immigration. Abbott and Employment Advocate, Jonathan Hamberger, are the architects of the controversial Cole Commission into the Building Industry and the latest rejection is viewed as another step in their campaign against the CFMEU. Illegal immigration has become a tool in the bid to drive down wages and conditions in the building industry. Government has all but given up policing the issue, leaving unions, particularly the CFMEU, to monitor a situation with serious implications for workplace safety, tax and compo compliance. CFMEU branch secretary, Andrew Ferguson, calls the OEA's stance on the union's standard immigration clause "outrageous". It is a line developed by Labor Council secretary John Robertson who will ask both the Minister and the Employment Advocate to explain themselves. "This Government went to the last election saying it would determine who was going to come into Australia but, in practise, that isn't happening," Robertson said. "We have employers using illegals to pay cash in the hand, avoid payroll tax and a number of other requirements. "They have left a huge loophole in the law which employers exploit by simply failing to ask the relevant question - are you a legal worker? If, by some chance, they are caught they simply deny any knowledge and walk away." Robertson said the issue was the "acid test" of whether or not the Howard Government was serious about combatting illegal immigration. The problem, he argued, is that for political reasons it has concentrated its firewpower on 5000 illegal entrants, rather than the 58,000 people who overstayed their visas, last year alone. Labor Council will meet OEA representative next week in an effort to resolve the impasse.
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