|
Issue No. 137 | 24 May 2002 |
An Aussie Icon
Interview: Just Done It? Tribute: Lest We Forget History: Solidarity Forever Technology: Unblocking the Superhighway International: Gloves Off Unions: Out Of Work Review: Strange Business Poetry: The Lawyer's Lament Satire: Government Mourns Loss Of Last Anzac
Retailers in Outworker Spotlight Syd in Vicious Backpacker Stand-off Microsoft Monopoly Under Challenge Kiddies Not Exactly Having a Ball NSW ALP Faces Asylum Seeker Test Canberra Acts on Industrial Manslaughter Santa Claus Strikers on Christmas Island Abbott Believes Management Should Dictate Low Paid Not To Blame For Beer Price Rise Casino Award Covers Eastern States Security Workers Want Bosses Sacked Sydneysiders Rally For Western Sahara
The Soapbox The Locker Room Bosswatch Postcard Week in Review
Your Tools Page is Down Big Dave Foster Give Us a Click! Will the Real Mark Latham Please Stand Up? Unified Labour The Last Survivor Not Hate Mail
Labor Council of NSW |
News Abbott Believes Management Should Dictate
Addressing the Institute of Public Administration in Canberra on Wednesday, Abbott made it clear he supported management's absolute right to dictate the agreement-making process. "If public servants want secret ballots they should have them but ballots ought to decide the substance of how people work not the form of their negotiations. Ballots, in any event, are part of a culture of collective decision-making which doesn't easily co-exist with the maintenance of professional standards and responsibility," explained Mr Abbott. The long-simmering issue of public sector bargaining boiled over in Canberra on Thursday when the CPSU asked the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) to intervene in dispute about the bargaining process in Abbott's own Workplace Relations Department (DEWR). As a hundreds of DEWR staff paraded before TV cameras outside, Commissioner Barbara Deegan listened carefully to argument before asking the parties to meet again on Monday 27th May. DEWR staff want to make a Section 170LJ agreement, with direct union involvement, because they believe that process provides the most genuine form of bargaining. DEWR management argue that union involvement would somehow disenfranchise non-members in the department. DEWR management have further angered staff by refusing to put the bargaining process issue to a secret ballot, a move which would allow all staff a democratic say - members and non-members.
|
Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
© 1999-2002 Workers Online |
|