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The Sirens' Song
There is nothing for trade unionists to celebrate from Labor�s loss in the Cunningham by-election.
Interview: The Wet One
NSW Opposition industrial relations spokesman Michael Gallacher stakes out his relationship with the union movement.
Bad Boss: Like A Bastard
Virgin Mobile is sexy and funky, right? Well, only if those terms have become synonyms for dictatorial or downright mean.
Unions: Demolition Derby
Tony Abbott likens industrial relations to warfare and, like a good general should, he is about to shift his point of attack � from building sites to car plants, reports Jim Marr.
Corporate: The Bush Doctrine
For the powerful, consumerism equals freedom, and is all the freedom we need, writes James Goodman
Politics: American Jihad
Let�s get real. The origins of modern Islamic terrorist groups are in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Langley, Virginia not Baghdad, argues Noel Hester.
Health: Secret Country
Oral history recordings are an inadequate tool in trying to find out what happened to Aboriginal stockmen and their communities on cattle stations in Northern Australia, writes Neale Towart
Review: Walking On Water
On the 20th anniversary of the first AIDS-related death, Tara de Boehmler witnesses the aftermath of losing a loved one to the illness in Walking On Water.
Culture: TCF
Novelist Anthony Macris captures life on the shop floor in this extract from his upcoming novel, Capital Volume II
Poetry: The UQ Stonewall
The University of Queensland has sought to join the ranks of union-busting companies like Rio Tinto in trying to sack the president of the local union - and made the mistake of thinking they were dealing with an array of acquiescent academics.
 Email Use Sparks Pay Claim
Melbourne Cup Strike Threat
10,000 Rally in Support of Kingham
Negligent Bosses Labelled �Serial Killers�
Ambulance Officers Win $6 Million Back-Pay
Strike Pay to Bali Appeal
Boral Bosses Bag Bulk Bucks
Bid to Block New ACCC Chief
Cuts Equals Profits for ANZ
First Takers for 36-Hour Week
IT Outsourcing Agencies Called To Account
Pay to Work Spreads to Hornsby
Howard Opens Waters to Rogue Ship
Work a Suicide Factor
Unis Drop RDO Assault
Boxes of Books for Good Causes
Activist Notebook
The Soapbox
I Walk The Line
American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has weighed into the Hilton Hotel dispute with this special message to the workforce. Postcard
Mekong Daze
Union Aid Abroad's Phil Hazelton fires off a missive from Laos where he is spending a year working with the community. Month In Review
Bush Whackers
It was a month where the world teetered on the brink of peace, no thanks to the leader of the free world, writes Jim Marr The Locker Room
The Laws Of Gravity
Phil Doyle goes looking for the fine line that separates sport from an exercise in time-wasting Bosswatch
Snouts in the Trough
It�s AGM season in the corporate world, and deal after shady deal is being exposed as highfliers treat company accounts like the proverbial honey-pot. Wobbly
Songs of Solidarity
There has been a proud history of pro-worker tunes dating back to the early days of the 20th century, which will be continued in a new CD, writes Dan Buhagiar.
Heaps of Bali Feedback
Brooklyn Phil Says ...
Here Comes the WTO
From Little Finks ...
The Mouth From the South!
Ushering the Rusted Shield
Echoes of DLP
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News
Email Use Sparks Pay Claim
Teachers are planning a landmark pay claim to compensate them for the massive increase in workloads generated by emails.
The Independent Education Union says its members are being inundated with emails from parents and students, who expect near-immediate responses to their queries.
"E-mail has been a great boon to communication between individuals and within workplace, but uncontrolled and unregulated, it has the potential to massively change employer and 'client' expectations of workers," IEU state secretary Dick Shearman says.
"It is unreasonable to require teachers to respond to work e-mails in out of school hours. Any e-mail correspondence during this time would be of a voluntary nature only," he says.
The IEU is pushing for a comprehensive agreement with employers that include workplaces, scope for private use of emails as well as remuneration.
"If student/parent access to teachers via email is an employer expectation it is reasonable for employees to ask when this extra work is carried out and how they are remunerated," Shearman says.
The alternate, he says is to follow the lead of the medial profession where doctors refuse to answer emails from patients.
"Doctors have rightfully identified two key problems in using email for doctor to patient communications," Shearman says
"The first is a legal one - a hastily written email is in law a published document and can be required to be produced in a court case. The second is the difficulty in being remunerated for the work."
NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson says the issue of email workloads in emerging across a range of industries.
"In some sectors, emails have actually cut workloads; but in occupations where there is an element of professional service and advice there has been a real change in culture," Robertson says.
"It is reasonable that where a workload is demonstrably increased, workers should be recompensed appropriately."
Robertson predicts the email workload issue will hit the table in the next public sector pay round, due to commence in late 2003.
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Issue 158 contents
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