
Issue No 16		04 June 1999

News

Labor Hire Cowboys - the NFF Link

A key player behind a company offering no-strings-attached body hire is the son of a former head of the National Farmers Federation who backed the anti-union Troubleshooters case which rocked the building industry a decade ago.

The Sydney Morning Herald's Helen Trinca established the link after Workers Online revealed Australian Contracting Services were vigorously promoting their plan to offer independent contractors through labour hire arrangements.

ACS director David Blight is the son of Graham Blight, president of the NFF which helped fund a High Court Troubleshooters case which provided the legal precedent for the current wave of body hire arrangements which are replacing full-time jobs across the economy

And while the directors claim no link to Troubleshooters, their company rely heavily on the principles of that case, promoting "ODCO Agency Contracting", named after Troubleshooters parent company.

The company proudly offers workers with absolutely no contractual relationship with the company they are placed in, meaning they can bypass workers compensation, superannuation and other legal requirements.

While the current push is focussed on the real estate industry, unions see this as a further push to undermine security of employment and price full-time workers out of the market.

The NSW Labor Council is seeking changes to state industrial relations laws which would tie body hire firms to the pay rights negotiated in the workplace their members are placed. This would undermine much of the attractiveness of this type of arrangement.

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Issue 16 contents

Interview: Opening Australia
Lindsay Tanner talks about new ideas, new policy and new politics in the Information Age.

Unions: An Educated Fightback
A visiting US trade unionist reveals how training better union delegates is the key to reversing the membership slide.

Legal: A Fair Case for Free-Rider Laws
The proposal to enable unions to charge non-members a service fee for negotiating enterprise agreements is consistent with the principle of freedom of association.

History: New Ideas in Labour History
See the latest from the May issue of Labour History, A Journal of Labour and Social History.

International: Tiananmen Square Ten Years On
We remember the massacre and the role that working people continue to play in fighting injustice.

Review: Organising Our Future - What Use the US??
A new paper looks at what Australian unions can learn from the experiences of their American colleagues.

» State Wage Highlights Case for User-Pays

» Labor Hire Cowboys - the NFF Link

» Murder Call: Charge Bosses Who Kill

» Braddy Bunch to Lift Contractor Veil

» Rural Redundacies - Redeployment Confusion Reigns

» Woolies Shopfitters Win Back Jobs From Body Hire

» Political Payback: NSW Targetted in Costello Cuts

» Rio Tinto Buries the Truth

» Child Care Campaign out of the Blocks

» East Timor Mercy Ship heads for Dili

» Fabian Society Reforms

» Industrial Who�s Who Head for Geneva