by Noel Hester
And stress in the industry is rife, with up to 70 per cent of workers reporting they have been the victims of physical or verbal abuse in the workplace.
The results of the survey of 580 Australian Services Union members were released as the sector braces for another round of cuts in next week's State budget.
The ASU and NCOSS are planning a rally outside State Parliament on Wednesday to highlight concerns that the sector is beginning to crack from insufficient funding.
ASU Services Branch state secretary Alison Peters says the violence within the industry is just a symptom of the pressures of under-staffing and under-resourcing.
According to the survey, conducted earlier this year, 70 per cent of workers in accommodation services - refuges and hostels for the homeless - reported that they experience violence, physical and verbal abuse, at work. For many the violence occurs on a regular basis.
Threats, intimidation, bashings and knife attacks have been known to occur. Many workers complain that there isn't money even for basic support such as counselling after a violent incident at work.
Not surprisingly, over 62% of workers say that they did not intend to stay in the social and community services sector. Poor wages, poor funding and stress are the major reasons why people intend to leave the sector.
The non-government social and community services sector provides a range of essential community services for youth, the aged, people with disabilities, families in need and the homeless.
Contrary to popular belief the majority of such services are not provided by the public sector. The government provides funds to organisations in the non-government sector. These organisations, usually not-for-profit, are often community-based and run by voluntary management committees or charities.
Peters says the Government has never provided sufficient funds for organisations to meet community needs.
Women Bear the Brunt
Women make up about 80% of the social and community services workforce. Their Award, the NSW Social and Community Services (State) Award provides the worst pay and conditions for such workers in the country.
According to Alison Peters, the award highlights the pay inequities still faced by women in the 1990's.
'The pay rates ignore and undervalue the qualifications, skills and responsibilities expected of workers in the sector, the vast majority of whom are women. It's difficult to imagine a male dominated profession being paid so poorly.'
Carol's first job when she left school in 1979 was with a local take away food store where she earned about $10 per hour. In the twenty years since, she has trained and worked as a registered nurse and developed skills in working with people with disabilities.
She now works in a group home for people with demanding physical and intellectual disabilities. She loves the work and takes pleasure in applying her specialist skills. Her base rate of pay after studying, gaining qualifications and twenty years experience is now $10.99 per hour. That's $22,923 per year.
Toni has worked in social and community services for close to twenty years. She has worked in family day care, women's refuges, family support and now coordinates a domestic violence court assistance scheme. Even though it's a full time job, the government only funds the position for 21 hours per week. She has a teaching qualification, a Welfare Diploma and a Law Degree. She earns under $18,000 a year.
Alison Peters says support for the sector is a litmus test for a government which promotes itself as family friendly and a champion of the less privileged.
'The public has good cause to question the priorities of a government which refuses to properly fund the services which play a big part in holding our society together,' she said.
NCOSS and the ASU are sponsoring a rally in support of community services on Wednesday 23 June at 12 noon. The rally will take place outside Parliament House in Macquarie Street. Guest speakers will include Gary Moore, Director of NCOSS and Alison Peters, Secretary of ASU Services Branch.
The Farmers this week issued a release backing the audit, raising particular concerns about expected cuts to NSW Agriculture in next week's State Budget.
Farmers' policy director Mick Keogh has urged the Government to undertake the social audit as a sensible way to plan for the longer term and assess the gaps in government services.
"An audit of the level of services in agriculture in NSW would show significant cuts in the real level of funding to NSW Agriculture in recent years, well beyond funding cuts in other Government services," Keogh says.
"We understand that -- like banks and everyone else -- government has to deliver its services differently, but unless you can measure your outcomes there's no way you can justify these changes."
Much of the Work Has Been Done
Meanwhile, the chair of the Carr Government's Council on the Cost of Government says much of the material that would be required for a social audit is already at hand.
Professor Bob Walker told Labor Council's weekly meeting that the Council had been developing a set of reports detailing what government services go to what percentage of the community.
Walker says there are currently 13 reports of this type on the Internet (at http://www.occg.nsw.gov.au/ ). These reports are structured around the activities of government as a whole, rather than on departmental lines.
He says these reports represent the most comprehensive assembly of performance information about government ever undertaken in Australia, representing a shift away from the way the Greiner Government focussed on labour-productivity and cost-cutting.
Walker also urged unions to move beyond the idea of an audit and look at setting performance targets on a range of government services.
Labor Council secretary Michael Costa said the Council of the Cost of Government reports contain useful information which would lay the groundwork for a comprehensive audit of service delivery.
"This reinforces our view that a social audit would not be an onerous exercise, the resources are there and we think they should be brought into a digestible form."
Country Conference Looms
A Newcastle rally this week set the scene for next week's ALP Country Conference with a ringing endorsement of the social audit.
Labor Council president John Whelan addressed the rally attended by more than 100 people outside the Premiers Department.
Whelan told the crowd the social audit being promoted by NSW unions was a way of ensuring money was spent where it was most needed, particularly in rural areas.
He called on unionists to talk to community, ethnic and religious leaders about the union movement's proposals for the bush.
"The demise if the Country Party has left a leadership vacuum in rural and regional Australia which could be filled by the trade union movement," Whelan said.
The ALP's County Conference in Goulburn will next weekend consider a recommendation, already endorsed by the Rural and Regional Committee, to undertake a social audit. It will also consider industrial reform proposals such as increased legislation for body hire firms and independent contractors.
The Council has asked Industrial Relations Minister Jeff Shaw to pass a regulation requiring all workers under state awards to be given hard-copies of their holiday and sick leave records to prevent confusion in the event of any Y2K computer meltdown.
Leave records could be lost where employers store all such information on computers which have not been checked to meet Y2K protocol standards.
The ACTU has advised workers to seek printed copies from their entitlements, but the regulation would force employers to assist.
It would be essential for workers to receive their print-outs by September 8, the first of five critical dates identified by computer experts.
The other critical dates are: 31 December 1999; 28 February, 2000; 31 December 2000; and 28 February, 2001.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley will address the rally organised by the Mining Division of the CFMEU, which will also highlight the impact of proposed changes to Long Service Leave laws which would take away the little security that workers currently have.
"We are going to Canberra to impress on this Federal Government and all politicians the public�s disgust with ordinary workers being left high and dry," CFMEU mining and energy deivision general president Tony Maher says.
"The recent closure of the Oakdale Colliery in NSW, which has seen 150 workers robbed of $6.3 million in entitlements, is an example of the threat facing all Australian workers.
"We are demanding the Federal Government introduce legislation to provide for every Australian workers entitlements to be secured."
The Issues
* Workers entitlements: 150 coal mineworkers at the Oakdale Colliery in NSW have been robbed of $6.3 million of entitlements following the recent closure of their colliery. Their plight highlights the precarious position faced by every worker because there is no legal protection for workers entitlements in the event of companies declaring bankruptcies. This scandal must end now.
* Long Service Leave: Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith plans to abolish Long Service Leave as an Award entitlement, robbing all workers of a valuable asset. The only benefit the Oakdale miners are guaranteed is their long service leave payments and Reith wants to abolish it!
* Coal Price War: The CFMEU is campaigning to end the suicidal price-cutting war between coal producers in Australia which has led to over 4,000 mineworkers losing their jobs in the past 18-months. Big producers cut prices and drive smaller producers to the wall. They then cut their existing workforce to cushion the effects of price cuts on profits. These massive job losses have occurred since the Howard Government removed export licence controls from the coal export industry. As a result, Australia will lose more than $2 billion in coal export earnings this year alone because of the price cuts.
The Labor Council has agreed to co-ordinate the wage negotiations for all public sector unions at the request of the NSW Nurses to ensure all public sector employees receive an equal share of available funding.
In recent times different sectors such as nurses, teachers, police, the fire service, the ambulance service and general public servants have negotiated wages agreements individually.
While the co-ordinated approach will not inhibit individual unions from pursuing their own negotiations on how funds are distributed within their sectors, it will ensure that key relativities are preserved.
The move comes amidst reports the Carr Government plans to slash $30 million from the wages bill, targeting public servants "who do no meaningful work".
Carr Stands By No Forced Redundancy Promise
Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says the Premier has dismissed speculation that the government will walk away from its promise of no forced redundancy in the public sector.
The commitment comes ahead of a July 1 meeting between public sector unions and the government called to discuss the issue of surplus public service staff and their redeployment elsewhere in the public sector.
"No forced redundancies remains a precondition for any public sector reform," Costa says.
"In the past we've shown we are able to implement significant changes and efficiencies within the no forced redundancy framework."
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance says the decision to make four of the project's six staff redundant pre-empts a review into the Talking Book Studios announced recently by CEO John Landau.
MEAA state secretary Michel Hryce says the Blind Society has been forced to cut production of the acclaimed program and is unlikely to be able to complete the 50 new books already scheduled for completion.
The Australian Talking Books program translates local books into audio for the blind and vision impaired. MEAA says the cutbacks will not just hurt the visually impaired; it will also impact on Australian writers.
In 1998 the Society completed a successful appeal to raise $1 million to upgrade the book studios, with involvement from governor Gordon Samuels, Premier Bob Carr and the Chamber of Commerce's Katie Leahey.
"They'll find themselves with a $1 million recording facility, but no-one to work in it," Hryce warns.
The move has been condemned by Geoff Cartwright who won the 1996 TDK Award for his narration of Tim Winton's 'The Riders'.
"I am saddened and angry that this decision has been made which will almost certainly lead to a reduction of the recording of Australian works of fiction," Cartwright says.
"It's always been my understanding that the Society was committed to their production of talking books."
Describing Carr Government plans to reform the Upper House as "frightening", Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says anti-union laws would have been passed in the early nineties if it had not been for the cross-benchers in the Upper House.
"We were able to use the cross-benchers to amend the 1991 Industrial Relations Act and aspects of the Metherell education reforms," he told the weekly Labor Council meeting .
Under the plans, earmarked for a referendum in September, legislation blocked by the Upper House could be passed by a Joint Sitting of both Houses of Parliament.
But Costa says under this formula, the Greiner Government would have been able to get all its radical reforms passed into law.
"I don't understand the rationale for it; I understand the frustration at the table cloth ballot paper but there are other ways of dealing with that such as tougher requirements on registering parties and higher vote quotas," he says.
ASU secretary Alison Peters raised the concerns in a letter warning that a third of NSW voters in the last election supported minor parties or independents in the upper House as a moderating force on Executive Government.
Labor Council has urged the Government to pursue the issue with caution and will organise a forum to discuss the plans.
by Dermott Browne
Many of the woman who responed to the survey reported feeling highly stressed about how the news of their pregnancy would be taken by their bosses.
"I couldn't sleep for days. I was so sick with worry. I felt sure my contract would not be renewed because of my pregnancy." said one respondent.
Another woman reported that the chairman of a selection committee told her to withdraw her job application because she was pregnant and there was 'no way she was going to get the job'.
Other respondents feel they were overlooked or discriminated against because someone higher up the food chain had assumed they might not be able to cope with the position because of their pregnancy. Like the highly professional and experienced section manager who was sidelined and put in charge of the office 'coffee club' and footy tipping competition when she returned to work after the birth of her daughter.
Discrimination
CPSU National Organiser, Rae-Anne Medforth, who co-ordinated the survey was said "It has shown that for many employees, the level of stress experienced during pregnancy is linked to how their employer deals with their pregnancy in the workplace."
More than 100 women responded to the survey including staff from Centrelink, the Bureau of Statistics, Customs, Tax, the ABC, Telstra and ACT local government.
The age of respondents was widespread, with the largest group being in the 31 to 35 age bracket.
The results of the survey have now been analysed and the CPSU has presented them as a formal submission to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities (HREOC) Enquiry into Pregnancy and Work.
Summary of findings:
- 30% of respondents felt they suffered discrimination, including denial of access to training, promotions and loss of contracts.
- Many respondents, particularly those from highly unionised workplaces, reported positive workplace experiences during their pregnancy.
- Many staff are concerned that employers like Telstra and Employment National have sought to remove or reduce paid maternity leave entitlements as they move towards privatisation.
- While Public Service staff generally have access to reasonable entitlements, the application of these entitlement at the local level is inconsistent.
- Returning to work and accessing permanent part-time work after having a baby is a critical issue for women.
- Changes in employment arrangements and the increased use of contract employment are having adverse affects on pregnant women in the workplace.
- Many women reported high levels of stress because they were unsure how their employers would react when the pregnancy was disclosed.
Recommendations:
As part of its submission to the HREOC Enquiry, the CPSU made several key
recommendations including:
- a broader definition of 'detriment' in the Sex Discrimination Act that includes things like training, promotional opportunities and contract renegotiations; changes to leave arrangements including the ability to take paid maternity leave at half pay;
- the removal of legislation that allows employers to insist women take leave six
weeks before the expected date of confinement, and stronger emphasis on the employer's responsibility to educate all employees about their rights.
The complete CPSU submission can be found on the union website at:
http://www.cpsu.org/submissions/pregnancy_and_work_submission_feb99.doc
For more details contact: Rae-Anne Medforth, CPSU National Office
Phone: (02) 9334 9200 or mailto:[email protected]
by HT Lee
According to Horta the humanitarian situation there is shocking. The pro-Indonesian militia supported by the army is carrying out a campaign of terror by killing women and children, storming into churches, denying medical access to thousands of people and causing tens of thousands of people to be displaced.
'After 23 years they still have the illusions that we are going to be intimated and vote for autonomy,' Horta said. Given the opportunity the East Timorese will vote for independence instead of autonomy.
Although Australia is Timor's nearest neighbour there are hardly any Australian medical personnel helping out there. Instead Australia is, 'trying to be nice to Wiranto, trying to be nice to Habibie, the Indonesian army, not offending them,' Horta added.
Dr Vacy Vlazna the coordinated of the Mercy Ship Project who has recently returned from East Timor (helping out in the Motael Clinic) pointed out that this emergency should never have happened.
'We have an Army Field Hospital in Darwin which can be dispatched,' Dr Vlazna said.
However, because of the inactivity of the Australian Government, 'we have to appeal to the Australian people for help.'
The Mercy Ship Project will be sending the first emergency medical supplies to Dili from Darwin on board the Fajar Kangaroo around 20 July. A team of volunteer medical personnel will be flying to Dili to meet up with the emergency supplies.
The Mercy Ship Project needs volunteers for East Timor. Donations for the emergency supplies are urgently needed.
Send your donations to: 'AFAP/East Timor Mercy Ship' POBox 12 Crows Nest 2065.
For further info ring Dr Vacy Vlazna (02) 9948 7043 or email at mailto:[email protected]
The Electrical Trades Union has called for the use of PVC to be selected on merit, arguing that alternative products such as terracotta, steel and concrete represent a greater health and safety threat to workers
These products have the potential to increase back and other injuries because of their extra weight and difficulty to manoeuvre.
Greenpeace moved to have the material banned from the 2000 Olympics construction projects under the then Fahey Government. They are now seeking to have PVC products banned from all building projects.
But the ETU says that the CSIRO has twice been commissioned to examine the environmental and other issues associated with the use of PVC.
"The CSIRO has twice reported and is convinced that PVC poses no greater hazard in manufacture, construction or disposal than any other building material," ETU secretary Bernie Riordan says.
"In the absence of any evidence of environmental harm, the safety interests of our members is paramount," he says.
by Phil Davey and Kelly Livingston
A fundraising benefit gig "for the children of the Revolution" is planned for the Harbourside Brasserie early next month. Proceeds from the night will go to the APHEDA/Cuban Children's Fund, a humanitarian organisation which buys medicine and medical equipment for Cuban Hospitals.
For 40 years Cuba has provided an example to the rest of Latin America of how to do things differently. The gains for the Cuban people have been tremendous, in education, health and housing.
The illegal economic blockade of Cuba by the US however has meant that the Cuban Government has had tremendous difficulty in accessing new medical technology.
The July 8 concert starts at 7:30PM and features a superb line up of performers, including Afro- Caribbean salsa supremos "Babalu" and West African master drummer Epizo Bangoura and band.
Tickets are $12/$8 and are available at the door or by calling Kelly on 9262 4330.
Any assistance with publicising the event would be warmly welcome. Please call Phil on 9394 9494.
Jose Ramos Horta and Justice Marcus Einfeld will be the speakers at the event, to be held in the Seagull Room between 1.30pm and 4.30pm.
Background
The day was proclaimed in December 1997 by the UN's General Assembly with the aim of making effective the functioning of the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 26 June 1987. It was lobbied for by many international bodies including Amnesty.
The International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) campaigned to encourage commemorative events all round the world for the first time on 26 June 1998, and the day was successful in raising awareness about the nature of torture.
Amnesty reported in 1998 that people are tortured by security forces, police and other state authorities in around 120 countries. In some one third of these such treatment is responsible for deaths in custody. Amnesty campaigns tirelessly against torture.
Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS)
Established in 1988 and funded by government, STARTTS provides a culturally sensitive, confidential and impartial service to refugees now living in NSW who have survived torture experiences and need assistance with a healing process to regain their ability to lead fulfilling lives.
STARTTS offers a wide range of services, including an Early Intervention and Case Management Program, and employs bilingual/bicultural staff.
STARTTS also assists government and community service providers to provide appropriate services to survivors through awareness training, outreach, consultancy and advocacy services.
You can contact STARTTS on 02 9794 1900
Amnesty International
Is a movement working internationally to prevent serious human rights violations by governments and other political groups.
It campaigns for freedom for prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for their beliefs or because of their colour, sex, ethnic origin, language or religion, provided they haven't used or advocated violence; to ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners, to end torture, 'disappearances', political killings and executions and to promote the protection of human rights generally.
Become active in Amnesty International ! Ring 02 9217 7670.
Amnesty International's Work against Torture
The examples below are merely examples and are not meant to indicate they are considered more serious than others that could be given.
* Before the UN Human Rights Commission in March this year Amnesty International expressed grave concerns about Israel's recent flouting of its human rights obligations, and requested the Commission to call on the Israeli government to immediately cease violations of basic human rights standards.
Arrestees are routinely tortured during interrogation and kept in detention without charge or trial - thus contravening articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 1 of the Convention against Torture. In fact in January this year Israel's State Attorney stated publicly that such torture methods as are used were legal. These methods are officially authorised at the highest level of state, and thereby become effectively 'legalised'.
* In April this year Amnesty International sent an observer to the trial of the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Turkey. Simultaneously a group of policemen were being tried in relation to the charge of torturing a trade unionist, a journalist and several other detainees in early 1997 in the Istanbul Police Headquarters. The trade unionist and journalist and others had been invited to identify the police in question at the end of April this year.
However in fact they were detained in Headquarters from early March with the purpose, it is thought, of impeding any identification. Two days after the detention the trade unionist died apparently as a result of torture. It was found that the police in question were employed in the same branch where the trade unionist died in custody.
Amnesty has recently launched a report on impunity in Turkey which calls for sound investigations into all torture cases and argues that only a realistic fear of prosecution will stop further such violations.
* Amnesty is currently running (until July) an international campaign against human rights violations in the USA. This has many targets, major ones being a call for the end of the death penalty in all states, better treatment of asylum seekers, an end to abuses by the police, and improved conditions in prisons.
In late 1998 Amnesty International, for example, visited a women's prison in California and reported its findings in 'Not Part of My Sentence'. A major problem in prisons in the USA is the sexual abuse of women prisoners, including rape. There are nearly 150,000 female prisoners in US prisons and a majority of them are said to have been sexually harassed, coerced, assaulted or intimidated in prison.
Rape is prison is defined as a form of torture. The ill treatment of women in US prisons is essentially instututionalised and they are thus relatively powerless and without rights, and at the mercy of male guards who have virtually total control over them and no accountability for their behaviour.
These comments sound a lot like Keating's comments about 'wider nature strips, more trees and everyone with a craft shop weaving baskets in Balmain'. They come at an interesting time.
Might it be a tactic by the industrial left to distance itself from its 'lunatic' or 'latte' left rank and file members in a bid to gain mainstream respectability in a leadership push?
Maybe it is just a warning to the left delegates of the national policy committees to moderate their demands in order to create a policy raft that will win the primary vote of one nation supporters?
Whilst I myself have been referred to as a member of the 'red-neck left' for my dismay at some of the anti-growth anti-progress views of some of my 'basket weaving' comrades in the left, I do not accept that it is necessary to adopt socially regressive, sexist or racist policies in order to gain a higher primary vote.
As long as the left focuses on environmentally and economically sustainable growth, activist government and a commitment to social justice it is up to the electorate to decide whether this is in the best interests of the nation.
I suggest that people like Ferguson should be taking up the advantages of a Labor-left government for the people (and the middleclass) and the nation, not just talking down the 'embarrassing fruit loops' of the 'rainbow coalition'.
I will follow the debate with interest.
Jai Wilson
A rally has been called for June 21, 12.30pm at Town Hall Square to oppose the latest SGST deal.
The rally is being jointly sponsored by the Labor Council and the National Union of Students.
Details: Nick Harrigan on 0414 262 170
by Peter Lewis
How did the FSU get involved with AGC?
The history is that the company was respondent to the old Clerk's Finance Companies Award before it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Westpac. We had a demarcation agreement with the Australian Services Union that once it became a wholly-owned subsidiary coverage would be transferred to the FSU, that's gone along smoothly between the two unions. We've been talking to AGC for some time to get them to the negotiation table to discuss an appropriate award or enterprise agreement - they've been stringing us along a little bit and obviously been working behind the scenes to develop a non-union agreement under the Reith laws .
Do you know what their motivation for doing that was?
I believe the motivation is imply to control or cut costs and to avoid FSU coverage and avoid Westpac terms and conditions for AGC staff.
Describe the AGC workforce, what sort of people are they?
They're low to middle income earners without a history of union membership. There's about 2,500 people, most in Sydney but some in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide and a few in Perth. They do a range of activities associated with the finance company. AGC processes all the Westpac personal loans - you go into a Westpac branch and apply for an unsecured personal loan and it will actually be processed through AGC. They have a high level of secondment between Westpac and AGC; AGC's credit card operation is run out of the Westpac centre at Epping; they have parallel management structures all the way down the line. When I sat down and negotiated the last Westpac enterprise agreement the leader of the Westpac negotiation team was handing out an AGC business card.
Once you heard that they were trying to get a non-union agreement up, what did you guys do?
The first thing we did was get a copy of the document and do an analysis of the terms and conditions to work out whether or not it was a fair deal; and it clearly wasn't. We compared it to the Westpac agreement because we saw that as a fair comparison given that the other banks who own finance companies all pass on their bank terms and condition to the finance company employees.
Once you decided that the deal had deficiencies, what was the next step given you didn't have many members within the organisation?
We contacted the employer to try and get them to agree to negotiations; they indicated there would be no negotiations but that "they would be interested in our feedback". We then contacted the few members we did have in AGC - we'd been out there trying to generate a bit of interest and few people had come on board. We got a lot of encouragement to tell people what was in the deal : what their Westpac colleagues were getting and what other people in finance companies were getting.
And how did you go about getting that information into the broader workforce?
We arranged a series of information meetings after hours in clubs and pubs and the like; we faxed in meeting notices to the company but our members in there told us management took them straight off the fax machine. So we took to standing outside the entrances to the office and handing out leaflets promoting the analysis we had done and the meetings to everybody who walked in.
What was the response?
Surprisingly good, given that it was after hours and the onset of winter and that most of these people were not union members and had probably never met anybody who's a paid union official. The attitude was a combination of people who were really keen to play a high profile role in the campaign and a few people who were just testing us out to find out what we had to say and draw their own conclusions on what we were saying and what the company was saying.
As its proceeded you've managed to turn the tide, do you put this down to any one technique?
It's a combination of factors but they are linked. The main reason I think is that we've listened to the people who are at AGC: they wanted someone to do a professional and independent analysis of what the company was offering and we've done that for them. They wanted someone to tell them the facts and then only offer an opinion after they had the opportunity to absorb the facts. We haven't tried to snow them, we've just tried to focus on the quality, or lack of quality in the company's proposal. What's turned it around is that we've been able to say: vote "No" because you are entitled to a better deal than this and a better deal would have better pay outcomes, fairer superannuation outcomes, fairer hours of work and would improve your redundancy entitlements.
You work in an industry where traditionally the union has gone in and negotiated wage increases within an institutionalised structure. This is a much more free-for-all environment based around an actual ballot. Has this forced you to do things differently?
The process under the current federal laws is dead set stacked against unions. We don't get equal time with employees to tell them what our message is. We don't get equal time to ask questions of the employer about what they are proposing and why they are proposing it. We don't get a real opportunity to debate the employer about their proposal and our preferences in a way that is fair. The employer can call compulsory staff meetings and drum the "Yes" campaign through their existing management structure. We have to rely on almost guerilla tactics. We have to be out there waiting for people to come off the job, talk to them in remote locations and spend a lot of time listening.
Has that been a good process for the union?
It's been an excellent process because we have been trying to talk to AGC people for months and while we had been making some progress it was very slow progress. A lot of people just didn't see the need join a union after all these years, they didn't see the need to change the relationship between management and employees. What management has now done is sharpen people's focus and they now understand that the employer is heading in a totally different direction and that they do need to get together and organise in support of themselves.
So do you think at the end of this process AGC will be an organised, unionised company?
We're confident we'll get a "No" vote and that will strengthen the real power of employees at AGC. Hopefully it will be a wake-up call for Westpac management who are obviously behind the AGC strategy; and it will bring them to the negotiating table to work out for a fair deal for AGC employees. That will prove the value of unionisation to AGC staff.
And are there broader lessons for your union and the movement in general?
It reinforces for us that we are actually quite good campaigners because we listen to people. We're prepared to put in the effort to meet them outside their traditional working hours. We're prepared to produce material which is easily understood based on their feedback; and we're prepared to tell them what's happening all along the way. While we have all the disadvantages in relation to time and access compared to the employer the big advantage we have is the truth. We go out and tell the truth and AGC employees and workers generally are intelligent enough to sort out the truths from the untruths and they act accordingly.
And is this a bottoming out for an industry that's copped a bit of a hammering in recent years?
It's a realisation that we can effectively respond to employer tactics that are designed to minimise the capacity of workers to organise together for a better deal and a fair deal. We realise that, OK, the Reith legislation is stacked against us, but we do get some opportunities because employers are abusing the power that they've been given.
by Fiona Angus
"It is certainly a trend that more and more companies are using psychometric testing," said Malcolm McKenzie, Manager of the UTS Careers Service.
Psychometric testing is based on the premise that inherent ability rather than qualifications or previous achievements is a better indicator of future performance. Moreover, psychometric testing assumes inherent abilities can be identified and ranked using a series of strategic multiple choice questions.
Employers are using psychometric testing because, McKenzie said: "Psychometric testing becomes relatively cheap and effective because some of the tests are actually bought off the shelf."
McKenzie said psychometric testing is promoted as a more reliable form of employee selection than interviewing.
"There are companies out there that specialise in developing graduate tests - thats how they make their bread and butter. I don't know how good they are, but theyll market themselves to companies as the best thing since sliced bread," he said.
The content of tests are jealously guarded secrets because they are valuable commodities.
There are no rules governing the use of psychometric tests. The Australian Psychological Society has a Code of Professional Conduct for psychologists and a set of guidelines for administering tests. These are not binding.
Therefore employers, McKenzie said: "Train their people up on how to do it - I would assume it to be more cost effective."
David Cohen recently released a guide to assist job applicants master the tricks of psychometric tests. He said: "The psychologists and the companies they work for make up all the rules and only let you know some of them."
Cohen said the crafty job applicant will approach a test as a kind of game. He advised: "If you have to fake, do not fake too much and fake intelligently."
Psychometric testing had a shady military genesis. It was first used in World War I to weed out panicky recruits who were likely to crack under pressure.
Eugenicists spawned new testing techniques in their efforts to purify the human race. Their apparently successful research was exposed as fraudulent.
The assumption of inherent, measurable ability, and its associations with the Holocaust engendered widespread suspicion of psychometric testing. The recent resurgence of psychometric testing has been accompanied by the popularity of psychology.
Psychometric testing is not universally accepted as a valid job selection method. McKenzie said: "Theres a lot of debate about how accurate they are, thats for certain. There are strong supporters of them and there would be some people that say, well what do they really tell you? But companies do elect to use them and I guess thats the bottom line."
"To work for the public service youve got to do a psychometric test" he said. According to Recruitment Services Australia, the organisation that administers the Public Service Test: "Questionnaires of the type used for this campaign are a fair and effective way of assessing a large number of applicants."
To become a public servant an individual must be accomplished in 10 specific areas. These are: customer service, resourcefulness, leadership, goal setting, adaptability, problem solving, team work, as well as grammar, arithmetic and general skills. Hiring is supposedly based on the "merit principle."
Marnie Tetlow sat the public service exam in April. In her view: "It was silly." She said she was herded into alarge hall and made to look at pictures and recite the alphabet for an hour. She said: "Just because you're not good at that sort of test doesn't mean you couldn't do the work."
Tony, who has a Postdoctoral degree in Chemistry, sat the test last year. He was not offered a position.
John has been a government employee for over 25 years. He did not wish to comment on specific selection methods used by the public service. However, he speculated that the effectiveness of psychometric testing could be measured by posing the following (rhetorical) question: has the quality of public servants improved since the introduction of psychometric testing?
by John Passant
Fifty years ago, on 11 June, ALP Prime Minister Ben Chifley gave his now famous speech.
The phrase itself is devoid of real meaning. All Chifley said was "We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working for the benefit of mankind ..."
Indeed, no-one at the time gave the speech much notice . It is only in retrospect that Chifley's words have achieved any prominence. This is because the ALP is about hiding its pro-capitalist and anti-worker nature behind flowery phrases.
It suited the Labor Party in the 1950s and later for electoral reasons to give the impression that Chifley in power led a caring Government. In looking back we can see that those golden days can come again, if only we vote Labor.
Chifley's phrase about the "light on the hill' helped the creators of the myth of a golden age of Labor.
Chifley's speech was an apologia for social democracy at a time when the Communist Party had some influence in the trade unions and among elements of the Australian working class. The CPA was a critic of Labor's idea that capitalism could be reformed for the on-going benefit of working people.
Capitalism at the end of the second world war could not provide major improvements over time to working people. At the same time those who had lived through the war expected a better world for their sacrifices.
This contradiction reflected itself in the ALP talking about its caring role while suppressing workers taking industrial action to try and better their lives. Thus while Chifley was talking about the "light on the hill" he was also warning workers that Labor was not about putting "an extra sixpence" in their pockets.
In the particular economic climate of the time, the ALP was having difficulty delivering improved living standards. So it hid behind rhetoric about making the world better.
What it did provide in practice was rather different.
Another anniversary in June highlights the contradictions Labor faces in managing capitalism. On 27 June 50 years ago, just weeks after Chifley's light on the hill speech, 23,000 miners struck for better wages and conditions.
In 1947 Chifley set up the Coal Industrial Tribunal. This body had arbitral power in the coal industry.
The miners lodged claims for a 35 hour week and a 30 shilling increase in wages. They also asked for long service leave as a normal work condition.
These demands were not outrageous. The ALP had supported in its platform a 30 hour week for miners in recognition of the nature of their work. The wage claim was actually less than that lodged by the ACTU for all workers.
The tribunal stalled for two years. As a consequence the Communist leadership of the unions involved agitated for direct action rather than arbitration.
They found a ready audience among miners who voted to strike. Negotiations with the employers fell through and on 27 June the miners walked out.
How did the "light on the hill" Party respond to working class action for better wages and conditions?
It passed legislation to make it illegal to support the strikers financially.
On 6 July union officials were arrested for not handing over union funds to the industrial registrar. Eight were later given long jail terms.
Police invaded union and CPA premises.
The Government and employers portrayed the strike as inspired by the Communists. This implies that ordinary workers can't think for themselves. Of course it is nonsense, but Chifley needed to show his pro-capitalist approach to the employing class in the run up to the 1949 elections.
Smashing the miners was a good way of doing that.
Despite the propaganda and the repression, on 10 July the miners voted to keep the strike going.
As the wharfies dispute in 1997 shows, major strikes produce class polarisation. The ALP in power manages capitalism. This means that in the end it takes actions against workers.
So till will the ACTU because the bureaucrats who run the unions mediate between labour and capital. Their livelihood depends on the existence of class society. Their social position means they prefer in most circumstances negotiation to conflict.
In the miners' strike, the ACTU played a double game. It supported the miners with words, but condemned them for provoking the Labor Government.
Other unions took the hint and began to scab, operating open cut mines and transporting coal.
Then on 1 August Chifley's armed troops began to run the mines. The strike was beaten. It ended two weeks later.
Chifley's actions were not some aberration. Chifley's strike breaking is a tradition that the Hawke Government eagerly followed.
So much for the light on the hill.
John Passant is an independent socialist
by Wendy Lubetkin
Geneva -- Members of the International Labor Organization unanimously adopted an international treaty July 17 banning the worst forms of child labor, including slavery, trafficking in children, and prostitution.
The ILO's 415 delegations -- its 174 member states, and all of its labor union and employer representatives -- voted in favor of the "Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention 1999." There were no abstentions.
One day earlier, President Clinton strongly backed the treaty in a speech to the ILO, calling it "a true breakthrough for the children of the world."
"I am proud to say that the United States will support your convention," Clinton told delegates to the International Labor Conference in Geneva. "After I return home, I will send it to the U.S. Senate for ratification, and I ask all other countries to ratify it, as well."
Following the vote, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia announced that the ILO plans to immediately launch a worldwide campaign for ratification.
"With this convention, we now have the power to make the urgent eradication of the worst forms of child labor a new global cause," Somavia said. "To those who exploit children, forcing them into slavery, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography or war, we are saying, 'Stop it now!'."
Many nations, including the United States, have promised to take early action to ratify the convention. Only two ratifications are required before it enters into force.
The new convention applies to children under 18. It defines the worst forms of child labor as all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage or compulsory labor; forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; use of a child for prostitution or the production of pornography; using children for illicit activities, such as the trafficking of drugs; and work which is likely to harm the health or safety of children.
The ILO estimates that as many as 60 million children under the age of 14 are engaged in the worst forms of child labor.
Somavia said he would make the new convention one of the ILO's "Core Conventions" which cover fundamental rights for workers of all ages such as freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, the elimination of forced labor and an end to discrimination.
States which ratify the treaty will be required to "design and implement programs of action" to eliminate the worst forms of child labor and to establish mechanisms to monitor implementation.
by JA Houlton
The May 1999 discussion paper released by the Federal Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business, The Continuing Reform of Workplace Relations: Implementation of More Jobs for Better Pay, raises issues of serious concern to the union movement.
The discussion paper claims that 12,064 collective agreements have been certified by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) and 52,961 Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)) have been approved during the first two years of operation of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (the WR Act).
The discussion paper, under the heading "implementation", advances a range of suggested measures for "simplifying" the procedures relating to the certification of Agreements (CAs), as well as proposals in relation to the status of AWAs under the WR Act. Some of the more disturbing of these proposals are:
� to ensure a "proper" role for unions in agreement making, measures would be introduced to stop unions party to s170LK Agreements (those made directly with employees) from blocking their extension or variation
� that employees could "switch" from s170LJ Agreements (made with unions) to s170LK Agreements
� that AWAs prevail over CAs comprehensively
� that an AWA made after a CA can override the CA
� that s170MX Awards (arbitrated when bargaining periods are terminated upon application of the parties or the Minister) don't exclude AWAs.
The discussion paper articulates a clear policy to push employers towards the exclusive use of AWAs.
The discussion paper also deals with the issue of "freedom to associate". It proposes that the legislation be extended to include "indirect" as well as direct breaches of the freedom to associate provisions in the WR Act. These provisions in effect are to protect persons from being discriminated against or victimised because of membership or non-membership of a union. They provide for wide ranging remedies to be imposed by the Federal Court of Australia, including but not limited to injunctions and penalties against individuals or corporations.
The reforms proposed in the discussion paper to the freedom to associate sections of the WR Act are designed to prevent, among other things, "site agreements" that are common in the construction industry. There is also a suggested change to allow for a defence (clearly designed to assist employers) to breaches of the freedom to associate provisions where the conduct complained of is designed to overcome a closed shop.
Also, the extension of these laws is designed to prevent CAs and AWAs that contain clauses that encourage employees to become union members. This would overcome the decision of Munro J in Clout Engineering Pty Ltd v AFMEPKIU, where a clause that stated general support for union membership in an agreement that was to be certified was found not to be objectionable by the AIRC. It is also suggested in the discussion paper that a clause requiring non-union members to pay a service fee to a union should be disallowed.
The above proposals, if enacted as legislation, would further erode union rights to represent employees.
Adopting a new approach by using corporate structures (Esso - a case study)
In the face of these proposed changes, unions must develop innovative responses to the clearly ideologically driven agenda of the Federal Government.
The discussion paper flags the future approach which will more than likely be pushed for by the Federal Government when amendments to the WR Act 1996 are introduced in the winter session of Federal Parliament. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has adopted a novel approach to "enterprise bargaining", initiated when it was denied the opportunity to represent offshore oil workers during recent enterprise bargaining negotiations, that offers one such innovative response to the Federal Government's agenda.
Background
In 1998, 80 non-union offshore oil and gas workers approached the MUA and expressed an interest in becoming members. The offshore operations technicians (the operators) worked on oil and gas platforms in Bass Strait. Many of the employees had worked for Esso Australia Pty Ltd (Esso) for over 15 years. The operators had expressed dissatisfaction with their former union, the Australian Workers Union (AWU). In addition to the 80 non-union employees, there were a further 114 employees at the workplace who were covered by other unions: the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbers Union (CEPU).
A s170LJ CA - the Esso Offshore (Certified) Agreement 1996 - was in place at the workplace. This CA expired at about the same time that the operators approached the MUA. The MUA attempted to attend a preliminary meeting for negotiations for a new collective agreement, which was then to be certified. Esso refused to allow the operators to be represented by the MUA. Esso argued, correctly, that the MUA did not have industrial coverage of the operators. A union can only be party to a CA under the WR Act if it has an eligibility rule which covers those employees.
In response to this refusal, the MUA in September 1998 set up a corporate structure, MUA HTS Pty Ltd, as an interim measure. MUA HTS was a proprietary company with limited liability, whose regulation is governed by the Corporations Law. The sole director of the company, Mr. John Coombs, also holds the office of National Secretary of the MUA.
MUA HTS was now able to represent the operators in its own right, but was arguably only able to assist with negotiations for a s170LK Agreement (a direct agreement). Importantly, a legal nexus had to be established between the corporate structure and the operators. MUA HTS requested that the operators individually sign a service agreement and formally appoint their delegates to provide instructions to MUA HTS. A delegate notified Esso of the appointment of MUA HTS on 6 November 1998. At this time, Esso appeared to be unaware of the type of representation that was being proposed.
Establishing a valid bargaining period
MUA HTS had the advantage of surprise but believed that it was essential that a valid "bargaining period" be commenced by the operators to strengthen the basis for representation. At the time, there was only one case on commencing a "bargaining period" by employees acting on their own behalf: Group Four Securitas Pty Ltd v Transport Workers Union of Australia [P6630] was an application made by the employer to terminate a bargaining period commenced by employees. Thirteen of the 25 employees had commenced a bargaining period acting on their own behalf. These employees wanted to be represented by the Transport Workers Union (TWU), which did not have coverage of them. The company argued that the TWU could not represent the employees because they could not join the TWU. The AIRC said that the WR Act remained silent on who is able to be authorised by employees to represent them in enterprise bargaining negotiations (see page 5 of the decision). The AIRC also said:
"Nor does it appear that the Act precludes a situation wherein employees may divide into a number of groups with each group authorising a different representative to attend the enterprise bargaining negotiations/discussions"(page 6).
And: "I am unable to find anything in the Act or the Minister's second reading speech which precludes or limits employees from being represented in enterprise bargaining negotiations/discussions by whoever they so authorise. As employers frequently do, employees may authorise a firm of lawyers to represent them, or they may authorise a particular individual to represent them. The Act does not prevent the employees from authorising a union to which they do not and could not belong from representing them"(page 6).
This case supported the operators in their quest for representation. But it also raised the potential for many groups to commence a bargaining period which, if it occurred, could cause fragmentation in the workplace during periods when a CA is not in place or has expired. This is a disadvantage to employers as well as unions. MUA HTS was concerned to ensure that competing agendas did not arise between the employees that could prevent a collective agreement from being reached.
Legal issues in relation to commencement of bargaining period with Esso
Previously, the delegate had tried to initiate a bargaining period under the WR Act and provided notice to Esso under s170MI(2) of the WR Act on behalf of the operators. It was necessary to establish a valid bargaining period because there could be no "protected action" without one. Protected action is a concept contained in the WR Act which provides limited legal immunity from civil action for employees if they want to take industrial action to advance their "enterprise bargaining" claims. Arguably, the bargaining period was invalid. Notice given to commence the bargaining period that the operators had provided to Esso may have been legally defective.
As non-union members could only negotiate one form of collective agreement - a s170LK Agreement (a direct agreement between employees and employer) - if protected action was not available, then these employees would be exposed directly to common law actions by Esso. The CEPU and the AMWU had also attempted to commence bargaining periods with Esso. Their notices may have also been defective.
Esso was still unaware of the new relationship that existed between MUA HTS and the operators, and the role that was planned for MUA HTS in enterprise bargaining negotiations. Esso's representatives argued that the MUA or MUA HTS could only be appointed as bargaining agent for the purpose of negotiating AWAs. They did not appear to see the legal distinction between the two entities, nor what MUA HTS sought to achieve.
The operators had also given notice to take protected action before MUA HTS was formally involved. That notice, given to Esso on 13 November 1998, may have been defective, either because the bargaining period had not properly commenced or because the notice did not contain particulars of the action. It was vague and may have been challenged by Esso. The delegates were advised of the case of the CFMEU and Curragh Queensland Mining Ltd [1998] FCA (30 September 1998). This case stands, according to some views, for the "principle of certainty". Employers continue to argue that they cannot meet claims that are vague and uncertain. This argument, although similar to that which is used in requests for particulars in common law pleadings, may be used to delay and unnecessarily complicate proceedings in common law courts. (See Casson and Dennis, Odgers' Principles of Pleadings and Practice In Civil Actions in the High Court of Justice, 22nd edition, Stevens and Sons, 1981, pages 152ff.)
MUA HTS involvement
On 13 November 1998, Esso was notified by MUA HTS that the company now acted as agent for the operators. Despite advice to the delegates that the bargaining period may not have been properly commenced, the delegates instructed MUA HTS to serve a new notice of protected action which was consistent with the new legal requirements (in light of Curragh's case) to particularise. The AMWU, CEPU and AWU had instructed solicitors to assist with the preparation of material relevant to the three unions to enable protected action to be taken.
Subsequently, the delegates accepted earlier advice from MUA HTS to ensure that valid bargaining periods were established before taking protected industrial action. A new notice to commence a bargaining period was forwarded to Esso by MUA HTS on 26 November 1998. The AMWU, CEPU and AWU sent new notices as well. MUA HTS received a letter from Esso, dated 27 November 1998, stating that they were not prepared to "enter into negotiations for a new agreement with a private shelf company".
MUA HTS responded on 30 November 1998 with a new "protected action" notice. The notice said that industrial action was to commence on 4 December 1998. The unions also provided notice for protected action, which was set to commence the following day (5 December 1998).
On 1 December 1998, Esso again attempted to challenge MUA HTS's right to represent the operators. Although Esso argued that it did not have to negotiate with MUA HTS, MUA HTS (who argued that Esso was not making an agreement with MUA HTS but with its own employees) Esso did not object to representatives of MUA HTS participating in the negotiations for the new agreement. A single bargaining unit was formed and included representation on behalf of the three unions. The negotiations continued to the eve of the scheduled protected industrial action. An agreement was reached, and certified on 10 May 1999 as a section 170LJ Agreement.
Adopting new approaches
The experience with the Esso workforce demonstrates the potential for unions to use the WR Act to turn an anti-union stance on its head. Clearly, the company was considerably confused as to the role of MUA HTS. Although it maintained a legally aggressive approach, and initially denied the employees representation, Esso was subsequently forced to allow the operators to be represented by MUA HTS in order to secure an agreement. Unions, who are faced with a reform agenda that is laced with anti-union proposals, must adopt a new approach to be assured of a continued role in "enterprise bargaining" even if that means participating in negotiations for "direct agreements".
by Pam Smith
Former Victorian Premier Joan Kirner, and lawyer and human rights activist, Moira Rayner, passionately believe that women must set goals and learn how to achieve them.
Their own experiences, as reflected in the Women's Power Handbook, provide a manual of timely, relevant, practical information aimed at women seeking to "make their own choices and to achieve things for themselves."
Recognising the full range and diversity of women's interests, the Women's Power Handbook covers a very wide range of areas including:
. developing self esteem and assertiveness .
organising your finances and your personal life
. using your union to improve wages and conditions in the workplace
. countering discrimination and harassment
. managing meetings and committees
. networking, alliances and mentoring
. public speaking and using the media
. becoming politically aware and effective.
Far from being a humourless feminist treatise, the book is full of amusing anecdotes and cartoons which reflect the authors' down-to-earth style which aims to achieve practical results and positive outcomes for women in their personal and professional lives.
While The Women's Power Handbook is aimed specifically at women, much of the advice on training, negotiation, management skills, and creating a positive work environment is equally of benefit to men. It is also useful for both young women and men who are still considering their future career directions.
Joan Kirner and Moira Rayner have written a very valuable guide for managing life and work, providing a range of practical strategies to enable their readers to set and achieve their goals.
The Woman's Power Handbook: Get It, Keep It, Use It (Joan Kirner and Moira Rayner, with illustrations by Judy Horacek, Viking, 1999)
The ILO has been described by another member of the Australian delegation as "the ultimate IR club". This comment is indicative of the current federal Government's domestic industrial relations agenda.
The organisation conducts its work in two main forums, the Plenary Session where all delegates can hear speakers on the range of subjects before the conference, and in the Committees where all the hard bargaining and debate on issues occurs. When Committee reports are put to the Plenary Session, they are usually supported, all the negotiation and diplomatic finessing of phrasing having been done.
Two issues were before this Session of the ILO, Child Labour and Maternity Protection. Attending the deliberations of both Committees was informative. Without getting into the fine detail, it became clear that industrial relations is not only one of the most readily identifiable faultlines in domestic Australian politics but that it is still one of the enduring ideological divides.
I will give one example. At present in the Organisation there is particular debate about ILO conventions and whether they should be aspirational documents setting out what labour rights should be or whether the bar should be set much lower to encourage more countries to adopt them. The argument is that the smaller the gap between international standards and national practice, the greater the likelihood that more countries will be either able to comply or will be encouraged to bridge the gap. The concomitant is that the bigger the gap, the less countries will comply or be inclined to try to raise their standards.
While this argument may seem to make a valid point, it ignores two important characteristics of the organisation and its purpose. Firstly, the conventions and recommendations are supposed to be benchmarks of what civilised labour standards should be. Secondly, being the result of exhaustive (not to say exhausting) deliberation between representatives of over 170 governments of widely differing political complexions and their national worker and employer delegates it can hardly be said those documents are radical in their nature. That they are represented as being so is more revealing of the political positions of those asserting it than of the nature of ILO standards themselves.
This dialogue was played out in the Maternity Protection Committee. A series of amendments were being moved to the draft text. One, put forward by a European Government, was the source of particular contention between worker and employer delegates.
The employers offered the view that ILO standards should be expressed as broadly as possible to allow maximum flexibility for national custom and practice to deal with the matters covered by convention texts. In the context of the committee deliberations, this meant that protection for women workers during pregnancy should be limited to just that, the period during which they were pregnant although they were prepared to accept the amendment which provided protection for women workers also during their period of confinement.
The worker representatives took the view that pregnancy was not merely some biological event but one which had a wide range of significant social implications. In particular that however detailed or broadly cast the text might be, three distinct stages relating to pregnancy should be recognised for the purpose of worker protection - the pregnancy itself, the period of confinement, and a further period of nursing. The position taken by the worker delegates and their supporters was that as we approach a new century we should be embracing a wider set of concerns relevant to providing effective protective measures as opposed to precise but narrow forms of protection.
This debate is of relevance in our own domestic politics. When maternity leave was first raised on the political landscape, it was resisted by powerful economic and social forces. Today, however, it is widely referred to as parental leave, is available to both men and women in recognition of their joint obligation, and is uncontroversial.
In the last twenty years, Australia has been transformed by significant changes which have altered the shape of our economy and society. Many kinds of work have shrunk in size and importance while others have grown from nothing into multi-billion dollar industries. One of the products of this has been that employment growth has been largely in part-time and casual forms of work, and most of these workers are women. This means that many benefits and forms of protection won for working people, such as long service, have moved beyond the reach of some workers because of the basis on which work is available to them.
It has long been recognised that as circumstances change so too should forms of regulation change to ensure they are effective. This is the case in many areas of legislation, such as in taxation and commercial law which are being constantly reviewed and updated. In the industrial relations context, it is one of the reasons that the NSW legislation has long had special provision for public vehicles and carriers, because it was seen that their needs were different to other workers.
For this reason, the NSW Labor Government made a commitment during the last election that women workers should not be denied maternity leave rights because they were employed as permanent casuals, after a period of two years. This is not a radical proposition, merely a fine-tuning of existing and widely accepted legal rights to ensure that no one should fall by the wayside. The views we take on such issues say what kind of society we want to live in, and what we regard as civilised standards.
The development of decent labour standards, such as effective maternity protection, should be pursued both domestically and in international forums, like the ILO. While some may criticise such bodies as being slow and cumbersome, that is only an argument for improving them. Deciding how broadly expressed standards should be, or what the level of detail should be is a matter for judgment and discussion. But it is clear that if you set the bar low, you will achieve a minimalist position.
Countries struggling to survive in the wake of natural disaster, war, colonialism or a combination, have many issues to deal with, it is true. The fact they may not be in a position to meet international standards is surely an argument in favour of assisting them to develop their economies and social infrastructure, not an argument to set lesser standards.
Although there is understandable differences between worker and employer representatives at the ILO, it is inherent in the nature of such a tripartite body. However, the record of the ILO shows that despite this there is a degree of goodwill to develop sufficient common ground necessary to produce meaningful international labour instruments.
In this era of unprecedented challenge facing the developing world, and the issues posed by the mobility of international capital and the other effects of globalisation, my experience in Geneva has convinced me that the case for the ILO is stronger than ever. Australia, with its proud history of progressive labour laws, should play an active role in helping to raise the standard.
Jeff Shaw is the NSW Attorney General and Minister for Industrial Relations
1. Put your money where your mouth is. One of the great advances of the internet age is interactive betting. At the last World Cup, most punters were restricted to a straightforward wager on the outcome of a match. Not any more. Now you can follow each match live on several sites, including CricInfo, with commentary, analysis and updated statistics. Then, at sites like Centrebet and Darwin All Sports, you can bet ball-by-ball on 'exotic' options like 'next man out', 'best dummy spit' and 'most ridiculous appeal'. You can use your credit card or set up a stake account before the game.
2. Surf out the other channels between overs. Don't waste the 30 second ad breaks between overs. During Sunday night's World Cup final, strategic use of the remote control will allow you to catch snippets of programs including:
3. Select a World XI team. That Karl Marx really knew how to coin a phrase - 'Religion is the opium of the people', 'History repeats itself: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce', and 'I think they should stop killing all the rhinos' (or was that Kylie Minogue?). But my favourite is 'The workers have no country', because it allows us to shed our patriotic blinkers and select an unbeatable World XI one day cricket team. Here's my team to play Mars: S Ganguly (India), R Jacobs (WI), R Dravid (India), S Waugh (Aust), N Johnson (Zim), J Kallis (SA), L Klusener (SA), C Cairns (NZ), W Akram (Pak), S Warne (Aust), S Akhtar (Pak).
4. Train yourself to be truly nocturnal. This is not as hard as it sounds - but you do need to plan ahead. As the World Cup only happens once in four years, you should save all your annual leave. This will give you plenty of time to adjust to your new lifestyle. First, board up all the windows and skylights in your home. Natural light is a distraction you do not need when watching cricket. Then, around ten days before the first match, start going to bed an hour later each night and set your alarm for an hour later each morning. The aim is to acclimatise yourself to waking at 5 pm each day for the six weeks of the tournament. After the final, just reverse the process.
5. Use the lunch break creatively. Strategic use of the 40 minute break between innings is the key to successful World Cup viewing. Do not under any circumstances continue to watch Channel Nine during this hiatus. Jim Waley warps minds. Instead, get up and find a totally unrelated activity. Try expressing your feelings about the match by writing a short poem or painting an abstract work of art. For instance:
There was a young bowler from Islamabad
Whose reverse swing yorkers weren't half bad
They say Shoaib Akhtar
Is related to Wakar
Different mums but they share the same dad.
6. Do not listen to Simon O'Donnell. He is an absolute mug. Who can forget his tip that Pakistan were in trouble at the lunch break of the semi final against New Zealand because they were yelling at each other in the field? In one of the easier victories of the tournament, the Paks cantered in, losing just one wicket. The raised voices were just one indication of their obvious intensity and will to win. O'Donnell's combination with the totally uninformed Ray Martin has to be the worst double act since Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson teamed up on Ebony and Ivory. Also avoid Simon's equine analysis on Channel Nine's racing program, where he specialises in tipping beaten favourites. (Mind you, he was right about Octagonal.)
7. Put Piers in your bed. His column in the Tele might have you nodding off, but imagine a realistic, life size replica of Herr Akerman reclining gracefully on the pillow next to yours. Those twinkling eyes, those trembling jowls - say goodbye to narcolepsy forever. For just $59.95 plus postage, you can possess your very own Snoring Piers Playdoll. Moulded entirely from synthetics, this stunning replica of the cuddly tabloid stirrer was lovingly assembled by eight-year-olds in a Myanmar Free Trade Zone. Guaranteed to be anatomically, if not politically, correct. Supplies are limited, so order yours now from the editor of Workers Online.
Sekai Holland is from Zimbabwe, one of the few African nations who has not recognised Mbeki as South African leader. She is also Zimbabwe's national chairperson of the Association of Women's Clubs, which sees 60,000 women across her country band together as a social and political force. Sekai was in Australia to pass on the message that political struggle is far from over in Africa.
As a former journalism lecturer, and as a middle-class woman married to a white Australian, Sekai had major factors working against her living in the Mugabe regime. She spoke about the issues connected with political activism to a group brought together by President of the MLC Meredith Burgmann at lunch, and then that night a group of union women. She told of the horror of the torture former students - now investigative journalists - had received at the hands of Robert Mugabe's hacks.
Mugabe's teams specialise in genital mutilation, but also resort to blindings. Amnesty International recently flew two of Sekai's former students to the Medical Foundation for Torture Victims, in London, after they were tortured while on charges of "publishing false information likely to cause alarm and despondency". The journalists revealed a coup plot, and were only released for treatment on condition they be returned to Zimbabwe for trial. According to Sekai, they had problems walking and seeing after their torture.
She spoke of other conditions which were hidden by official statistics, but well-known within the country - 1400 AIDS deaths a day, healthy men being sent to fight in the Congo and returning dead, supposedly of "snake bite" but with their heads chopped off for refusing to fight, no running water in Harare. . . and the list goes on
General cuts in pay and conditions also cut against the grain of the African way of life. Whereas before, visitors were welcome and the extended family always looked after each other, Sekai said Zimbabweans were now in the humiliating position of having to ask visitors when they were going to leave, and having to open their cupboards to show how little they had to feed their own families.
Her association began in the fifties as a response to white people's clubs, and was designed to bring together small groups of women to share skills and knowledge. Since then, the membership has expanded and the movement has now become more political.
She spoke about the women's outrage when they raised funds for the printing of textiles, only to have the fabric made into a "uniform", covered with images of Robert Mugabe's head. Explaining how much they hated having Robert Mugabe on their chests, their stomach and their backs, she said the only place they felt it was fitting having him was on their bottoms so he was put in his place every time they sat.
During her visit to Australia, Sekai held talks with Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, and also spoke with various women about setting up a version of Emily's List in Zimbabwe, with the aim of having 30 women running for parliament at the next elections, due to be held in 2000. And her group is one of a number of like-minded movements which held a National Working People's Convention earlier this year and resolved to form one political party on 3 July, with membership contingent on one essential question: "Do you believe in equality?". "There is only one answer to that question, and that is yes," she said. "If they don't know what to say or take too long to answer we tell them to come back later - they obviously have a serious case of Mugabe-ism."
The party is intended as a grassroots movement which will agitate for political and social change. It is calling for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, adherence to basic human rights standards, and an accountable government, monitored by an independent body. One of the major players in the new party is the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The Mugabe Government has threatened to ban the ZCTU if it continues to take part in the movement, although there is no legal basis for doing so.
Sekai is setting up a Zimbabwe Information Centre based in Sydney, and the ZIC's web page will also be run from Sydney. The aim is to lobby in the South Pacific region for awareness and funds. She also visited Queensland where the MUA and LHMU have committed to supporting various projects within the women's movements. Anyone interested in finding out how they as individuals, or as a group, can offer financial support for the women in projects that range from sinking bore holes to printing textiles for sale, should watch for the web page, or could contact Peter Murphy on 02 9310 3966.
Deirdre Mahoney is the Labor Council's Special Projects Officer
The age-old political adage : you are my enemy's enemy, therefore you are my friend has seldom been more graphically illustrated than Pier's spiteful little offering this week.
The vehicle for this attack was a column purportedly about a green ban on a development at Allambie which Piers claimed was: (a) being considered by Labor Council this week (b) was being vigorously promoted by Labor Council..
Wrong. And wrong. There was no request for a Green ban. And Costa had never commented on it (we think Piers was mixed up with a separate development some months back which exposed the Pittwater Council's hypocrisy on development proposals).
So in the absence of these facts, which could have been clarified with the one phone call, what was the column all about? Payback of course.
You see, the previous week the Greens' new MP Lee Rhiannon had naively issued a press release criticising the Labor Council's internal handling of its Currawong development, reproducing all the well-worn lines of the self-styled Friends of Currawong.
For an organisation riddled with its own factional machinations, splits and internal dissent, who had only met with Labor Council that week to discuss ways of working closer together it seemed a strange contribution to the public debate.
All major media outlets gave the release the treatment it deserved, consigning it to the green circular filing cabinet in the corner of the office.
Except our hero, of course who used it as a launching pad into yet another erroneous and irrelevant piece.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of this one was his charges of hypocrisy -- after all isn't this the man who rejected the Green Bans of the 1970s as a historical revisionist myth?
In a legendary column published in December, 1996 Piers denied that the BLF had made any contribution to preserving The Rocks, claiming the credit should have gone to the bureaucrats who had earmarked the historic precinct for demolition.
"In the latest bit of nonsense, a plaque has been placed in Rocks Square to honour the BLF for its efforts to preserve the heritage era," Piers wrote at the time.
"We might soon see a plaque commemorating Hitler's commitment to tolerance, Stalin's commitment to world peace and Mao's commitment to democratic government."
But now Piers has become a Green ban purist, waxing lyrically about "fragile bushland", albeit bushland that is at his own back-door.
A committed environmentalist? Or is this just a convenient vehicle for him to run his own personal agenda? Again.
When a man with so little to say has so much room to run his trivial personal vendettas questions should be being asked.
Like who gives him this space? Who checks him for accuracy? And where is the accountability?
And before his right-wing mates jump on us again, its not an issue Freedom of Speech, it's about power and the obligation to use your position of privilege responsibly.
STOP-PRESS: Workers Online spies witnessed the burning of a Piers effigy outside the Chifley Tower as part J18 day of civil disobedience. There appears to be no gratitude from the greenies.
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