*****
Some extraordinary egos have paraded in public life in recent years, but none have tipped a bucket on working people so much as the Claytons Liberal Senator for South Australia, Meg Lees.
Is poor Meg just John Howard in a frock?
The woman who gave us a GST on tampons was at it again last week, signing off on a deal that will gut public health insurance and
Meg stormed off out of the Democrats some time back, spitting the dummy when she couldn't get her way.
She backed up this excellent example of being a team player by setting up a party in her image. O one remembers the name of her party any more, and why should they? We'll never hear from it again after the next federal election.
This is the same discredited buffoon who campaigned on the basis that a vote for her was a vote against the GST, only to roll over and inflict the GST on Australia at the first opportunity.
Meg bangs on about improving Medicare, but what part of the word universal doesn't she understand? Listening to her you'd think she'd discovered a cure for AIDS, but in fact what she has delivered is something in the order of 0.1% of the national income to be thrown at turning Medicare into a charity program.
Thanks to Meg, Tony Abbott's mates in the rich people's health care system will now be rolling in it, while working Australians are bled dry by these parasitical vampires. The private health sector, from the health insurers to the private hospitals that piggyback off our tax dollars, are designed to turn people's misfortune into a profit.
Health care should be about making sick people well, not making sickos wealthy.
Meg either has a philosophical objection to working families getting decent affordable health care, or she is a moron.
Howard used to stain his sheets dreaming of dismantling something that gave working people affordable health care. He threw the psychopath Abbott at the health portfolio to try and dismantle it. Abbott should get back to ripping wings off flies and beating up on cripples, he seems to enjoy that.
If Meg thinks that these clowns are doing anything except engaging in a cynical exercise in pulling Medicare to pieces then she's dumber than she looks.
If she seriously thinks that this package will improve the lot of families that are already struggling to find a GP who bulk bills then it must be a wonderful planet she lives on, and certainly very different from planet Earth.
The real issue is raising the rebate for doctors who bulk bill to something approaching reality.
Meg may think she's improved Medicare, rebadging the new charity driven outfit as Medicare Plus. The only thing that s missing from this package is provision for paupers' graves and workhouses for people to work off their health bills.
All this pointless palaver about safety nets ignores the fact that Medicare IS a safety net. If Meg thinks it needs a safety net then maybe it's because Medicare as it exists is underfunded and being run into the ground by the bozos that run the shop at the moment.
Meg can go into the Tool Shed until she shows signs of remission, and develops a human side to her blinkered worldview and starts to understand what this Federal Government is doing to working Australian families.
Medicare plus? It's enough to make anyone sick.
Labor Council secretary John Robertson made that plain this week when he challenged his predecessor to "bring it on".
"We are not going to watch one, two or three of our affiliates being picked off because this Government is trying to protect its own arse from the shambles it has created in rail or health," Robertson told Council delegates.
"If they (State Government) are looking for a blue with the trade union movement, then bring it on. We are ready for this."
Robertson was reacting to rail management's use of Section 127 orders to force striking rail maintenance workers back to the job on pain of gaol, escalating fines and deregistration. There had been tacit agreement between unions and politicians that State Labor Government would not use the far-reaching orders, devised by former federal Workplace Relations Minister, Peter Reith, against NSW employees.
Workers had been protesting against the disciplining of workers under new drug and alcohol testing policies forced through by Costa without consultation.
AMWU secretary Paul Bastian said his organisation had been trying to meet with Costa over the issue since last October.
"Let me make it perfectly clear the union has never objected to drug and alcohol testing," he said. "In fact, it is rail workers themselves who are at most risk from a fellow worker unfit for work.
Bastian said the union had been insisting that tests were objective and reliable; administered fairly; and backed by education and rehabilitation systems.
He called Costa's willingness to reach for Coalition legislation "extraordinary" and a "grave warning" to all trade unionists.
Antagonisms were heightened by orders only being sought against members of the AMWU, although industrial action was also being undertaken by workers belonging to the ETU and RTBU - traditional members of Costa's Labor Right faction.
RTBU secretary, Nick Lewocki, endorsed Bastian's warning.
"Our members will now be looking to a future federal Labor Government to protect us from the Howard-Costello and Carr-Costa anti-worker policies," he said.
Five years ago, when Costa was Labor Council secretary, he sponsored a resolution demanding answers on why the State Rail Authority, back then, had "contravened the NSW State Labor Government policy of not using Section 127 orders against a trade union".
Robertson accused state rail management of manipulating the dispute to heighten public disruptions.
"The reality is any disruption that occurred was the fault of management who went out of their way to "defect" as many trains as they possibly could.
"It's clear the rail system is in a mess and management, and now the state government, are trying to shift the blame for that onto their own employees," he said.
Observers are predicting a major showdown if State Government is unable to patch up its relationship with Labor Council affiliates before rail enterprise bargaining agreements expire over the next couple of months.
Big Brothers Bad For Business
Meanwhile a report in a leading UK safety magazine has slammed secret monitoring of employees as a "folly" that affects the business bottom line and is bad for productivity and workers health.
'Stop snooping', a report by Hazardsmagazine revealed that secret cameras installed in a female locker room used by staff to change were discovered by workers - with the employer claiming that the cameras were "installed in the wrong room".
The full Hazards report is available online at www.hazards.org/privacy
Doubts have been cast on Psychometric Testing, or PMT, by experts who studied the tests used by State Rail to measure driver abilities.
One driver, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution by State Rail management, claims that the tests are being used to discipline drivers who are standing up for genuine safety on the state's rail system.
"They are just doing it to some of us," says the driver. "They should do it to everyone, not just those who have allegedly done an offence."
"It is just another instrument for management to accept or refuse an individual."
The driver was forced to do the PMT test five months after an incident he was involved in. The driver had been cleared of any blame for the previous incident.
Drivers also challenged the qualifications of those conducting the tests, which must be conducted by qualified neuro-psychologists.
"If State rail is serious about driver safety then they would invest in a test to accurately measure workers ability to do their job,' says Mark Morey from the NSW Labor Council. "We don't believe these tests measure the workers ability to do their job."
PMT involves a series of tests that are claimed to measure a drivers suitability, but experts found that one of the tests, the Safe Concentration And Attention Test or SCAAT, has poor psychometric properties and there is "a lack of evidence that it does predict driver vigilance, concentration and attention".
Another test, the Mackworth Clock Test, was initially designed to test fighter pilots during World War II.
A report by registered psychologists found that there was no evidence that the Mackworth Clock Test could predict, with any accuracy, driver propensity for train accidents. The report also found that the test might unfairly discriminate against older Train Drivers who, while still being capable of driving trains safely, may not react as quickly to younger persons on the Mackworth Clock test.
"We don't believe the tests should be used to discipline workers," says Morey. "We have information that this is what is going on."
That indictment was issued when the IRC ordered Western Sydney Area Health Service to reinstate and back pay nine security guards it dumped last year, in a defining Workplace Surveillance ruling.
Deputy President Sams had heard evidence that the Health Service had engaged private eyes to trail workers employed at Blacktown and Mt Druitt hospitals around Sydney, photograph and videotape them illegally, before they were sacked for buying Chinese takeaways during 12 hour shifts.
Evidence in the "Peeking Dicks" case also suggested Websters Security had conducted the covert surveillance for three weeks before a warrant had obtained.
In a 136-page judgement, Deputy President Sams, said he had been "deeply troubled" by video evidence place before the Commission.
He said it had been "clumsy, incomplete and inaccurate" and had had "the hallmarks of a Keystone Cops episode".
Sams said he had been "flabbergasted" by a Health Service admission that it had been prepared to "let a serious safety concern go unattended while the investigation was commenced and undertaken.
"It seems to me that the respondent was more preoccupied with catching the security officers red handed than it was with ensuring the safety of patients, staff and visitors," he concluded.
Sams ordered that a copy of his decision be forwarded to the Attorney General's department to examine the failure of the Health Service, and the private security company, to comply with terms of the Workplace Video Surveillance Act.
Back pay for the reinstated workers is expected to cost the Western Sydney Area Health Service around half a million dollars.
Health Services Union secretary, Michael Williamson, hailed the decision as a "significant victory" against improper workplace surveillance. He said, Sams had found his members had been "unfairly monitored" and "effectively set-up".
NSW Labor Council, which intervened in the case because of its workplace surveillance implications, has called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider action against the employer.
The guards, found to have been "honest and hard working" are now considering defamation action against the Health Service.
"He should have been bloody hung," says the CFMEU�s Pat Preston. "We need to send the message home to employers who are serial killers, who don�t take into account their employees health and safety, that they will face hefty fines and gaol sentences."
Matthew King, 28, died while working as a dogman at a commercial site in Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, on October 29, 1999. A County Court jury convicted the company, ACR Roofing, last month.
The same employer had been found guilty after an inquiry into a workers death several years ago. In that inquiry it was revealed that a supervisor had tried to fit a harness to the dying man's body to make it appear as though he had been wearing protective equipment.
The CFMEU has been campaigning in several states for the introduction of industrial manslaughter legislation, with legislation becoming effective in ACT at the start of March.
"We believe a worker's life is worth a lot more than $60,000," says Preston, who equated it to price of a new car.
Preston also slammed the Building Industry Taskforce for wasting millions of dollars worth of taxpayers money, while ignoring genuine safety concerns.
Centrelink Workers safety On The Table
Meanwhile a Comcare report has identified aggression towards Centrelink employees as a major issue as negotiations continue over a new health and safety agreement for the government agency.
Comcare is the Federal Government's own workers compensation provider.
Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) negotiators have been working to achieve solutions to the health and safety issues.
The Comcare report also identified:
- Adequate training on OHS issues
- Hazard identification and Risk assessments
- Facilities for Health and Safety Representatives and Deputies
- Senior management responsibility
- Manager/Team Leader responsibilities
- Role of the CPSU
The CPSU believes that significant progress has been made towards a draft agreement.
Negotiations are continuing.
Up to 80 Vic;torian police were assigned to protect John Fairfax Group property at Tullamarine while the publisher used the columns of its newspaper to promote its right to renege on an agreement, and criticise workers, unions and the Victorian Government for resisting.
This week, the Industrial Relations Commission, ruled The Age had acted illegally in making Spencer St printers and maintenance workers redundant.
Commissioner Dominica Whelan directed The Age not to make the workers redundant until its enterprise bargaining agreement with the AMWU expires next year.
AMWU Victorian secretary, Dave Oliver, called the ruling "complete vindication" of his union's position and lashed Fairfax for "abusing its power".
Oliver and associates last week met Victoria's state police commissioner to complain about the "waste of public resources" as up to 80 officers were detailed to protect new presses at Tullamarine on Melbourne's outskirts.
"We didn't even have any action out there," Oliver said, "but, on suspicion, they had 80 state police at their disposal. They set up road blocks and made members show identification to get in."
Oliver called "biased" editorialising on the dispute "disgraceful".
The article complained of was apparently written by management on the day the paper was curtailed by AMWU protest action at its Spencer St, city, site.
"In protest, we wrote a letter to the editor which never got printed. It shows the clear bias of the editor," Oliver said.
In her ruling, Ms Whelan said company guarantees on security of employment in its eba were "neither ambiguous nor uncertain".
The Age is appealing her ruling.
The MEAA warns that Federal Government has signed off on a deal that will give Australians a guarantee of only four percent of domestic product on pay TV, and a flood of US content will be the inevitable result.
The US, it says, will have open slather on any new and emerging technology used to provide entertainment to Australian audiences.
"Unbelievable as it may seem the Americans have even more crap than we get to see now. They want to drop that crap on us," says Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) NSW secretary Jonathan Mill. "Eighty percent of Australians think there is too much American culture on our TV's as it is."
On top of the 4% of local content for pay TV, current levels of protection for Australian content on free-to-air television have been slammed as "inadequate" by the MEAA, and no local content levels have been set for any new technologies.
"This is a deal for the 20th century, not the 21st," says Mill of the free trade agreement, the detail of which was finally released last week. "It is based on last century's technologies and fails to protect Australian cultural interests in regard to the rapidly developing technologies of the future."
"The agreement denies the right of Australian people to determine access to their own culture. John Howard is allowing a foreign nation to determine Australia's cultural future."
LaPaglia and other US-based Australian actors will lobby the U.S. Congress in a bid to improve the terms of the treaty.
At the recent Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras MEAA members prepared banners against the FTA reading:
"Keep Our Poofs Employed!"
"For this we went to war!"
"John Howard - Stick Your FTA Up Your Arse!"
"Instead of committing to restore bulk-billing for all GP visits, the independent senators have joined the Health Minister in setting up a blatantly unfair, two-tiered health system," ACTU president Sharan Burrow said.
"The independent senators are now as guilty as the Howard Government in ripping the heart out of Medicare."
Burrow's attack was prompted by news that independent senators would usher Abbott's MedicarePlus into law, although it would deny bulk-billing subsidies to working people earning more than $340 a week.
Medicare, originally, was conceived as a universal health insurance scheme, based on free general practitioners visits for the vast majority of the population.
Burrow said while independents had squeezed hundreds of millions of extra Medicare dollars out of Abbott, they had signed off on a two-tier system that provided one set of subsidies for children and concession card holders in mainland cities and another for those baswed in regional areas and Tasmania.
She pointed out that they had also agreed to different safety nets for concession card holders and low-income people than for single workers, irrespective of income.
"The Howard Government is turning Australia's world-class public health system into a US-style two-tiered system where only the rich can afford good quality health care," she said.
Parking officer Kay Chaisty was awarded $6000 in compensation for sexual discrimination when the Equal Opportunity Tribunal found she was abused and derided by colleagues.
The tribunal found that Chaisty was subjected to discrimination between 1999 and 2001 that was distressing, humiliating and embarrassing. Chaisty was called a "f ***ing bitch" and "a loose woman" by male colleagues, who also abused her sister Annette Lutz, who also worked in the parking department.
The decision was hailed by Western Australian ASU assistant secretary Merideth Hammat as "sending a message to workplaces".
"It was regrettable that it took so long for the case to be resolved,' says Hammat. "The money could have been better spent, but Perth City Council chose to go down a legal path. Both parties now want to put the matter behind them."
Hammat said that decision would help make Perth City Council parking Department a more positive place to work, and that it showed that the ASU takes seriously issues of discrimination.
In a move that has been slammed as "hypocritical" by Ambulance officers, the CEO of the Ambulance Service of NSW has withdrawn any support to the Ambulance Officer involved.
Ambulance officers commenced industrial action as a result, placing a ban on all ambulance paperwork, leaving people using New South Wales' ambulances not being charged a fee.
"Ambulance Officers, Paramedics, and Rescue Officers are expected by their employer, and indeed by the community, to get to the scene of a potentially life threatening situation as quickly and as safely as possible," says Michael Williamson, General Secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU). "Unfortunately, on the rare occasions that they become involved in an accident, the Service can not simply look the other way."
The driver, from the Ryde ambulance station, was told in a letter that they should drive to avoid such an incident.
The HSU said that the decision of the Ambulance service to wash their hands of the matter belies the expectation of Ambulance Officers to drive in a manner that will minimise response times in emergencies.
The union also described the decision as "especially contemptible" given "the continued mismanagement of the Ambulance Service".
Talks between the HSU and the NSW Ambulance Service agreed to the Ambulance Service committing to provide support via senior managers to the Ambulance Officer concerned.
A revised protocol would be issued establishing much clearer steps for Ambulance Officers to obtain the support from the Service for legal representation and a consultant would review the current driver training and operating procedures.
Consultation would also occur with other emergency services as to the procedures they utilise in such circumstances.
Bans were lifted following the talks.
The CPSU won orders in the IRC requiring Telstra to meet the terms of five enterprise agreements, applying predominantly to Telstra Shop employees, that had been in dispute.
Telstra hired the services of anti-union law firm, Freehills, to try to push back dates at which negotiated pay increments would apply to workers around Australia.
The CPSU estimates an "average" member covered by one of the five agreements would benefit by an extra $30 a week for both the fourth and fifth increase set out in the agreements.
AWA employees are not covered by any of the collective agreements and will not benefit from the decisions.
Sir Humphreys Wriggle
Meanwhile, "Sir Humphrey Appleby" has been cited by an HR industry journal, in describing attempts by departmental heads to argue new employees aren't forced to accept non-union AWAs.
The Coalition Government has always argued "freedom of choice" in defending efforts to undercut traditional, collective agreements, although it specifically provides employers with the right to force new employees onto AWAs.
HR Report told of the ducking and diving of Department of Employment and Workplace Relations officials when it came to explaining their own policies to a Senate Inquiry.
Agency secretary, Dr Peter Boxall, said official policy gave employees and prospective employees the choice between an AWA and the collective agreement. Then, one of his officials, said it would "not be inconsistent" with that for agency heads to offer jobs on the basis of signing an AWA.
General manager corporate, Craig Symon, then told senators 49 graduates, offered jobs on the basis that they must "sign and return the AWA offer, or contact the Group Manager" if they wanted to negotiate it further, would have received other correspondence indicating the availability of the certified agreement. He was unable to enlighten senators on where that choice might have been presented.
Symon went on to describe an "internal manager's update" stating all engagements should be conditional on accepting an AWA as an "error".
Perhaps, DEWR workplace relations implementation group manager, Barbara Bennett, best summed up the department's attitude to freedom of choice when she told senators agency heads were responsible for managing direct relationships with employees and, as such, they could offer a job requiring an AWA.
"They can choose not to take the employment," she said.
Those answers, HR Report told industry players, "would have done Yes Minister's Sir Humphrey Appleby proud".
The AWU relaunched its historic title - once the vehicle for the writings of Henry Lawson, Mary Gilmore and John Curtin - at a function in Sydney last Thursday hosted by labour movement celebrity, Bob Ellis.
Ellis, Eddie McGuire, Mungo McCullum and The Chaser's Charles Firth all have columns in the new-look publication which will be posted to 100,000 AWU members as well being sold to non-members through news agencies.
The Australian Worker is being published for the AWU by ACP Custom Media, part of Kerry Packer's giant ACP publishing group.
AWU national secretary Bill Shorten said the Australian Worker had survived 114 years to be the longest continuously published labour journal in the world.
"We are proud to revamp The Worker to entertain and enlighten a new generation of working Australians," Shorten said.
The launch cover features ALP federal leader, Mark Latham.
PSA members at Q Stores and cmSolutions, printing business units within the Commerce Department, have imposed a range of bans in response to plans to hock the services off to private operators.
Workers are demanding a full public audit into the costs of replicating services put on the block and assurances of no job losses in the interim.
Meanwhile, representatives of 2250 public school admin staff have called for the resignation of Education Minister, Andrew Refshauge, after he declined to act on recommendations that came out of a four-year departmental review.
PSA president Sue Walsh called Refshauge's refusal to act on the review's finding that support staff were worth more money an "extraordinary abrogation of responsibility".
Delegates met last week and voted for a campaign of industrial action to press their demand for more money.
Walsh said they had been "outraged, angry and disgusted" at the lack of recognition for school assistant and senior school assistants.
"The PSA entered into negotiations at the Department's request to address the enormous work overload and work value issues," she said. "It is reasonable to expect the Department will deliver on its findings."
This Working Life
A free exhibition at the State Library of NSW, 1 March - 20 June 2004. Through photographs of employees at work and play and revealing company records, This Working Life is an engaging look at our working past, from 1824 to the 1950s. Drawn from the State Library's little known business archives and associated pictorial material, the exhibition features the Australian Agricultural Co, Colonial Sugar Refining Co (CSR), Anthony Hordern & Sons, Wunderlich, Berlei, Colgate-Palmolive and Chubb - many of which still exist today.
The exhibition is a social history of work, from convict labour, early migrant workers and burgeoning unionism, through the rise of large local companies and women in the workplace, to modern manufacturing techniques and advances in technology. The display focuses on the workers themselves: the people behind the big companies.
I can provide you with any further info you may need. You can view the website to get an idea. http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/
Popular Education, Activism and Organising: with unions, social movements and community development groups
Forum 1: 12 March NEW FORMS OF ACTIVISM
How do activists organise at the beginning of the 21st century? In different fields such as environmental and social justice campaigns, among union activists and community advocates, efforts are being made to recruit, organise and educate members and activists.
What lessons of campaigning and organising can be learned from hearing and discussing the experiences of activists working in these different settings?
What is working? What questions still need to be asked?
Case Studies
Environmental action and activist development - Danny Kennedy, Campaign
Director, Greenpeace Australia and Pacific
Renewing union campaigning - the story of the Hilton Hotel and Westfield
campaigns - Louise Tarrant, Assistant National Secretary, Liquor,
Hospitality & Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU)
Keynote - Kristyn Thompson - NSW Branch Secretary, Australian Services Union (ASU)
James Whelan - the environmental advocacy project, Griffith University
The forum will actively engage participants in discussing and analysing different experiences.
Date: Friday, 12 March 2004
Time: 9am - 2pm Location: Centre for Popular Education University of Technology, Sydney, Jones St, Broadway (Old Fairfax Building)
FEES - $30 for one forum; $50 for two forums; $70 for three forums
For further details contact Lee Malone (02) 9514 3861, Daniel Ng (02) 9514 3843 or Tony Brown (02) 9514 3866
email: [email protected]
The $500 billion dollar question. The impact of debt on the poor in the Asia Region and beyond.
Key note address by Peter Garret addressing the impacts of debt on the environment.
Other speakers include:
Prof Ross Buckley, Fisher Centre Bond University
Prof. Leonor Briones, Former Head of the Philippines Treasury
David Nellor, Senior Resident, IMF, Indonesia (tbc)
Prof. Jomo K.S., University of Malaya
For the flyer please go to http://www.aidwatch.org.au
Cost : Government/business/academia: $77.00 NGO/individual: $44.00 Concession: $22.00
When: Wednesday 24 March 2004. 9.00 am - 3.30 pm.
Where: Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Level 60, Governor Philip Tower, Young St, Sydney
RSVP: 15th March to [email protected]
Supported by
Columbans
Fischer Centre for Global Trade & Finance
Jubilee Australia
AID/WATCH
Struggles, Scabs & Schooners II - a labour history tour with a pint
2pm
20th March 2004
Starts at the Star Hotel (cnr. Sussex & George Streets, Sydney)
Stopping in at four pubs, with speakers including Jack Mundey, Harry Black and Tom McDonald.
(By popular demand: dinner will be at about 6:30pm, and will be the last pub we stop at)
Cost: approx $30 (we will confirm shortly) - includes bus, dinner and water. Drunkenness is extra, singing is free...
RSVP: ASAP to Chris ([email protected]) or Michael ([email protected])
Places are very limited (mostly 'cause its a bus!)
Cheques can be made out to Chris Gambian c/- FSU PO Box A2442 Sydney South 1235
See you there!
Adelaide International Workplace Conflict Conference - 21-23 April 2004
Holiday Inn on Hindley (formerly the Novotel Adelaide), Hindley Street.
The workplace mirrors the world - dealing with conflict at work
Conflict is a characteristic feature of most workplaces and has many manifestations. Its impacts can be positive or negative. The conference will look at the sources of workplace conflict and its management. It will be of interest to human resource practitioners, advocates, legal practitioners, health professionals, conflict resolution professionals, educators, OHS&W practitioners and representatives, workplace change consultants, unions, employers, government agencies, academics and policy makers.
Keynote Speakers
Dale Bagshaw, University of South Australia, Australia.
Richard Bonneau, Los Angeles Police Department, US.
Pat Ferris, Organisational Consultant, Canada.
Eric Lee, LabourStart, UK.
Patricia Mannix McNamara, University of Limerick, Ireland
Mark Thomson, Author, Australia.
Dieter Zapf, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany.
Conference Themes
Privacy & Confidentiality - "Email is Forever"
Workplace Cultures & Managerial Fundamentalism
Workplace Grievance & Dispute Procedures
Training for Managing Conflict
Conference Registration Information:
Registration fee: $545
More information, including registration forms, can be found at the conference web site:
www.eventstrategies.com.au
E v e n t S t r a t e g i e s P t y , P O B o x 4 8 6 , U N L E Y , S O U T H A U S T R A L I A 5 0 6 1
T e l : 6 1 8 8 3 7 3 4 5 8 0 E m a i l : c o n f l i c t c o n f @ e v e n t s t r a t e g i e s . c om. a u
WHEN WORKERS UNITE - FOUNDATIONS OF TOMORROW
An exhibition of banners, badges and posters produced by trade unions, and original artworks by Jeff Rigby highlighting the strong historical role unions have played in the creation and conservation of our built environment, whilst May Day materials emphasise the workers' achievements in gaining and maintaining the rights and conditions of those who built it.
From: 1st May to 16th May 2003 at Braemar Gallery, 104 Macquarie Rd, Springwood
Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10.00am to 4.00pm
Carole Goldsmith has said what a lot of us feel - our nation has let down the workers of Australia by taking away bulk billing. And I'd like to see Gough Whitlam return too; he was the last real Labor PM who represented the workers.
Sue Bagust
ALL G.P.�s should again Bulk Bill.
Please be advised that the Federal Liberal governments apparent desire to remove the Right of ALL Australians to healthcare is:
- IMoral
- discriminatory of a basic need
- UNaustralian
- INdecent
- UNcharacteristic of John Howard to propose such a UNliberal policy
- UNChristian
- dragging us DOWN to the same level as the Americans!
Voters will NOT stand for it !
Yours Disappointingly,
Dominic
Your article "Stop or You'll Stay Blind" was misleading and suggested that Royal Blind Society unfairly disciplined 12 staff, some of whom were vision impaired, in relation to one offensive email. This is not the case.
After seeking industrial relations advice, Royal Blind Society has spoken to a number of staff in relation to regularly sending and receiving large quantities of emails that were in bad taste, sexist and offensive over a number of months. This material ranged from offensive jokes to images of the bodies of dead accident victims and pornography.
Four staff were suspended on full pay and asked to respond to the allegations in writing within three days. During this time at least two of them sought union advice.
All four tendered their resignations at or before the time they were due to respond. Two others received a warning and the staff member associated with the pornographic material was dismissed. None of them were blind or vision impaired.
All staff are informed of Royal Blind Society policies and procedures through the induction process with the staff manual forming part of all our employment contracts. Staff are also reminded of key policies through the monthly staff newsletter.
Staff who have been identified as breaching this policy are being treated in accordance with the Royal Blind Society counselling, warning and dismissal policy.
As you would appreciate, Royal Blind Society has a responsibility to ensure that funds generously donated by the community are wisely spent. While we know staff will inevitably send a small number of personal emails, Royal Blind Society management will not tolerate anyone using the Royal Blind Society email system to circulate inappropriate material, especially with attachments, that could be considered as sexist, obscene, vulgar, discriminatory, insulting or bad taste.
We will continue to provide the highest quality service to people who are blind and vision impaired in NSW and the ACT and any non-business activity that diverts our funds away from core service delivery will not be tolerated.
John Landau
Chief Executive Officer
Because rail workers have always been employed under the federal award system, they have been subject to Reith's laws since they came into force, but this week was the first time the reviled section 127 orders were utilised against them.
Section 127 is anathema to the unions for two reasons; first it gives the Industrial Relations Commission the power to outlaw industrial action on the grounds of economic impact; and secondly, it provides hefty penalties against individual workers if these orders are breached.
When the laws came into force, unions campaigned strongly that 'economic impact' was no reason to over-rule a workers' right to strike - indeed the ability to strike where there is an economic impact is one of the few leverages a worker has.
But even more obnoxious are the penal provisions that, unlike the NSW Labor model, can see workers personally punished for participating in industrial action.
In defending his decision to run section 127 to his disillusioned Caucus colleagues this week, Transport Minister Michael Costa attempted to portray the workers as reckless recalcitrants, who are hell bent on resisting drug and alcohol testing at work.
This glosses over the fact that unions have never denied the testing for drug and alcohol - they just want it to be part of an agreed disciplinary policy that treats substance abuse as a health and safety issue, rather than grounds for summary dismissal.
But even if you accept Costa's justifications, it still goes way across the line of how a Labor Government should treat workers acting through their union.
You either accept a cooperative framework or you don't and, by stepping outside the NSW industrial relations model when things get a little hard, Costa has delivered a free kick to the Howard Government.
And how can rail workers embark on their upcoming Enterprise Bargaining negotiations with any sense of confidence that their employer will treat them with respect and decency, when it's already signalled they're prepared to make them pay for any industrial action they take.
In a week when the NSW Parliament rejected a proposal to ban drunk MPs from the House even as one pickled member got sprung, you really have to ask yourself who should be getting swabbed.
Peter Lewis
Editor
Search All Issues | Latest Issue | Previous Issues | Print Latest Issue |
© 1999-2002 Workers Online |
|