 |
Something Smells
There is something just a little too cute about the NSW government’s discovery of a budget crisis on the eve of public sector wage talks.
Interview: Terror Australis
The Howard Government has just discovered the nation's ports are a terrorist target. The International Transport Federation's Dean Summers has been warning them for years.
Unions: Graeme Beard's Second Dig
Hidden in the Australian Workers Union Sydney office is a mild-mannered industrial officer who once strutted the international cricket stage, writes Jim Marr.
Industrial: The Hell of Troy
On the basis of a couple of hours in the witness box, Building Industry Royal Commissioner Terence Cole described Troy Stratti as "credible". Six men who, together, have known the company director for the best part of 50 years beg to differ.
Organising: Miners Strike Gold
Traditional unions are rediscovering the power of grassroots organising. Paddy Gorman reports from the coal face.
Economics: The Accepted Wisdom
Evan Jones argues that economic policy making has been narrowed and rendered mechanistic and antiseptic.
History: Vicious Old Lady
Despite its Liberal leanings, the Sydney Morning Herald has never been shy of bashing unions, writes Neale Towart.
International: Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Thailand must end its crackdown on Burmese fleeing rights abuses in their military-ruled homeland, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
Review: War Unfogged
Want to go to war but not sure where to start? Look no further than Errol Morris' latest doco-drama for the definitive 11-step lesson plan, writes Tara de Boehmler.
Poetry: TAFE
A TAFE student struggling under the weight of fees shares his wordly wisdom
 Gong Points Death Bone at Iemma
Strip – Howard’s Order to Shoppies
Workers Victory - We’re Legal!
Compo Family Exiled to Peru
Patrick Faces Million Dollar Fines
Water Quality in Budget Back-Wash
Feds Dodge Death
Hard Men Melt Away
Three Cheers for 36-Hour Week
Dili Death "Down to Dollars"
Builder Pleads Guilty
Maternity Plan: Hard Labor?
Life – Cambodia’s Grand Raffle
Thumbs Up for Union Code
Activists What’s On!
Postcard
A Voice for Peace
Palestinian trade union leader calls on militants to lay down their arms while the ICFTU protests harassment of Palestinian union leader. The Soapbox
The Double Standard Bearers
Nicholas Way argues that when it comes to collective action, the Howard Government has different views depending on whether you are a unionist or a small business. The Locker Room
The Fine Print
While the result mightn’t be everything, it does make the back of the newspaper more interesting, as Phil Doyle reports. Politics
The Westie Wing
Ian West crunches the numbers in Macquarie Street and finds virtue in deficit.
War And Peace
Getting Away With Murder
Terrorism
|
| other LaborNET sites |
|
Labor Council of NSW
Vic Trades Hall Council
IT Workers Alliance
Bosswatch
Unions on LaborNET
Evatt Foundation
|
|
|
News
Workers Victory - We’re Legal!
Our loyal readers have won the legal right to receive Workers Online emails on their office computers under ground-breaking privacy laws announced by the Carr Government this week.
Following a four-year campaign by unions, NSW will become the first state in Australia to prohibit employers filtering union emails through office servers.
Several employers, including Channel Seven have prevented unions communicating with members during industrial action by filtering out all message coming from the union.
Unions have argued this is .an inappropriate use of employer power, likening the right to receive union emails to the well-established principle of union noticeboards in the workplace.
The break-through is part of a package of measures that will be covered by the Email Surveillance Act, which also includes:
- employers requiring a court order before they can covertly spy on worker emails
- and employers being required to develop a code of email usage in consultation with workers before they can overtly monitor usage
These measures will bring computer monitoring into line with the right oif workers not to be secretly filmed at work.
The NSW Labor Council secretary John Robertson said the move was truly an historic development and a recognition that workers using computers at works have privacy rights.
"By bringing legislation forward the Carr Government can rightly claim to be taking an national leadership role in respect of workplace rights."
Robertson says the Labor Council would continue to work constructively with the government to ensure the passage of the legislation in the current session of Parliament.
 View entire issue - print all of the articles!
Issue 215 contents
|
