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Unions Back Shaw Plan

NSW trade unions have backed the NSW Attorney General Jeff Shaw's plan to protect workers entitlements and will campaign to shame the Howard Government into embracing it.

	Oakdale Miners Address Labor Council

Workers will rally in Sydney next Thursday as Commonwealth and State corporations ministers consider the Shaw plan to protect accrued leave entitlements when a company goes bankrupt.

Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says the rally will mark the start of a campaign that would continue until the the Howard Government is shamed into action.

"The NSW Attorney General has devised a plan that represents an important step in protecting the innocent victims of corporate failure," Costa says.

Key aspects of the plan include:

- preventing artifical company structures stripping workers of entitlements

- expanding directors personal liability

- ratifying an international convention on minimum entitlements

- analysing the feasibility of compulsory insurance or a wage earner protection fund

- a legal requirement for superannuation contributions to be paid regularly.

"Laws holding company directors personally liable and tracing assets through corporate structures have particular merit," Costa says.

Costa says the laws would be an important step towards the Labor Council's ultimate goal of a series of trust fund established into which employers would be required to pay employees' entitlements as they accrue.

Unions to Rally

Mr Costa said unions across the state would hold campaign leading up to next week's rally to brief workers about the importance of the change.

"They'll be told how Australia is the only country in the OECD not to protect workers entitlements," he said.

"And with 3,000 workers losing their entitlements every year, they'll also be warned it could be them who lose out next."

All workers are being asked to join the rally outside the Governor Maquarie Tower in Farrar Place, Sydney, from 1pm Thursday.

Oakdale Miners Close Up Shop

As for the 254 Oakdale miners thrown out iof work owed $6.4 million, today was officially their last day on the job.

Addressing Labor Council this week , Oakdale worker Trevor Williams told delegates how this marked the end of 27 years service.

Williams says his fellow workers feel cheated, particulalry as the mine's owner, former State Liberal MP Max Dunbier, is still operating other mines, as well as a trucking business and an earth-moving enterprise.

While Williams says the workers will continue to fight for their entitlements, with a meeting with Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith set for early August, their broader aim now is to ensure that this never happens to another worker.

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  Issue 22 contents

»	Workers' Rights Butchered
»	Unions Back Shaw Plan
»	Buddy�s Buddy Still Singing Blues
»	Labour Calls Labor to Account
»	Olympic Gear - Labor Standards Should Apply
»	Ship of Shame into Darling Harbour
»	Cardboard King Seeks Warehouse Showdown
»	Nurses Enter New Years Fray
»	University Under Fire For Union-Busting Tactics
»	Inquiry to Lift the Lid on Public Service Bargaining
»	Currawong Back on Agenda
»	APHEDA Seeks Campaign and Marketting Officer

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Youth Wages Campaign a Must for the Union Movement
»	Cheers for Piers
»	Cheers from Geneva

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