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Issue No. 274 | 29 July 2005 |
The Heart of the Matter
Interview: Battle Stations Unions: The Workers, United Politics: The Lost Weekend Industrial: Truth or Dare History: A Class Act Economics: The Numbers Game International: Blonde Ambition Training: The Trade Off Review: Bore of the Worlds Poetry: The Beaters Medley
Combet: Business Can't Be Trusted
The Soapbox The Locker Room Culture Parliament
Yankee Panky Poetry in motion Losing the faith
Labor Council of NSW |
News Combet: Business Can't Be Trusted
Secretary Greg Combet has rejected the Prime Minister's call for employees to "trust" business to exercise its new-found powers responsibly. "Tell that to a James Hardie mesothelioma victim," Combet responded. He called on the government to maintain a system of safeguards and entitlement in the form of enforeceable legal rights. Canberra is preparing a rewritten Workplace Relations Act that will strip away the right to a range of workplace protections, including negotiated rates of pay, unfair dismissal rights and conditions such as penalty rates and four weeks annual leave. Analysts say, essentially, Canberra is preparing enabling legislation that won't, of itself, write existing conditions out of existence but will enable employers to get rid of them. Combet says the Prime Minister's agenda "lacks humanity" and would set Australia on a path of increased inequality and exploitation. He said it was dishonest to promote the community campaign against the changes as being just about unions. "Our opposition is about all working people, their democratic rights and living standards, and the future direction of our country," he said. Meanwhile, key senators have revealed that more than eight million people will lose their guaranteed rights to meal breaks and paid public holidays, under the proposed regime. They say, pay for Christmas Day, Good Friday and Anzac Day will no longer be an automatic right for workers not covered by an award. Family First Senator Steve Fielding and Queensland National, Barnaby Joyce, have both opposed the clawbacks. Melbourne's Herald Sun, last week, quoted a spokesman from Andrews' office confirming public holidays would be excluded from its list of minimum conditions. The rights of working Australians are not "charity" to be dispensed at the whim of business leaders, according to the ACTU.
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