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Youth Wages: Is Bevis a Butthead?

Labor's industrial relations spokesman Arch Bevis has defended his decision to do a deal with the Howard Government over youth wages amidst trade union cries of sell out, claiming the deal as a victory for workers.

	Young People Protest Outside ALP Office

But the behind the scenes deal with Peter Reith has outraged unions, who didn't know of the impending compromise until it was settled.

Unions like the Shop Assistants Union (SDA), which has 100,000 members aged under 21, are now threatening to withdraw election funding from the ALP.

And the NSW Labor Council has branded the deal as "reprehensible", taken for short-term political advantage.

"If the Labor Party is embarrassed with their relationship with the trade union movement, they should be up front about it," Council secretary Michael Costa told the weekly Labor Council meeting.

While conceding that consultation with the union movement was "not what it could have been", Bevis says the outcome is a win for both the union movement and Labor Party in their efforts to remove discriminatory clauses from awards..

He says the deal represents a back down by Peter Reith in two key areas: it provides a mechanism to remove youth wages from existing awards and kills outright Reith's push to extend youth wages to areas where they do not currently exist.

Responding to criticism of poor consultation, Bevis says Labor's position had been public since June, when Opposition leader Kim Beazley stated Labor would not pursue the option of legislating against junior rates. "What should we have done? Backed legislative changes that would never pass through Parliament?"

So why the outrage now? Bevis says he was genuinely surprised that Peter Reith agreed to compromise in the areas he did, meaning a deal was stitched in a short period of time. And given the lack of feedback from the June announcement, Bevis says he moved to stitch a deal that he believes is a victory.

"A lot of the heartburn this week would have been avoided if the union movement had signalled a difficulty with our position in June," he told Workers Online.

But union officials are seething that a proposal to lift the youth wage for 18 and 19 year olds has been discarded in the negotiating process.

And several young union officials say they had received assurances by the Opposition Leader that Labor would not renege on this part of the reform proposal. "We spoke informally to Beazley to seek assurances that we could campaign on this issue and not be setting ourselves up for an embarrassing defeat," says one.

As Peter Reith watches the bombs go off around the labour movement, he must be savouring the prospect of some more "political defeats" like this one

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  Issue 28 contents

»	Shock New Stats! Readers Desert Newspapers
»	Surfing the Wave
»	Vizard Smokescreen Clouds Computer Deal
»	Youth Wages: Is Bevis a Butthead?
»	Which Bank Harasses Sick Workers?
»	SOCOG Eyes Wide Shut on Games Gear
»	Scully Uses Reith First Wave Against Rail Workers
»	Reith Building Blitz Hits Bum Note
»	Entitlements Focus Shifts Back to Woodlawn
»	Fresh South Coast Ballot Called
»	"Big Drum Up" For East Timor
»	Eric Lee Public Forum

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Vizard: Net Content Is Vital
»	No, No, No to MSN Model
»	The Vizard deal. Is it another great deal for you!!!!???

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