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Issue No. 280 | 09 September 2005 |
The Perfect Storm
Interview: Polar Eclipse Industrial: Wrong Turn Unions: Star Support Workplace: Checked Out Economics: Sold Out Politics: Green Banned History: Potted History International: Curtain Call Review: Little Fish Poetry: Slug A Worker
News Leader in Advertising Stink Vanstone Backs Ciggie Salaries for Detainees
The Soapbox The Locker Room Parliament Postcard
Telstra�s Calling What Poor People? The Day
Labor Council of NSW |
News Equal Pay Unlawful
Amendments to the �Better Bargaining Bill�, passed through Parliament last week, ban employees, at different sites, from asking for similar wages or conditions, even when they are doing the same work.
They make industry-wide strikes illegal, and allow the Industrial Relations Commission to shut down lawful industrial action. The move to block "pattern bargaining" or "equal pay for equal work" comes as the Government's Office of the Employment Advocate is promoting "pattern" individual agreements that cut ruling rate payments and do away with negotiated conditions. The pattern bargaining ban applies only to collective contracts but is silent on AWAs and other forms of individual contracts. The Bill gives third parties the right to seek IRC orders that would halt protected stoppages, and gives the Commission the power to stop protected action when it becomes effective. There are no matching remedies for anyone to challenge employer lockouts. The amendments, defeated three times in recent years, are now headed for the Coalition-controlled Senate. ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, said they were another example of the Howard-led government's "hypocrisy" on workplace relations. "We are now banned from asking for similar wages and conditions across multiple employers," Combet said. "At the same time, the government is actively promoting individual contracts by which employers can reduce the wages and entitlements of employees. "It is blatantly unfair because this law only applies to collective agreements and not individual contracts." Combet said Canberra was taking every step it could to deny Australians the right to collective bargaining. The amendments are forerunners to major legislative change that will remove unfair dismissal rights from millions of Australians, and slash existing entitlements back to five minimum conditions. The suite of anti-worker laws will be backed by jail time, and massive fines for unions, and individual workers, who engage in industrial activity that will be pronounced unlawful. The government plans is legislating for fines of over $100,000 for unions and up to $20,000 for individual members.
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