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Issue No. 293 20 December 2005  
E D I T O R I A L

Waves of Destruction
2005 was the year book-ended by two waves of destruction - the first causing untold suffering across the Indian Ocean; the second reawakening our darker angels on beaches closer to home.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Back to the Future
James Gallaway collars Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, on threats, challenges and opportunities.

Unions: A Real Page Turner
Jim Marr glances through Workers Online’s 2005 news stories and finds there is more one way to skin a Rat

Industrial: The Pin-Striped Union
Rachael Osman-Chin profiles a white collar union that is having some almighty blues.

International: Around The World In 365 Days
It was a year of online activism, as LabourStart's Eric Lee reports

Legends: Terrific, Tommy
Jim Marr tackles a champion.

Your Rights At Work: Worth Fighting For
The Your Rights At Work campaign has been a big part of this year and, as Phil Doyle reports, it is making a difference.

Politics: The Year That Was
Frank Stillwell looks at year that saw the politics of fear; and finds many reasons to be very afraid.

Economics: Master and Servant Revisited
Evan Jones asks if the Neo Liberals are taking us back to the future

Culture: 2005: The Year of Living Repetitively
Nathan Brown ignores Oasis and decides to look back in anger after all

Bad Boss: The Bottom Ten
Nathan Brown digs through his voluminous dirt files and comes up with the top 10 grubs of the year.

Religion: Hymns from a Different Song Sheet
James Gallaway on the Way, the Truth and life according to Brian.

N E W S

 Melbourne Burns AWAs

 Corporates Defend Costello

 Speaker Won't Talk

 Bank Pays on Dodgy Contracts

 Plan to Save Jobs

 Harper's Bizarre Excuse for Failure

 It's Not Fair: Business

 Workers Walk As Warnings Wiped

 Teenager Hit With Shrapnel

 Pay Day “Unlawful”

 Tassie Rail Win

 Professionals Fear for Their Kids

 Boss Pings Rorters Charter

 New Ways to Take a Share

 An Hour of Need

 Boeing Steals Christmas

 Trouble at the Mill

 Activists What's On

C O L U M N S

Predictions
The Crystal Ball
Workers Online consults a raft of leading psychics to find out what readers can look forward to in 2006.

The Soapbox
The Things People Say
It was a year of quotable quotes, reports Phil Doyle.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
Ian West checks the rear vision mirror on 2005, and plants his foot down

The Locker Room
The 2005 Workers Online Sports Awards
After years of being overlooked by selectors at club, representative and national levels, Phil Doyle and Jim Marr, agreed to hand out our 2005 sports gongs.

Postcard
Postcard from East Timor
In East Timor entertainment also spreads an important message into the community

L E T T E R S
 Pension Pinching
 Free to Rat
 Tax Cuts and Cockroaches
 Proportion, Not Distortion
 Corp That!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Pay Day “Unlawful”


It will be unlawful for millions of Australians to ask for a pay day under federal government's Workchoices legislation.

The law, which green lights third part interference in collective agreements, decrees that negotiated clauses providing for weekly, fortnightly or even monthly pay days are "not allowable".

Any clause can be rendered "not allowable" by the Workplace Relations Minister and anyone who subsequently asks for such a provision is liable to imprisonment.

Under Workchoices, it will be "not allowable" for any award to require how and when employees must be paid.

"The guarantee for every employee under the award safety net to be paid regularly and on time has been taken away," ACTU secretary, Greg Combet, confirmed.

"Under John Howard's system it will be legal to pay staff once every three months, or even once a year.

"This is one more example of how these IR laws strip away the most basic workplace rights of Australian employees.'

It is also an example of how far the federal government is prepared to go to limit the ability of negotiators to strike collective agreements that suit their circumstances.

Workchoices specifies a number of common, agreed clauses that will be unlawful in future. Most go to trade union recognition but others strike at basic protections negotiated by workers.

Clauses that seek to protect job security and negotiated minimum rates by limiting, or requiring negotiation, on the use of labour hire, casuals or contractors are "not allowable".

Some state laws protects pay days, and pay periods, but a cornerstone of Workchoices is a federal takeover of all state systems.


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