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Issue No. 300 | 24 March 2006 |
Of Milestones and Millstones
Interview: Organising In Cyberspace Industrial: How Low Is Low Industrial: Cloak and Dagger Unions: Bad Medicine History: Right Turn, Clyde Economics: Long Division International: Union Proud Politics: Howard�s Sick Joke Indigenous: The year of living dangerously Review: Lights, Camera, Strike! Culture: News Front
RailCorp Shtum On Asbestos Stations
The Soapbox Parliament The Locker Room
Onya, Pete! Blind Johnny
Labor Council of NSW |
News Whinger Draws Fire
The Prime Minister claimed, last week, that the only only Australian who needed to worry about his Government's decision to remove unfair dismissal rights was the office whinger. Unions NSW secretary, John Robertson, called the comment 'offensive and trivialising", to people who had had the courage to stand up for their rights. Over recent years, he said, the following workers had used these laws to overturn unfair behaviour. - A western Sydney mum, sacked by Another World 4 Kids Kindergarten-Pre-school after telling the boss she wanted to take maternity leave to have her first baby. In the case NSW IRC Commissioner, Ian Cambridge, said the injustice of the sacking provided a "case study for the protection provided by unfair dismissal laws." (June 2005) - The director of a Cronulla child care centre, sacked while on holidays, for refusing to sack staff when the business changed hands. - A University of NSW librarian, sacked for signing a union petition The magnitutde of injustice in the first example provoked IRC Commissioner, Ian Cambridge, to describe it as 'a case study' for the protection of unfair dismissal laws. "The Prime Minister's comments trivialise what is a serious attack on the rights of working Australians," Mr Robertson said. "Many of those who make use of these legal protections are working women - for whom job security is vital in their efforts to balance the demands of work and family. "That's why unions are part of a broad community campaign against these changes and will work over the coming 18 months to hold the government to account for its actions."
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