E D I T O R I A L

When the Truth Hurts
Some rare moments of candour this week have vindicated all we’ve been saying about WorkChoices and more.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Rock Solid
Bill Shorten gives the inside story on the Australian Workers Union's involvement in the Beaconsfield rescue.

Industrial: Eight Simple Rules for Employing My Teenage Daughter
Phil Oswald bought up his kids to believe in their rights; so when his 16-year old daughter was told to cop a pay cut she was never going to take it quietly.

Politics: The Johnnie Code
WorkChoices is encrypted deep in the PM's political DNA, writes Evan Jones

Energy: Fission Fantasies
Adam Ma’anit looks at the big business push behind the 'clean nuclear' debate that is sweeping the globe.

History: All The Way With Clarrie O'Shea
The WorkChoices Penal Powers are the latest in a long line of penal sanctions against trade unions, writes Neale Towart

International: Closer to Home
If Australia can forgive its debt to Iraq, why not to Indonesia and the Philippines, write Luke Fletcher and Karen Iles

Economics: Taking the Fizz
While the Treasurer has been popping the post-Budget champers, Frank Stilwell gives a more sober assessment.

Unions: Stronger Together
Amanada Tattersall looks at the possibilities of strengthening alliances between unions, environmental and community organisations

Review: Montezuma's Revenge
Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in a film about racism and retribution, writes James Gallaway.

Poetry: Fair Go Gone
Employers in the land rejoice, for we are girt by greed.

N E W S

Howard's Advocate Fesses Up

Cowra - Work Slaughter Legal

You're Killing Us - BHP Charged Again

Revealed: Beaconsfield Led AWA Charge

Warehouse Pushes the Envelope

Independent Schools Push Class Warfare

Spotlight on Howard’s Porkies

PM Backs Visa Buster

Sutton Wants Middle Men Probed

ATO Recruiting for WorkChoices

Taxpayers to Fund Ad Orgy

New Deal on Canberra Menu

Appeal for East Timor

Activist's What's On!

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
The Beaconsfield Declaration
As the Prime Minister feted Brant Webb and Todd Russell, their colleagues were outside with a message to the rest of Australia.

The Locker Room
Run Like You Stole Something
Phil Doyle observes that there are some tough bastards out there.

Parliament
The Westie Wing
That fun-loving friend of the workers, Ian West, reports from the red leather of the Bear Pit.

Education
Class Action
Phil Bradley draws the lines between education funding and the current skills crisis.

L E T T E R S

WHAT YOU CAN DO

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New Deal on Canberra Menu

The Accelerated Chef's Apprenticeship Scheme comes with a Code of Best Employment Practice that focuses on training, health and safety, increased wages, and guarantees union involvement.

The Apprenticeship scheme provides a more accessible path to rattling the pans and aims to keep apprentice chefs working in the local industry.

Working with the ACT Government, employer networks, tourism bodies and the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), the LHMU has delivered a shorter apprenticeship program that does not sacrifice quality.

Apprenticeships now run over two years rather than four, with a compressed theory component that focuses on practical experience with the return of a trade test at the end of the course.

Union organiser David Bibo hopes the new code addresses the industry's reputation of poor working conditions for apprentices. Examples of apprentices working 14 to 16 hours per day, seven days a week are not uncommon, he says.

Guest workers also stand to gain as standards are gradually improved. "By exposing a new generation of chefs to better conditions and standards of treatment, we can break the cycle of abuse" he said.

Canberra's diners were shocked when rumours of abuse and exploitation in the kitchens of the capital surfaced. There were particularly unsavoury allegations over the treatment of Filipino guest workers.

These included the case of one worker who was racially abused and threatened with deportation unless he did not eat food scraps from a rubbish bin.

The Code of Practice has received strong support from industry groups including Australian Hotels Association, Restaurant & Caterer's Association and Chef's Network. Bibo maintains "this ensures the legitimacy of the code from an industry perspective and discourages rogue employers seeking to avoid it"

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Last Modified: 02 Jun 2006