
Issue No 31		17 September 1999

News

Lees Backs Freeloader Laws

Democrats leader Meg Lees has backed a push by NSW unions to levy service fees to non-union members when they secure a pay rise for them.

Presenting the Sir Richard Kirby lecture in Wollongong this week, Lees said the service fee was one way of dealing with the problem that fewer workers were represented in wage negotiations.

"The award system is central to Australia's wage equity system. The fact that up to 40 per cent of private sector workers might be outside the system is deeply disturbing to anyone interested in wage justice," Lees said.

"Given that union membership is now down to just 20 per cent in the private sector, and as low as 11 and 13 per cent in the fast-growing hospitality and business services sectors, it's time to ask whether the responsibility of maintaining awards should be left solely to the unions."

Along with the service fee, Lees said the Democrats supported establishment of an Employee Advocate to represent non-unionists.

The service fee was raised as part of a spirited defence of the Democrats performance on industrial relations since 1996. Claiming that the real "first wave" of industrial reforms occurred under Keating and Brereton, Lees argued that the Reith 1996 package had delivered a fair outcome - largely because of the Democrat amendments.

But she warned the Howard government not to expect the same level of co-operation this time around.

"The political context for the 1999 bill could not be more different than that which we faced in 1996," Lees said.

"There is no prospect of this bill forming the basis of a double dissolution election. We can and we will consider this bill solely on its merits. We will ask the question: is this bill a fair and reasonable legislative response to the workplace relations issues of the moment?.

"At first glance, the bill appears to contain many provisions that are unnecessary, unfair or unbalanced. If passed in full, the 1999 reform bill would significantly reduce the powers, standing and independence of the Commission. It would also reduce the capacity of unions to protect the rights of their members."

The Reith Second Wave package will be considered by a Senate Committee later this year.

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Issue 31 contents

Interview: Sadly Vindicated
Labor�s foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton has spent the past year warning that East Timor would explode without a UN peacekeeping force. Now he�s had to watch his predictions come true.

International: In the Bunker
One of the last reporters to leave East Timor, Workers Online's HT Lee remembers the week that Dili burned.

Republic: Tarred With the Same Brush
Neville Wran asks why it is that the most fervant monarchists are also the most eager union-bashers.

Unions: Hard Labour
Prisoner educators argue more attention needs to be given to rehabilitation through teaching, but they�re facing an uphill battle to convince authorities.

History: Labour and Community
A history conference in Wollongong next month will look at the changing role for labour into the next century.

Review: Bobbin' Up - 40 Years On
Forty years after its first publicaton and several European translations Bobbin Up, a classic of industrial fiction, is coming home.

Satire: East Timor Poll Triumph: Support for Jakarta Up 21 Per Cent
The Indonesian Government has declared that it is pleased with the result of the independence referendum in which 21% of East Timorese voted in support of maintaining links with Indonesia.

» Asylum Call for Independence Supporters

» Nurses Collect Vital Medical Supplies

» Industrial Faction for Pre-Conference Caucus

» Lees Backs Freeloader Laws

» Outsourcing Decision - Banks Under the Gun

» Reith Forces Truckies to Speed

» He Talks the Talk - But Can He Walk the Walk?

» Commission Tells AGC to Get Into the Nineties

» Cost-Cutting Puts Clinical Waste in Landfill

» Prisons Reject Free Computers

» US Defence Giant Eyes Welfare Sector