
Issue No 39		12 November 1999

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News

Jockeys Bucked On Compo

Hundreds of jockeys in New South Wales are working without workers compensation coverage while training horses.

The Australian Workers Union is campaigning to improve the provisions of the Workers Compensation Act to ensure jockeys who perform work away from a registered race track have access to workers compensation in case of injury.

Currently under schedule 1 of the Workers Compensation Act jockeys are deemed employees of the race club where they are riding for the purposes of workers compensation. This covers riding in races and track work. However jockeys are not covered if they perform work outside a registered race track.

The AWU claims this is a problem in rural and regional areas as many jockeys are forced to perform work away from the track to secure race rides. The AWU believes it is totally unsatisfactory to have jockeys working and not being covered by workers compensation, and is seeking to expand the coverage of the Act.

The issue came to the unions attention after two jockeys in rural areas were seriously injured performing work away from the track , and had claims for workers compensation rejected.

AWU racing industry organiser Matt Thistlewaite says the AWU has commenced consultations with industry representatives through the NSW Workers Compensation Advisory Council but was facing resistance.

" It is absolutely ridiculous in this day and age to have a group of workers in a dangerous occupation, without workers compensation coverage. The AWU will not cop anything less than full coverage for NSW jockeys," Thistlewaite says.

"Unfortunately the NSW Thoroughbred Racing Board are resisting the proposed amendments, but that is nothing unusual. We will be fighting at all levels of government, and in the public to ensure this amendment gets up. Jockeys deserve the same coverage at work as any other worker and we will settle for nothing less."

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Issue 39 contents

Interview: Let Sleeping Dogs
Republican campaigner Jason Yat-Sen Li dusts off after Saturday�s vote. We ask him: where to now?

Republic: Readers Speak - Kerry the Face to Deface
We asked and you have spoken; Sydney heiress Kerry Jones is the Workers Online choice for desktop doodling, as the official winner of our Defacement of a Nation competition.

Economics: Understanding the Economy
Who was voted thinker of the millenium in a recent BBC Online poll? Karl Marx shooed it in. And another socialist, Albert Einsten, came second.

Unions: Come Fly Away!
With just four weeks to go, Labor Council's Organiser of the year Award is up for grabs. We've only had the one entry ...

Work/Time/Life: Better Times for Casuals in the Sunshine State
The Queensland Council of Unions has mounted a case in the Queensland IRC to increase wages for casual workers by up to $2.00 extra per hour.

International: All Black Fate Looms for New Zealand Right
The New Zealand economic experiment � for many years the cherished role model of the Australian Liberal Party � is just about to face an angry jury.

History: Who Remembers Egon Erwin Kisch?
Egon Erwin Kisch was a well known progressive journalist living in Germany when he was invited by the Australian branch of the world committee against war and fascism to speak at a conference in Melbourne in 1934.

Review: Bizarrism - Strange Lives, Cults, Celebrated Lunacy
The strange story of Donald Crowhurst or how to cheat and become a God.

Satire: Support Surges for Armenian Republic Model
The assassination by gun crazed extremists of the Armenian Prime Minister has been cautiously backed by Ted Mack and the Direct Electionist lobby as a possible new Republican model.

» First Social Audit Win For Rural Road Workers

» Y2K Bug Bites Rail Bookings

» Strikes Hit Schools - Before and After Class

» Olympic Uniforms Row Patched Up

» Charges to be Laid Over Gretley Disaster

» Jockeys Bucked On Compo

» Wag the Dog - Bosses Try the Back Door Strip

» Labour and Alliance Vow to Dump Contracts Act

» Bank Workers Win $3000 Payment for New Years Eve

» Union Organiser Thrown Off Bridge

» Justice at Last for Waterfront Asbestos Victims

» Timor Update: Positions Vacant; Upcoming Events.