Under the changes, casual workers who have been in the same job for two years, will be able to take parental leave; while the Industrial Relations Commission will have the power to deem independent contractors as employees.
The government has also committed itself to an inquiry into labour hire and has moved to protect workers with family responsibilities by widening the scope of anti-discrimination laws.
The Carr Government's second term package of reforms, announced to the Labor Council by NSW Industrial Relations Minister Jeff Shaw, also includes improved rights of access for union officials and the first steps towards email privacy at work.
NSW Labor Council secretary Michael Costa has welcomed the reforms and says they will lead to a civilizing of the workplace.
"The Carr Government has introduced a range of measures to give people in new forms of employment the same protection as employees`," Costa says.
"This will not only deliver justice to these workers, but take away some of the incentives that have led to the casualisation of the workplace."
But he said unions would continue to argue for other proposals that the government has not embraced, including the right to levy a service fee on non-union members who receive union-negotiated pay rises.
LHMU Liquor Division secretary Sue McGrath says the package would be of great benefit to her members, many of whom are casual women workers employed in hotels and clubs.
In one instance, a major club in the eastern suburbs told a casual worker with five years experience who sought time off to give birth were told they would forfeit their long service entitlements.
"This is a terrific result for women casuals," McGrath says.
The new industrial relations online service Workplace Express is today quoting Democrats' Senator Andrew Murray as saying he would be more inclined to amend the legislation than reject it outright.
Speaking at the NSW IR Society's conference in Bowral, Senator Murray said that the bill dealt with "problems that had to be addressed".
"I have always said that I am uncomfortable with the notion of unions pursuing standardised logs of claims across an industry that take no regard of the conditions of each enterprise," he said.
But, he said, he also believed that unions and employer bodies had a legitimate right to establish common policy for their members.
"The key issue is whether pattern bargaining erodes enterprise bargaining and results in the enforcement of wages and conditions where workers and employers do not want that."
The Art of Burying Public Debate
Meanwhile, the Senate inquiry into the Workplace Relations Amendment Bill 2000 has placed its first public advertisements, calling for submissions, in national papers today - and has asked for all submissions to be in 'as soon as possible' but no later than next Thursday.
The indecent haste in which the Senate inquiry is being guillotined threatens the rights of all Australians to a decent workplace, Tim Ferrari, the Assistant National Secretary of the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union said today.
"Like a pea-and-thimble trick - in the hope people will be bamboozled and won't see it - the advertisement calling for submissions for the Senate Inquiry is buried in the Friday insert of the AFR, The Review Arts pages.
" The Bill has just been introduced into Parliament, and now is being shoved through a Senate inquiry with this undue haste."
" It is an attempt to minimise the number of submissions,.general public commentary and protests about core changes to workplace rights," Mr Ferrari said.
Mr Ferrari said that in small workplace industries like childcare, hotels, restaurants and security employers will still be able to 'pattern bargain' but their employees will be banned from having the same rights.
"This is an outrageous, unfair and one-sided proposal which deeply affects LHMU members. The Bill can only be portrayed as discriminatory.
After all credit card companies are out there pushing and pushing their products.
This week Meaghan Jones had to confront the reality of her status when she was told she couldn't get a Visa card.
Meaghan - who didn't want us to use her real name 'cause she was embarrassed that the credit card company had given her a big raspberry - rang the Child Care Union after that and wished them well in their current campaign to improve child care pay and defend their conditions.
The case goes back to the Industrial Relations Commission again next Tuesday (May 23).
Meaghan Jones told the LHMU: " Visa told me there were three conditions I had to meet to get a credit card:
� I had to be over eighteen (that was well and truly OK);
� I had to pass a credit check (I got a tick on that); and
� I had to show I would earn over $25,000 this year (I fluffed out here)"
Commissioner Redman will hear the submission of the Australian Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union (LHMU), who represent child care workers. The Union has called eight witnesses, one of whom told of the stress of being left in a room with 12 two year olds.
The Union is opposing an Employer's Federation claim that would
� allow open slather temporary contracts
� virtually wipe out RDO's from the industry and
� cut back meal break entitlements
Earlier this week Child Care workers held a boisterous rally in front of the Commission to back their opposition to the employer claims and support the Union push for a $41 per week wage increase.
The LHMU submission argue strongly against the child care employers demand to provide temporary contracts in the industry and is supported by the Labor Council of NSW.
Already between 13 per cent to 20 per cent of the industry - which employs more than 15,000 workers - involves a casual workforce.
" If the employers win this demand to employ child care workers on a temporary basis for part of a year it would significantly reduce wages," Sonia Minutillo, Executive Vice-President of the Child Care Union in NSW said..
For example an employee taken on for a nine month term - and then there is a period of 3 months before their next engagement - would effectively earn 75 per cent of what a permanent employee would earn.
" The commitment to a career in child care would be undermined by the temporary contracts, experienced workers would drift away into alternative jobs where they wouldn't have to worry about the insecurity of temporary work... and low pay," Ms Minutillo said.
While there is much talk about general pay claims, many unions have recently settled agreements that will lock in pay rates for several years.
Instead, NSW Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says a test case in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to protect the value of workers allowances' could be the vehicle to match any CPI rises occurring after July 1.
Costa says workers in most occupations receive allowances for meals, uniforms, tools, accommodation and travel that have a specific dollar value attached to them.
"These will clearly be eroded by any GST price rises; opening the way for a claim for increases to maintain the allowance," he says.
"A test case from one of these industries could then become a benchmark for other occupations delivering a statewide adjustment."
Costa made the comments after the Independent Education union criticised the ACTU's "campaign by press release" on the GST which it fears will create an expectation of general pay rises amongst members.
The IEU, which has recently completed negotiations for a four year deal, says members had been advised that a GST clause in their agreement was not possible to achieve.
"Peak bodies ... should try and avoid making statements which seem to apply to all workers and which ignore the range of agreements not up for negotiation," IEU state secretary Dick Shearman says. "This is particularly so in areas where they cannot deliver."
The decision by Transport Minister Carl Scully and endorsed by the NSW Cabinet delivers an important win for unions who have spent the past two years arguing the policy was wreaking havoc on rural communities.
In that time track work, once carried out by Rail Services Australia (an offshoot of the State Rail Authority), has been one by commercial giants such as Transfield.
Rail unions have argued their members in RSA were disadvantaged in the tendering process, because of the superior public sector pay and conditions and the equipment they had at their disposal.
The failure of RSA workers to win the contracts hit local communities where they lived, with the successful private companies trucking in workers from outside the area.
The issue of competitive tendering was raised at last year's State Conference and has been referred to a special sub-committee of the State Labor Consultative Committee (SLAC).
Unions had been backed by local Labor MPs, particularly in the Hunter region, where track maintenance had again been up for grabs.
The Australian Services Union's Mark Ellery says the decision is an excellent result for RSA employees and the regional communities that depend on their jobs for economic viability.
by Rohan Cahill
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is seeking discussions with Joy senior management in South Africa with a view to helping ensure "the dispute is satisfactorily resolved".
This indication of international support came as the Joy dispute continued to escalate.
In what has become a daily routine during the last fortnight, police removed picket line supporters hindering the operation of a relocated Joy workshop in Wollongong manned by nine breakaway workers.
By Tuesday this line had swelled to 200-strong, and police reinforcements were called in to forcibly break it up.
On Thursday another Wollongong workshop doing Joy work was discovered, allegedly employing retirees at $6 per hour. This site was occupied by 150 protesters until the arrival of police. No arrests were made.
Joy management responded to the escalation by successfully extending injunctions restraining the activities of the three key unions involved--the AMWU, the AWU, and the CEPU. South Coast Trades and Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris was added to the list.
There were sabre rattling media reports during the week with a Joy spokesman alleging contempt of court orders by unions, and seeking massive damages claims. Company video surveillance teams have been conspicuous around the pickets.
Back on the Highlands, some 70 kilometres away, the locked-out Joy workers continue to maintain the original picket, union pressure having thwarted company attempts to remove encampment site-sheds. Overnight temperatures are approaching zero degrees.
In other developments, Joy management has approached workers individually by phone, seeking what the picketers contemptuously describe as scabs. At the same time an anonymous, insidious, sophisticated letter is circulating amongst the wives of the workers, seeking to enlist them to the company's cause. Contempt for the company is increasing.
As I write, Joy workers are preparing to confront the architect of their woes, Federal Minister for Employment Peter Reith.
Reith is the author of the industrial laws Joy has used against its workforce; he is soon due in town to brief the local Chamber of Commerce on industrial relations.
A warm reception is planned.
by Paddy Gorman
Around 330 Union mineworkers will walk off the job from this Sunday (21/5) with the Mount Thorley operation out for 7-days and Howick out for 5-days.
With Rio Tinto moving to merge Howick with Hunter Valley No. 1, management is using the threat of retrenchments to stand over the mineworkers there. This has led to enormous frustration throughout the Howick workforce and Rio Tinto's callous refusal to address the retrenchment issue in talks with the Union, has sparked next week's industrial action there.
At the same time, Rio Tinto has refused to continue enterprise bargaining negotiations at Mount Thorley.
The company continues its erosion of conditions at the mine with more contractors and staff being brought in to do work at the expense of the permanent mining workforce.
Both strikes are a declaration by the mineworkers to Rio Tinto that their patience is exhausted and the time has come to take a strong stand.
Meanwhile, Hundreds of mineworkers fighting unfair dismissals against Rio Tinto will be joined by protestors from NSW, Queensland and WA in a rally outside the company's Annual General Meeting to be held in Brisbane next Wednesday.
Members of Sydney University's Political Economy group are offering free classes to activists from community groups, trade unionists and student unionists.
The aim of these classes is to empower activists to understand and deal with orthodox economic arguments.
Next Meeting
Please note the change of venue for the June class, in the semester break. This class will be at the Common Room in the Holme Building (Parramatta Road side of Sydney University). This change is because of the semester break. In second semester (July to October) classes will revert to the Wentworth Building level 5 (City Rd side).
Wed 14 June, 6.00-7.30pm - Deregulation competitive efficiency - reregulation - oligopoly competition Holme Building (Parramatta Rd side of Sydney University)
Common Room - Presenter: Dr Tim Anderson
Enquiries: Tim Anderson (series coordinator)tel: 02-9660-4580 mailto:[email protected]
Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians are expected to march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to demonstrate their commitment to reconciliation.
Those wanting to march under the Unions NSW banner are asked to assemble in St Peters Park, Blues Point Road, North Sydney at 10am
Because of the large number expected, participants are encouraged to get to north Sydney by public transport.
by Andrew Casey
Fiji's trade union movement has played an important role in the struggle for democracy in that country.
The union-aligned Labour Prime Minister of Fiji, Mahendra Chaudry, and members of his Cabinet are being held in Parliament House by armed men with AK-47s.
Mr Chaudry,who was the leader of the Fijian TUC, and before that the Secretary of the largest union in the country, the Fiji Public Service Association, has been threatened by right-wing racist elements talking 'coup' for the last six weeks.
Apart from Prime Minister Chaudry about a third of the Fiji Labour Cabinet were former union officials - and many Labour Party backbenchers held senior union posts at the same time as being MPs.
( A good website for up-to-date information about what is happening in Fiji can be found at www.fijilive.com)
Mr Noriyuki Suzuki, the General-Secretary of the Asia Pacific section of the International Confederation of Trade Unions - known as the Asia Pacific Regional Organisation (APRO)- has expressed grave concern for Fiji*s Labour Prime Minister.
Mr Suzuki said the coup issue has special significance for the union movement.
" The APRO affiliate in Fiji, the Fiji TUC, was a major force in the struggle for, and eventual restoration of, democracy in Fiji following the military coups in 1987.
" In the face of sometimes considerable pressure, the FTUC has maintained its stand of a united Fiji, ensuring that the Fiji labour movement cuts across race and works in the best interest of all people living in that country," Mr Suzuki said.
( Union activists can send messages of solidarity to the National Secretary of the Fiji Trade Union Congress, Mr Felix Anthony, at the following e-mail address: [email protected])
The coup participants today stormed Fiji*s Parliament House, where shots were fired, after a march through the capital, Suva, by about 5000 demonstrators.
The Fiji Labour Government has been in power for just one year. The only previous Labour government was tossed out in 1987 *. also by a coup.
In each case the main rallying call of the coup leaders was to claim that the Labour Government was dominated by Indians.
The Indian community, brought to Fiji by British colonialists mainly as indentured labourers for sugar plantations, now form nearly half the population of this island nation.
Earlier this week the Health Minister in Mr Chaudry's Government claimed that the right-wing Opposition and a former member of the Fiji intelligence service were linked to plans by members of the Fiji Nurses Union to hold a national strike.
The Nurses Union - with 1300 members around the country - is one of the strongest unions in this small Pacific Island state.
The grievances of the Nurses, who went on strike last Friday, were arbitrated in urgent weekend talks and resolved by Monday morning.
Since the end of last year the Fiji Nurses Union has been in an on-again, off-again industrial dispute with the Labour Government.
The coup has happened just as Fiji has come out of a two year economic recession, according to the Asian Development Bank.
The swing out of the recession has been in good part due to the extraordinary growth of Fiji*s textile industry which employs 19,000 people - mainly Fijian Indians - toiling for between $A 1.00 and $A1.50 an hour.
The Fijian textile industry has become the second biggest export earner - after tourism - for this Pacific island nation.
The growth of this textile industry has been largely subsidised by the collapse of Australia*s textile industry and special free trade export facilitation arrangements provided by the Australian government.
However these arrangements have recently been declared illegal by the WTO. This could see the unravelling of this new growth manufacturing industry in Fiji.
The man named as "interim PM" of Fiji, as a result of today's coup, is Ratu Timoci Silatolu, a former president of the Telecom Employees Association.
Ironically the man he replaced as leader of the Telecom union, Meli Bogileka, was a cabinet member in the Chaudry Labour Government that has just been ousted by a coup.
Dear Editor,
I enjoy reading Workers Online very much and find it interesting especially the news from other parts of the world. I usually get on via the Teachers Federation website.
How about an article or two about the Labor Party orchestrated vilification and denigration campaign targeting Public School Teachers? What a pathetic Labor Party this is that has to resort to a propaganda campaign to win an industrial dispute. As a (former) Labor voter I'm fuming that they are being allowed to get away with it.
Harry Ladomatos
Nth Ryde.
***********
I too have been surprised by the lack of support for the Teachers Federation (letters, Paul Benedek, WO 12/05/00)by affilate unions of the Labor Council.
Do affilates support the tactics of the Carr Labor government in collaboration with the Murdoch Press to demonise teachers, to encourage scabs to attack the union?
Do any of you have the guts to say to Carr when your swanning around in the back rooms that he should get out and have ago at teaching in one of our less than adequately resourced high schools, out here in the south west?
The Labor State Government have acted in this whole dispute like the grubby politicans they are. Where no lie is too big and no tactic too small,(to quote someone).
Time they were told.
Paul Palmer
**************
I disagree with the criticism of the coverage by Workers Online of the teachers' salaries and status dispute. Workers Online has published a series of good articles on this dispute including "Teachers Deal Still Undone" in the April 14 edition.
Readers should also check the LaborNet live news feed. It has had eight articles about the Teachers Federation in the past two months.
Wayne Patterson
Sir or Madam,
Mr Beazley's response to the latest Budjet was very well received and most informative. However his responses to other pressing issues i.e.Reconcilliation, leave a lot to be desired. The present Government is on the ropes and even the most die hard Conservatives amoungst them must be wondering where did we go wrong?.
But the Howard Government has an Ace up its sleeve, that may indeed see the Labor Party in opposition again. Reconcilliation!I t is a very sad but true fact, that the Aboriginal community have had a past that would have made General Custer proud, and I believe most of the present day Conservative Elites. However the Labor Party is falling for the present debate on this issue hook line and sinker.
Howard for all of his faults which are many is well aware of the fact that most Anglo Saxon Australians couldn't care less about Aboriginal problems and mainly hope the issue would just go away.(I am not one of them).As an ex serving law enforcement officer I have front line experience on the perceptions of other officers and many members of the Public. It is not a good one. Most Politicians wouldn't know an Aboriginal if they fell over one in a flood lit football oval, and much less about there culture and customs.
The only way Reconcilliation can take place in any meaningful application is with a Labor Government, and this can only be achieved by dropping this debate until after the next election. Howard will not apologise as he is well aware the main stream Public is behind him on this issue.
If the opposition keeps this debate on the boil they will give the next election to Howard on a platter.
Regards Phill
Re: Jeff Shaw on the WorkCover Scheme
I think Jeff Shaw is out of touch with workers compensation. He may have the legislative details the latest tort etc, but I cannot see any movement in this area.
In the area of psychological injury most legal firms will tell you to forget it. One large legal firm, stated you would have to be brain dead to get it. It is common that when there is a new development in worker injury/illness that the courts begin to put up buffers. Workcover may have more inspectors but their administrative support is being dealt a blow.
The workers resolution service is just another nail in the coffin for workers. It is entirely up to the employer's insurance agent to decide the fate of the claim. I would like to know how many employees have won to the number that are pushed into the compensation courts? What worker will tackle the legal costs? Go back to the drawing board Jeff!
Paul
(Rail Delegate)
Just a note to let you knw how impressed I am with your links page! It's extraordinary! I just love all your progressive links, like links to the One Nation Party, the Liberal Party, the Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Shooters Party! Like wow!!!
Maybe you should find some really progressive political organisations to link to, like the Ku Klux Klan, National Action or the Nazi Party!
Ainslie
by Peter Lewis
Like everyone else the elevation of the Labor Government in Victoria at this time must have caught the unions a little bit unaware. How has life been in the first six months now of the Bracks Government?
Life has been very busy because having a Labor Government means consultation and it means involvement and that is a good thing. Although you spend a lot of time doing it and sometimes it seems for not much result.
The Bracks Government has already done some creative things. They had an economic summit - it's a bit of a hackneyed kind of thing but it was useful. It set a new tone about the business community and unions working together from a different perspective. The two by-elections we have had - one for the former Premier's seat of Burwood which Labor won, and a seat we have never won, never held in Benalla, which was the former Deputy Premier's seat - shows that they must be doing something right in terms of public perception.
For example, they have abolished contract arrangements in teaching, which up until now has been a major educational issue. We had no contract teachers in 1992. Now nearly 20 per cent of the whole teaching workforce in Victoria is on year-by-year contract. So they abolished that. We also have new workers compensation legislation that is now before Parliament. That's a massive improvement - returning common law rights to workers.
And we've got an industrial relations task force currently looking at a new industrial relations framework for non-federal award workers in Victoria. So that is a step forward. We have got rid of compulsory competitive tendering in local government. So that's been a great boon to the local government workers. It's taken the cut-throat nature of that out area. So I think a lot of good things. And the public perceives a lot of good things.
It's a thousand times better to have a Labor Government than not have one. But then again you can't have illusions about what they will do and how quickly they will do it. Unions who have had seven years of frustration had quite high expectations - only some of which have not been met. For example, the workers compensation legislation didn't go as far as we would have liked. Things like the State Budget where they had a $1.6 billion dollar surplus to play with and still at the end of the day left a $600 million surplus for the next financial year. We would have liked them to put more money back particularly into the current service delivery - and that was a disappointment. So, look, it is a mixed bag and it's never going to be perfect so we keep battling away.
I think the one lesson we learned was that it's always important to have - no matter what your political position at a given time - your policies written down in detail. Some of the things that we wanted we weren't able to point to - promises, documents, whatever - that the new government could be held to.
One of the first things that happened in NSW when the Labor Government came in was that there was a re-regulation of the labour market. I guess it is a bit different in Victoria, given that the federal system basically absorbed the State system under Kennett. What is the challenge before you to reverse that?
It's major. It comes in a number of ways. One: As you say, a lot of the power of the State Government in industrial relations was referred to the Commonwealth - so there is a process of getting that back.
Can you unscramble the eggs though?
Oh, you can. The Government can simply call to have the powers taken back. In Victoria of course we have a minority Labor Government in the Lower House and now, thankfully only one or two by-elections we are only down by - we've got half the number and only need to rely on one Independent. But in the Upper House the Liberals still hold an absolute majority, even without the National Party.
The other problem we have politically is that no matter even if the Government here had the political will to take back power and unscramble the egg, with pressure from Reith would the Upper House here actually allow the legislation through. So it's not just a matter of running a community campaign and getting acceptance of a comprehensive State industrial system with awards and so on. It's actually the politics of how you might get such a thing implemented.
On the one hand you have Reith saying, no, I don't want to implement comprehensive standards with these 700,000 or 800,000 thousand workers in Victoria. And yet on the other hand his mates in the Upper House here are saying, well we are not going to pass legislation - that's a real impasse.
Have you got as far as thinking what the substance of your IR package would be? Would it be modelled on the NSW laws?
Yes, in similar terms but I think our system, because there is not the same culture of State system, would also have its differences. NSW is a world of its own in terms of the history and penetration of State awards in the culture, of having it's own Commission and Industrial Relations Court. Whereas in Victoria we have always had a much higher penetration of federal awards. It's always been a much more outward looking economy in a sense, in terms of the labour structures. And we are not going to put in place something as detailed or complicated as NSW, but we do propose a propose a State Commission and a State Labour Court. But we wouldn't propose to re-introduce 250 State Awards, we would probably have major industry awards being over 17 or 18 industry sectors, plus some occupational awards. It will be a much simpler system and it will be a step-by-step approach, given that at the moment we have 800,000 people who are covered by simply an hourly rate of pay and few other conditions. That is all that they are entitled to.
So, it won't be as complex as NSW, although we are hoping to do some innovative things around the whole issue of independent contractors and unfair contracts, like NSW, or indeed in Queensland the provisions on being able to deem contractors or non-employees as employees. And we hope that the Government will take that up, but we've got a bit of a battle to face. It's not just a matter of convincing the ALP they should do it, it's a matter of how you get it through the Upper House.
What about some of the other substantive issues? One of the ones we have been running with up in NSW is notions of job security and particularly regulation of labour hire and independent contractors. Bob Carr has actually said he'd do this if there was similar movement in Queensland and Victoria. So he's proposing this idea that when you have got Labor States there should be some sort of joint standard where you are not having businesses undercutting each other for major employment centres in the States on the basis of who has got the slacker labour laws. Is that an area that you have looked at yet?
The ALP in their policy promised a review into job security. The industrial relations task force will certainly cover some of that territory, but Labor promised a review into job security. They have also promised legislation which is similar to legislation in Britain. And it is a promise that says legislation should be enacted to protect workers in contracting out situations from having their wages and conditions lowered. So it is set up effectively to implement the Federal Court decisions which we've seen recently, and that's a good thing.
We are six months into the Government. In the next six to twelve months we will see whether people live up to their promises. So, one of the things we will probably propose is to get together the three State Labor Governments with the unions and the Labor Councils in each State to put the test on them. Say, well alright, you are the three biggest economies in the country, everyone has a concern about the casualisation and job insecurity and growth of independent contractors - treating all workers as people who deserve standards, not just employees
How do we do that? And that's something I think we should get all Labor States to tackle. As you say, you are not going to convince one State to do it on their own. so I would be happy to talk to the Labor Councils in Queensland and NSW about how we might do that. Bring the Labor Ministers together and bring the Premiers together to talk about it, because to tell you the truth, and I think even the Labor movement backs away from this - but I think the one winning issue out there at the moment is this whole issue of job insecurity, casualisation, stress because of either long working hours or short working hours. And I reckon the ALP, certainly nationally, haven't capitalised on it.
That's partly I think because they are a bit scared of intervening in the market. But I think this issue of intervening in that way is as important as it was in the early 1900s, to set up conciliation and arbitration systems. We have got to have standards for workers outside the traditional structures; we are going to have more workers from home or we are going to have more independent contractors. Those people deserve some standards.
What is it like running the Victorian Trades Hall? It's got the reputation of being a hotbed of factionalism. I don't think they call them factions down here but fiefdoms. How do the dynamics work?
I actually think that Victoria has, for a long, long time been much less factioned than perhaps NSW. We had a situation in Victoria where for example, the Right controlled the Trades Hall until about 1987. They did it in a machine-like manner and in a fairly controlled way. When the Left gained control of the Trades Hall they only held the Secretary's position and one of the Organiser's positions, and then in 1991 they did a power sharing arrangement with the Right getting the Assistant Secretary's position and the Left with the Secretary's position. That in a sense has worked very well.
The other thing in Victoria is that there is not a large number of right-wing unions. There's the AWU, the SDA the TWU and the NUW - and the SDA is not an affiliate. So there is not a large divide with groups on either side. Eighty per cent the unions in Victoria are on the Left. But that's not to say there are no differences within the Left.
On the other hand in the ALP we had a problem here with Labor in Government, we had a position where the Party is controlled by the Right, and one or two unions in particular have a disproportionate say, and the vast bulk of unions, who are within the Trades Hall feel cut out of that process. So there is indeed a very strong divide between the Government and the unions whereas in NSW one gets the sense that there is a much closer affinity between the Government, and say, the Labor Council.
Are you in the ALP management structure? Are you an officer of the Party?
No. No. Unlike Peter Sams, who I think was both Party President and Secretary of the Labor Council, I have made it very clear that while we support the ALP and help them in terms of elections, I maintain a very strict separation. I don't get involved in ALP matters, in forums, or whatever because I have a view that as a union we ought to have a separate policy position and a separate identity to the ALP, even though the unions founded it and are the core constituency about it. So I just think it would be almost a conflict of interest if I, as Trades Hall Secretary, had a really strong role in the Party. That doesn't stop me having a close association with Ministers or whatever. I just don't get involved in the machinery of the ALP.
That sort of philosophy seemed to come through in the 38 hour week campaign. The message from a distance was: we are different and we've got our agenda.
I think that's true in Victoria. The Labor movement is not as homogenous as it once was, there are differences between white collar unions and blue collar unions and so on. But it is probably true in Victoria - and necessarily so - because Labor has been the party of Opposition - apart from the 10 years in the eighties and now with the Bracks Government. Since 1950 that's the only time in which Labor has been in Government. Trades Hall has been de facto Opposition and the union movement had to have its own policy issues. We have operated for our own survival. Whereas in NSW Labor has been in Government for 40 of the last 50 years. So it's a totally different dynamic that means the union movement here is much more independent of the ALP, much more jealous about a separate policy position, and probably much more likely to be critical of the ALP when it acts against what we regard as our interests.
What about the broader environment in Victoria? Where are the jobs being created and what's driving the economy down here at the moment?
That's a good question. Traditionally in Victoria have disproportionately more manufacturing than say NSW. That has declined over the last few years. We have lost a lot of jobs, particularly to Queensland. I think the growth is coming in the newer sections like IT, some of those services industries, while manufacturing is decling - although like the wine industry and value added industries becoming more important. I don't think tourism and hospitality will ever be what it is to Queensland and NSW, but the services by and large are the growth areas. And so, we are obviously conscious of that and aware unions like construction and manufacturing - while they are as important to the union movement as they ever were - they don't occupy the same place or the same numerical strength.
It's a challenge to come up with symbols that mean things to people in that environment, isn't it?
Absolutely. And that's a contradiction because our militant sections are still those in a few core areas - construction and manufacturing. And that's a good thing. No one would ever want to get rid of that. And they are the people who are able to muster solidarity and so on. Like the MUA.
But on the other hand some of the most important battles that have taken place around workplace change and work. Those services industries and white collar industries create a big challenge - how do we generate both unionism and solidarity and a view that they are just as important? I think that is the real test. If you look at it now, by and large the union movement has moved from blue collar, low wage - to now the average union person is somewhere in the 35 to 50 age, in the wage bracket $30,000 to $60,000, and is predominantly white collar. On the one hand the images people still get of unions are those blue collar militants. You don't knock that, but in fact the bulk of our membership or potential membership is somewhere else, and they have got a different attitude and different culture. So that is a real contradiction for us.
My final question is about your rallies: what is your secret to getting so many people to turn up?
I think (a) it is because we keep doing it. Like anything, if you don't have a culture of doing something, you don't get the momentum. Look, it may seem that we only have a one track strategy, and that is rallies. It's not that. It is just that I think we do the other things - the lobbying and the kind of stuff on the Internet - letters on the Internet for information of members, but integral to every campaign has been that mass mobilisation. It's just a different culture in Victoria. I don't know why. Even if you looked around things like the anti-conscription movement or moratoriums, the anti-apartheid stuff, the Victorian stuff is always much bigger or much different. It is partly to do with the different status of the Left parties here. A different tradition. A lot more politics occurred outside the traditional Labor Council/ALP stuff, and I just think the unions here have just had this history of every year - every six months we will have a rally around something.
1992 was a watershed, when we had 150,000 marching - but we would be very disappointed now on a major issue if we didn't get 30,000 or 40,000 people turning up. That would be small. In the last couple of years - the Second Wave last year - or in '98 in May we had a rally over the maritime dispute - each of those had something between 80,000 and 100,000.
I think what we have got also in the manufacturing area there has been much more of a tradition of stopping work. You think back to the shorter hours campaigns of the late '70s - Laurie Carmichael and others - were led basically from Victoria. There is a tradition of the whole industry stopping one day a month to prove to the employers that they wanted shorter hours. And so you have got workers who still have a memory of doing that kind of stuff. So when the Trades Hall or their union says: "Stop work - go to this" there is at least a tradition of doing that. I just think in some other States there is no tradition there. I don't know, I can't explain it.
Even other States like South Australia have a pretty good tradition. Western Australia for their size have a good tradition. Queensland and NSW don't tend to have that. I don't think it is something because we are better or not, it's just been a different style of approach.
You get more people at the footy too.
Well that's right. We are much more tribal perhaps, where as NSW is much more diffuse. It is an interesting point. I think the difference in politics between NSW and Victoria goes back a long way - and you could argue this for hours - but NSW had a Rum Corps and Victoria didn't. NSW had convicts and Victoria didn't. Victoria had a Split and NSW didn't.
All of those things are part of the matrix of things that make the difference, to both how the union movement is structured and how it responds to critical issues. I mean in some ways we down here actually envy NSW because of that kind of meshing of political and industrial Labor. But on the other hand, I think we guard very jealously that independence and ability to mobilise and do those things, so it is a matter of finding the balance.
In 1996 the Carr Government introduced Labor's Industrial Relations Act 1996 - the cornerstone of industrial relations in NSW.
The Act replaced the Greiner Government's widely condemned legislation and stood in defiance of the Federal Government's undisguised attack on organised labour and workers' rights.
The Carr Government, through its industrial relations legislation:
- ensured an active role for the independent umpire, the Industrial Relations Commission
- required that awards be reviewed every three years
- linked enterprise agreements with the award system
- applied the "no net detriment" test which ensured that no enterprise agreement can, in the aggregate, deliver worse pay and conditions than the relevant award.
In short, NSW Labor stood as the bulwark against the Reith waves of regressive reforms. For the majority of our 1st term, the 1996 IR legislation provided the only fair and productive industrial relations system in the country.
Labor, the political wing and industrial wing, are reaping the rewards. With the election of the Beattie Government, the Queensland Labor Government came to NSW and sought our advise on how best to model an IR system. With the election of the Bracks Government, the Victorian Labor Government came to NSW and sought our advise on how to model an IR system.
NSW's has provided the industrial relations blueprint for the eastern seaboard of Australia. Now Labor Government's in four States are thwarting the Federal Government's agenda to undermine workers' rights and have set up or are seeking to set up practical and broadly supported industrial relations models.
The second term Carr Government went to the electorate with the promise of building and fine-tuning its achievements and with the promise that we would address certain outstanding injustices in the workplace.
We have built and fine-tuned. Latest figures from the NSW Industrial Relations Commission show:
- Awards and agreements filed in the year to December 1999 have increased 93% to 1,925
- OH&S prosecutions have increased 42 per cent to 315
A bill to amend the Industrial Relations Act 1996 is currently being drafted and we hope to have it before Parliament this session.
The Bill will, among other matters:
� Give the IndustriaI Relations Commission the power to declare that particular classes of independent contractors are in fact employees and therefore entitled to all the rights and conditions that that entails. This is a key amendment which is designed to address the evasion of employee status by certain employers. It is also designed to keep the industrial relations system relevant to the growing incidence of work performed outside the traditional employment relationship. In an era of changing work relationships it is vital that our system is organic and takes into account change. The danger is that if we dont, conservative forces will use the opportunity to erode the conditions of working women and men.
� Entitle union officials to give 24 hours notice to employers rather than the current 48 hours before entering a workplace to investigate suspected breaches. Where employee records are maintained away from their place of business, the employer has 48 hours to produce those records
� Enable some employees covered by a Federal award to bring unfair dismissal claims before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission
� Prohibit the sacking of an injured worker while he or she is on accident pay. The Reith agenda of award simplification has led to the removal from some Federal awards of provisions protecting injured workers from dismissal. We would hope that this will provide some protection to Federal award employees who have had this basic right denied
� Give unions the opportunity to become a party to a non-union enterprise agreement where a single member covered by the proposed agreement has requested the union to do so
There are other areas of reform we are progressing or have progressed.
A key recommendation of the Pay Equity report is that the NSW Industrial Relations Commission develop a new Equal Remuneration Principle to guide the valuing of work and the setting of remuneration. The decision by the Commission is currently reserved. Assisting in the development of that principle was a 1999 election promise.
Before the House is a Bill to amend the Anti Discrimination Act to include family responsibilities. An election promise. This will mean that employees forced to take time off to care for a parent, partner or child will be protected from discrimination in the workplace. Employers will be required to reasonably accommodate the needs of employees who responsible for the care of a family member unless it can be shown that it would cause unjustifiable hardship to the employer.
As part of the Industrial Relations amendment Bill, parental leave will be extended to long-term casuals - those who have worked for the same employer for 24 months. An election promise.
The recommendations of the Upper House inquiry into work safety have or are being implemented. An election promise.
We have also added another 25 safety inspector positions to WorkCover making it by far the largest in the country. In the last three years, there has been a 126% increase in the number of prosecutions finalised - an increase from 297 in 1995/96 to 672 recorded for 1998/99.
In other areas, legislation is being prepared to protect outworkers by focussing greater responsibility on companies at the top of the clothing production chain to ensure that the garments they supply are made in accordance with NSW labour standards. An election promise.
The Government, as you know, in its submission to the Industrial Relations Commission, supported the Labor Council's claim for a $15 wage rise in the State Wage Case.
An inquiry is being held into the employment conditions of the transport industry chaired by Professor Quinlan.
With regard to privacy and in particular the privacy of employee email communications and the right of unions to access employer email systems to disseminate trade union information, a Law Reform Commission report on surveillance with a view to legislation should be handed down later this year.
However, after representations by your Secretary, Michael Costa, I have decided to try to speed the process. I have asked the NSW Privacy Commissioner to develop guidelines for the monitoring of email in NSW workplaces.
With regard to right of union access to workplace email bulletin boards, I have asked for legal advise on the State's ability to legislate on this issue as it may be impeded by the fact that it is covered by the Federal Telecommunications Act. Nevertheless, I believe there is a possible way forward for unions by negotiating such rights through industrial instruments. And, where possible, I would encourage you to do so.
You can expect some further announcements in the near future which will address some legitimate concerns of the trade union movement. One of those being an inquiry into labour hire firms and the legal status of their workers.
The Inquiry will seek to clarify the relationship between labour hire companies and host employers and give direction as to employer and employee rights and responsibilites, including occupational health and safety responsibilities.
This is another example of the NSW industrial relations system having the flexibility to adapt to changing work patterns.
We came to Government in 1999 with your support and we came with election promises in the industrial relations arena. These have been delivered , or are in the process of being delivered.
On a personal note, I came to Government in 1995 with the promise that my office would be open to the trade union movement. I believe, I certainly hope, that that promise has been kept in good faith.
In 2000, I repeat that pledge and say that my office remains open to the trade union movement, the Labor Council and its affiliates, and I will seek to address any issues of importance to the best of my ability.
There is wide spread concern in the community that Mr Reith's laws have already swung the pendulum too far against workers.
There is no room for negotiation and compromise on Mr Reith's latest plans. At their heart these proposed laws are biased. They are in breach of international standards and will push the balance further in favour of employers.
A rushed Senate Committee and public hearings process has been designed by the Government to guillotine public debate so that these laws can be introduced on the same day as the Government's inflationary GST.
These new laws, in whatever form, will only make it harder for working Australians to maintain their standard of living in the face of rising interest rates and prices.
In the US it is legal for unions to bargain on an industry basis for agreements covering workers wages and conditions.
In Australia agreements are generally required to be with a single enterprise, and industrial action cannot lawfully be taken in support of a multi-employer agreement.
Australia is already at the bottom of the OECD ladder when it comes to bargaining rights. Now the Workplace Relations Minister, Peter Reith, wants to put Australia even further behind.
Reith Bill is designed to prohibit industrial action where workers are participating in a campaign around common claims and the Industrial Relations Commission thinks this might not encourage agreements at the workplace level.
In reality, it won't matter if the industrial action fits the definition of pattern bargaining, because the Bill also requires the Commission to stop industrial action within 48 hours of an employer making an application, unless the issues can be determined in that time.
Reith says the Bill is to defend enterprise bargaining in the face of union attempts to destroy it.
But it's not about that at all.
The Bill is simply another attempt by this Minister to load the dice in favour of employers by making it impossible for union members to campaign for better wages and conditions. Our existing laws have been criticised on a number of occasions by the International Labour Organisation on this very point, yet Mr Reith is determined to show them the finger by dragging Australia even further away from conformity with international standards.
A union which decided to campaign for GST increases would be prevented from doing so by his Bill, as would union campaigns around issues like maternity leave for long-term casuals, protection of employee entitlements or reasonable working hours.
If enterprise bargaining is to be about more than employers imposing what they want on workers, then unions must be free to develop claims and campaign around them in an industry, or throughout the workforce.
That kind of campaign is not inconsistent with enterprise bargaining, recognising, as unions do, that not all claims will succeed at all workplaces, and that conditions may be implemented in different ways, depending on the needs of the business.
Collective bargaining at any level cannot be fair or effective if workers do not have the right to take industrial action.
That doesn't mean that strikes are necessary for bargaining, but it does mean that if employers know that any industrial action will be stopped after 48 hours simply on an allegation of pattern bargaining, they are less likely to agree to workers' claims.
The gap between unionists' conditions and those of non-unionists has widened since the Howard Government was elected in 1996.
This Bill is about nothing more than driving down the working conditions of union members by making it impossible for unions to do the job of bargaining collectively.
Visit http://www.actu.asn.au to find out how you can support the union campaign against Reith's biased laws.
Greg Patmore at Labor Council |
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by Andrew Casey
Foreign companies are at this moment trying to shutdown the burgeoning Indonesian trade union movement by playing off Indonesia against Malaysia.
The Sony workers - many of whom are members of the Indonesian Metal Workers Union - have staged a sit-in for nearly a month in the plant's export area, but there has been industrial disputation at the site since February.
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Judy Winarno - an official of the Metal Workers Union - told the Jakarta Post that the Sony plant had intimidated workers trying to form an active union by last year firing one union activist - Gama Juliyanto - for no clear reasons.
" The company has stopped workers from receiving phone calls - even from their families - and told workers that they had to report to their supervisors if they want to go to the toilet," Mr Winarno said.
The democratic space created after the defeat of the Suharto regime, and the election of President Wiranto, has seen a blossoming of working class activity in Indonesia.
Everyone from streetsweepers to teachers are forming unions and putting demands on employers and government to improve pay and working conditions.
The visit to Australia next week of Ms Hemasari Dharmabumi, who is the Indonesian representative of the food, agriculture, hotel, restaurant and catering industries union international (IUF), will give Australians another opportunity to get first hand information about Indonesian union activity.
Ms Dharmabumi - who is being sponsored by the Australian union aid agency APHEDA- will be able to outline what solidarity actions unions in this country can take in support of Sony workers and other union activists.
Meanwhile in Malaysia the Government is resisting demands from the Malaysian TUC for the establishment of a minimum wage law, and has banned electronic workers from forming a union.
The President of the Malaysian TUC, Zainal Rampak, says while the Malaysian government doesn't want minimum wage laws most of the country's neighbours - the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and even East Timor - have now established these benchmarks, or are about to introduce legislation.
On the dissident pro-reform website - malaysiakini.com - the Secretary of the Malaysian Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Equipment Employees Union, Syed Sharir, has backed the international union movement's claims that labour issues should be central to international trade talks.
" It's naive to say that labor (and environmental issues) and trade are not linked,' the trade unionist told malaysiakini.com earlier this week.
" To attract more foreign investors, the development of unions in certain countries is hindered ( thus affecting the workers' welfare). In Malaysia, one good example is the electronics industry ," Syed told malaysiakini.com.
The Straits Times in Singapore has quoted a representative of the Indonesian Business Council as saying that at least 20 foreign firms were thinking of leaving Indonesia because of worker protests and shifting to Malaysia.
Malaysiakini.com recently ran a long feature suggesting that the Malaysian government of Dr Mahatir had become a coloniser because ' the most basic trait of a coloniser is to exploit workers'.
The Sony production facility in Indonesia normally has a workforce of 1500 producing about 4000 audio and television sets a day.
But a series of disputes since February has seen production cut by more than a quarter, with less than half the employees turning up for work.
On April 26 the Sony workers - most of them in work uniforms - marched down to the United Nations building in Central Jakarta to protest their treatment and handed out leaflets to motorists asking for their support by boycotting Sony products.
by Stuart Rees and Shelley Wright
In the latter months of 1997 in Sumatra and in the Kalimantan province of Indonesia, forest fires, lit to hasten the forest clearing objectives of large logging and cash crop (especially palm oil) companies, contributed to an environmental disaster. Smoke enveloped a large area of South-East Asia. People died from the heavy pollution and thousands more were treated in hospitals. The economic interests of the ASEAN ruling elites who owned logging companies and pulp and paper mills were described as an ecological time bomb (Aditjondro 1997). In early 1998, following the collapse of the Indonesian economy, the IMF imposed huge debt repayment burdens on the Indonesian people even though it was the corporate interests surrounding the Soeharto regime, with the cooperation of his family and friends, who were largely responsible for the collapse.
In Australia permission has been given to the mine uranium at Jabiluka site in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory. Kakadu is a World Heritage-protected site and one of Australia's most beautiful and significant geographical areas. The legislative enactment of the federal government's 'Ten Point Plan' (in response to the High Court's Wik decision) resulted in substantial amendments to the Native Title Act in 1998. Aboriginal people's right to negotiate native title claims was seriously curtailed. In the first half of 1998, efforts by Patrick Stevedores to change labour practices on the Australian docks involved mass sackings, the use of balaclava-clad security forces and the asset-stripping of the labour hire companies. These and other practices, in particular the company goal to contract non-union employees, were regarded by international labour unions as abrogating human rights.
In the United States, the Clinton administration attempted to broker an agreement between Unocal, a California-based energy company, and the Taliban government of Afghanistan to build an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea across Afghanistan to the Indian subcontinent. These negotiations were opposed by women's organisations on the basis of the Taliban's complete disregard for women's rights. On International Women's Day, 8 March, in 1998 women's groups made the taliban's treatment of women and girls a focus of their protest. They demanded that the Clinton administration refuse to sign any oil pipeline agreement until international standards of human rights were recognised regarding Afghani women's education and employment. In a further deterioration of human rights, the Sunni Taliban government has been accused of ethnic cleansing on a massive scale in northern Afghanistan, which is largely Shiite. A number of Iranian diplomats were kidnapped and killed, resulting in increased tensions on the border between these two countries. It would appear that the oil pipeline will not be going ahead in the near future.
Regarding its policy on trade with China, the Clinton administration adopted a compromise position: talks should occur notwithstanding human rights abuses. President Clinton calls this 'constructive engagement'. Despite this, a highlight of President Clinton's visit to China in 1998 was the high profile given to human rights and the widely publicised discussion of these issues between Clinton and President Jiang Zemin. These talks referred to both the massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and ongoing human rights abuses in Tibet (White House Transcript 1998)). China has reiterated its intention to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and finally signed (but not ratified) the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998. Shortly after Clinton's departure the new UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, the former Irish president Mary Robinson, visited China.
However, despite these promising developments, China's record on human rights remains one of the worst in the world. From late 1998 onwards there has been a renewed crackdown on human rights activists, opposition party organisers, labour unionists and even e-mail list subscribers. Bilateral dialogue does not seem to have produced substantial results, and business interests in China continue to ignore the human environmental impact of their activities (China Report 1998). Unrestrained logging along the Yangtse River basin and the primary focus on the 'Three Dams' project on the upper Yangtse appear to be the most significant causes of massive flooding in China in 1998, leading to the loss of thousands of lives and the displacement of millions of people.
Harry Wu, the Chinese human rights activist who has spent over 19 years in Chinese prisons, says that 'constructive engagement' is merely appeasement. Former prime minister Bob Hawke points out, in his chapter ''Interdependence of business and human rights', that the United States in particular also has serious human rights problems, and that castigating China ignores the major gains made in economic and social adjustment in recent years. If 'constructive engagement' is merely appeasement, it is difficult to see how any dialogue on human rights in the Asia-Pacific region is possible.
Points on a continuum
Each of these clashes between government, business and human rights interests could be located at points on a continuum, starting from an absolutist position that sees business and human rights as unrelated; such an extreme view would mean that human rights protection would not be worth pursuing. Further along the continuum lies a relativist position that says that human rights can be taken seriously under some conditions. Further along still there is a no-compromise position which holds that in every sphere of business activity, human rights are binding and should be observed. This tougher position was given recent support by the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, who called on business leaders and corporations to respect human rights through the imposition and enforcement of codes of conduct which incorporate human rights, workers' rights and environmental standards (Swardson 1999).
These concepts-absolutist, relative, no-compromise-are presented as tools for analysis, but to locate every controversy on this continuum would be artificial. There are at least two other issues that are not addressed in this typology. First, in the tension between business interests and human rights advocacy, an imbalance of power usually exists. Corporations are allied to governments who in turn promote the corporate view that human rights can only be addressed after economic growth has occurred. Or, governments and corporations together argue that human rights would automatically improve if economic prosperity were achieved. Compared with the influence of business interests, human rights constituencies often have only the influence that they can marshal from courageous individuals and groups.
Secondly, state responsibility is an enormously difficult issue in the area of human rights. The primary responsibility for ensuring the protection and enhancement of human rights in international law is the nation-state. Only states can sign or ratify human rights conventions, and only states are accountable before international bodies for their activities in this area. The only exception to this is the possibility for criminal prosecution in national courts or before a specially constituted international tribunal on the basis of principles of universal jurisdiction (or similar arguments) by an individual for crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide or similar egregious breaches of human rights. The new International Criminal Court agreed to by nation-states at the Rome Conference of 1998 will be a place where individual criminal liability can be tried and punished. The possibility that corporate entities might be liable as 'individuals' on this basis has never been seriously mooted. Corporate interests, individuals and non-governmental organisations of all kinds are generally invisible in the eyes of international law.
So how can corporate and business interests be made accountable for human rights abuses that they commit or condone? Perhaps the time has come to think of corporations as criminally liable for their individual actions under international law where they are in grievous breach of basic human rights. The activities of Shell Oil corporation in the Niger delta of Nigeria (involving the dislocation and impoverishment of millions of local people, the destruction of the environment, and a conspicuous failure to act when serious abuses of human rights on opposition such as figures as Ken Saro-=Wiwa were committed by the state) need to be more closely examined under international human rights law. The problem is how to begin the dialogue that is necessary for respect of human rights to apply regardless of who the perpetrators or victims of abuse are.
With the caveat about the power and accountability of different groups in mind, it nevertheless appears that controversies in the relationship between human rights and business interests seem to traverse these positions on the continuum. Through negotiation the absolutist stance gives way to a relativist attitude and compromise settlement. Activists contend that human rights are non-negotiable, and in consequence some corporations and private individuals - persuaded by argument - may recognise human rights, cease their most oppressive activities and redefine their responsibilities.
The most recent examples of this is Australia involve negotiations between indigenous groups and business and pastoral interests over native title to land. In the historic decision of the Federal Court, an agreement resulting from three years of negotiation between the Western Yalanji and pastoral leaseholders Alan and Karen Pedersen indicates that dialogue, negotiation and compromise can lead to an equitable arrangement satisfactory to all parties. The traditional owners of the land north-west of Cairns, Queensland, gained the right to 'camp, fish, hunt and protect significant sites', while the Pedersens obtained a secure perpetual lease on the land. With assistance from the Queensland government, a binding native title agreement was reached. This process bypassed the acrimonious debate on native title which resulted in John Howard's Ten Point Plan. This may indicate that, on a grassroots level,talking 'man to man, and not black man to white man, like humans' and reaching a local agreement can result in real respect fro the human rights of all parties(Meade 1998).
Through dialogue a humanitarian position can be reached which shows that what is crucial for the cause of human rights may also be good for business. On the other hand, recognition of human rights standards may well involve giving up short-term gains for long-term benefits. Regulation of the 'free market' in the light of human rights standards may very well result in the imposition of more onerous standards in environmental protection, workers' rights and human rights for children and other vulnerable groups. Recognition of indigenous land and cultural rights, and better standards in relation to women, may also be more than many corporate interests are able or willing to allow voluntarily. This may necessarily involve a challenge to the prevailing orthodoxies of economic rationalism. That states have responsibilities that may involve concerted and joint activities in curtailing the worst excesses of corporate activities may also be in the long-term interests of those businesses. It may be that this is a task for states that businesses cannot be expected to undertake, given the nature of corporate responsibility and the overriding concerns of shareholders. Getting governments and corporations to understand this and cooperate in these endeavours is a large task for human rights advocates to undertake, but one that may be essential if we are to survive the next century.
by Neale Towart
The new workforce wants and is taking a new kind of flexibility in work and life. Unions need to use this to become a renewed unionism, a social movement engaged at every level of work and life.
The enthusiasm for the organising and broad thinking shown by the green bans, and the recent editorial of Workers Online about how the new type of workforce is OK with the new type of worker, points towards a new type of unionism prepared to take on a broader role and vision.
A recent article on a need for new socialist imagination to counter the limits imposed on us all by the Third Way (ie one narrow way excluding real change) by Panitch and Gindin in Monthly Review (see http://www.monthlyreview.org/300gind.htm) reminds us that unions remain the major organised group who can provide hope for change. The important thing is to take on broader responsibilities, not narrow ourselves to wages and conditions or job security. The new workers you speak of are clearly not centred on their work, but on life generally, and unions need to take that and in and act on the "big picture", just as the BLF did way back when.
They would say that this new type of worker is clearly interested in extending and expanding their capacities as humans, so expectations emerge as to what unions might do. This is a different kind of unionism. It means a defensiveness, but not a static defensiveness, hanging on grimly to what we've got. A unionism committed to developing a culture of resistance. It means being oppositional, organisationally independent, ideologically confident of the legitimacy of demands and insistent on internal democracy and accountability. At the organisational level, it means such things as getting time off for productivity gains; time for education at and away from the workplace; linking health and safety issues to demands about how work is organised and the priorities of technology; internal union education programs to boost capacities and confidence of members.
Much of this might sound old hat, as the BLF was doing this. Mike Cooley and the British Aerospace workers challenged management on technology and priorities. Cooley continued this at Greater London Council while Ken Livingstone was there (Livingstone is back, how about these ideas?), internal democracy is what the NSW Teachers Fed. is being criticised about by the Industrial Commission.
Why have unions been pushed away from concerns on such issues, when in the 1970s they were major concerns. The assault on unions began in the mid 1970s and continues today. Unions have been driven to take responsibility for efficiency in the economy. The official expression of this was Australia Reconstructed. Union members on boards running profit oriented enterprises and superannuation funds are required to look after the finances, not the needs of workers. Problem-solving involves unions looking at ways to improve productivity and so on. This increases the capacities of workers to act like capitalists, not to imagine a different way of doing things. Being on boards limits mobilisation, as many would argue the Accord acted to limit mobilisation as unions served the government in constraining demands. Now those demands are being limited further.
The actions of unions in taking on these positions were a legitimate response to fears about job losses and declines in wages. Insecurity was a big factor. Panitch and Gindin argue that being aware of this problem also makes it possible to approach it a new way.
It has been said that the new knowledge workers are not just sellers of labour power, but providers of and producers in their own right. Panitch and Gindin would argue that it isn't just knowledge workers who are like this in the new economy, but many others as well. Thus the workers are in a position to look at and define the nature and purpose of the jobs. Peter Lewis' sample in Tales From the Shopfloor are like this. Many have made their jobs what they are, be it Sally the union person, Michelle the bush regenerator, Sarah the traveller or Robbie the media presenter. They have made their jobs, the jobs haven't defined them. Thus they can make work responsible ecologically and socially. Society doesn't have to bend to fit the profit orientation of their work. The sample is small but broader themes emerge.
The potential is for unions is to organise workers across different industries. Unions need to be open to the ideas and concerns of the young and the old, workers and workers partners and children, using their ideas to help define what work is, and organising to provide a secure base for workers to be flexible on their own terms, not the bosses. Superannuation funds have become more flexible for people moving around a lot, why not long service leave funds, organised by unions, pools of sick leave whatever. Workers are more than their work and unions need to tap into that.
This also highlights thew need to co-operate and act with community organisations of other kinds, for example with ACOSS concerning the attacks on the social welfare system, with environment groups on environmentally responsible work places, with pensioner associations on failcities for the aged, with public education lobbies to ensure a decent and innovative education system survives and prospers. Unions have members with interests and concerns in all these areas. To attract and keep members unions need to show they are more than industrial organisations, but are social movements representing and articulating the broader concerns of a disparate membership
Gindin and Panitch call this capacity building. The sort of capacity building needed is not the economic capacity of firms or the productive capacity of workers, but the capacity talked about by Saint Simon in the 1820s. "Can the worker develop his intellectual faculties and moral desires? Can he even desire to do so?" They refer to a Barbara Kingsolver novel Animal Dreams. A women asks her lover "Didn't you ever dream you could fly?" He answers: "Not when I am sorting pecans all day." She persists and asks again "Really though, didn't you ever fly in your dreams?" and he replies "Only when I am close to flying in real life...Your dreams, what you hope for and all that, its not separate from your life. It grows right out of it."
For unions to have a future, they have to help people have the capacity to dream, and that starts for unions by recognising and being central to the new workplace, in its many and varied forms.
by The Chaser
Speaking from his office at the Redhead Match factory in Virginia (where he holds a senior position in the Quality Assurance department), the Rain Man confirmed to reporters that he would no longer feel comfortable flying Qantas. In a surprise addition, he also stated that he would no longer feel comfortable working with Tom Cruise in movies saying, "I may be autistic, but I don't want to have anything more to do with those Scientologists. They're a bunch of freaks". When asked to elaborate on his falling out with Qantas, however, Raymond refused to saying anything other than "I'm an excellent driver, we're counting cards".
In a desperate attempt to restore its reputation, a spokesman for Qantas, Barry Johnson, claimed in an interview yesterday that the Rain Man "no longer represents majority opinion in the autistic community". It is understood that Qantas has been seeking endorsement from other sufferers though with little success to date. A substantial number of the high level autistics it approached apparently said that although they understood that the airline had a statistically sound safety record, they could not deal with the fact that there is no "u" after the "Q" in "Qantas" and therefore had been advised by their specialists not to make any comment.
Faced with the total absence of endorsement from the autistic community, Qantas officials have admitted they may have to look to other sectors for support. One possible supported emerged yesterday when John Moseley, 46 of Sydney, held a press conference to confirm that Qantas has the best safety record "of all the airlines in fuck shit cunt world". Mr Moseley, who suffers from high level Tourette's Syndrome, has offered his services to Qantas to assist in the publicity effort to restore public confidence. The airline is yet to respond.
Meanwhile, Qantas has announced a string of safety improvements that will be added to its existing fleet of aircraft after its recent spate of accidents.
The measures will include the installation of airbags for every passenger in first and business classes and special coloured polyurethane bumpers fitted to the nose and tail of each plane.
The airline is also in the process developing a prototype for a future aircraft which will involve reversing the seating plan and introducing a special crumple zone, to be called Safe-T-Class, from the nose cone through to the end of the economy section. Reversing alarms, which sound when the aircraft reverses too close to terminals or other aircraft, are also planned, along with those cute little windscreen wipers for the headlights.
Jobs will changes, workplaces will fragment - but the ACTU is working to develop strategies and solutions that ensure unions are a credible and relevant voice for all workling people in the new economy; and that the spectre of an information 'rich' and an information 'poor' is prevented."
Overview
The unions@work report identifies focusing on employment growth areas as one of the objectives for the union movement. Call centres and information technology are identified as growth areas. It is noted that employment in computer services has grown by 217% in five years. The growth in information technology will only become more rapid. The 'internet revolution' is upon us, with six of the ten largest US companies being IT/software companies.
e-commerce (the exchange of goods and services on the internet) is part of the internet revolution, and may well become the most important part for trade unions and their members. Consider the expected growth:
- By 2003 it is expected 9% of all US trade will be done over the internet ;
- By 2003 it is expected 36% of all US shopping will be done over the web;
- Abbey National (a UK bank) is to set up a full service clearing bank on the internet. The bank is expected to employ just 50 people; and
- A recent survey found 72% of employers in Australia intend to move up to 10% of their business online this year.
Why bother with e-commerce and the internet?
Three years ago an organiser at a white collar union was upbraided for organising in a call centre. She was told she should have been focussing on the branch network of the employer, for that was 'where the members are'.
Three years later unions are struggling to organise workers in call centres, which have become an employment growth phenomenon. E-commerce is not as tangible as call centres. But its impact on jobs and workers may be more dramatic - e-commerce will effect every sector in some way, changing the skills and qualifications needed for jobs.
By beginning to address the issues of e-commerce and the internet now, we will not only save ourselves a lot of catching up, but will also present ourselves as contemporary and relevant. Lets lead the debate!
Introduction
In this report I will briefly:
- Introduce e-commerce and explain what it is;
- Look at some of the broad economic and business trends and expectations resulting from e-commerce;
- Evaluate what overseas unions have done so far; and
- Make some proposals for potential next steps.
For the ACTU the objective is to provide practical and accessible information and advice to unions who are seeking to organise in growth areas.
Sources of information
There is one obvious place to go for information about e-commerce. The web. The following sources have been used:
- The US Department of Commerce web site : http://www.ecommerce.gov/
- The National Officer for the Information Economy (Australian Govt) : http://www.noie.gov.au/
- UK Government Central IT Unit : http://citu.gov.uk
- Anderson Consulting : http://www.ac.com/
- Forrester Research (online journal): http://www.forrester.com/
- e-commerce today (online journal) : http://www.ecommercetoday.com.au/
- Financial Times Online (London) : http://www.ft.com
- New York Times Online : http://www.nytimes.com
- Financial Review : http://www.afr.com.au
- ABS : http://www.abs.gov.au
- SEIU web site : http://www.seiu.org
- The Economist (London) : http://www.economist.com
- Morgan and Banks http://www.morganandbanks.com.au
Defining e-commerce
e-commerce is the exchange of goods and services electronically - specifically over the internet. Some commentators include the phone and fax, and EDI - but it is these forms of 'electronic commerce' which internet based commerce is likely to replace.
Currently e-commerce is predominant at the business to business (b2b) level, rather than the business to consumer.
Defining e-business
Whilst some firms are using the internet to communicate with customers and suppliers etc, others are using the internet to radically change how they do business and lowering costs across their value chain. Commentators talk of 'new business models'. In particular is the talk of disintermediation - where a firm removes partners from their value chain to trade directly with their customers. Reintermediation is the adding of new partners.
This may sound like a lot of consultant-speak, and to some extent it is, but consider:
A manufacturer might decide to cut out the wholesaler and retailer from the value chain, but add in a network provider to link producer and consumer; a financial services provider to manage the secure payment of goods or services; and transport companies to deliver the goods and services. Such a decision would have a significant impact on its existing value chain. That would mean job changes.
The airline industry is a good example. Travel agents and perhaps airline call centre staff may be removed from the value chain, whilst a secure web site and payments systems providers are added.
m-commerce
m-commerce relates to the use of wireless technology and mobile phones. Vodafone and Commonwealth bank are already advertising a service where your mobile phone can be used to transfer funds.
e-commerce trends
The hype surrounding e-commerce makes it difficult to assess just how much of an impact it will have on the Australian economy and employment. There are broad trends however:
- At the end of 1998 there were 1.7 million Australians using the internet at least once a week. This is predicted to grow to 5.7 million regular users by 2003. Including more casual users the total is 10.9 million.
- A recent survey found 72% of employers in Australia intend to move up to 10% of the business online this year;
- The Federal Government plans to use e-commerce for 90% of their trading activities with suppliers by the end of 2001 ;
- E-spending is expected to triple by 2003 in Europe
- Yahoo could buy News Corp
- In December 1999, Commonwealth Bank processed over 1000 credit card applications online
- Tesco (a UK Supermarket) recently employed 300 extra staff to cope with its online sales
- In the US, the finance sector is investing the equivalent of USD$13,628 per employee on e-commerce
These trends indicate that change is occurring. Talk in the business press about the 'new economy' and the 'old economy'; and the 'internet revolution' all indicate that the nature of business is changing quickly. Bill Gates talks of 'internet years' as being just three months.
Industry convergence:Some convergence between industries and sectors is predicted. Banking and retail; and banking and telecommunications are already occurring in some part (ANZ has recently announced it may become an ISP).
Broad economic trends
The NOIE Report
The National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) has conducted a pilot study to assess the impact of e-commerce on the Australian economy. The research by NOIE takes a free-market approach to analysing the impact of e-commerce, suggesting that any positive outcomes e-commerce has to offer the economy and employment are reliant on further de-regulation of capital, product and labour markets.
NOIE predicts e-commerce will:
- Increase employment;
- Increase productivity;
- Reduce prices;
- Reduce inflation;
- Increase real wages;
- Increase GDP by 2.7%
- Benefit regional Australia; and
- Benefit urban Australia.
To achieve this governments and business will need to :
- Provide ongoing commitment to maintaining competitive product markets;
- Enhance the efficiency of capital markets; and
- Increase the flexibility of the labour market.
We need to decide whether we want to influence how the outcomes predicted by NOIE are achieved.
Broad industry trends
The US is leading the way, both in development of technology and take-up rates of internet commerce. The rise and rise of the NASDAQ indicating where institutional investors are putting their money (despite the more recent hiccup). Similarly in the UK and Europe companies are responding. Firms such as Amazon.com have shown that physical location does not restrict market reach. eBay is now the largest auction house, recently replacing Sothebys (USD turnover).
The reality for most businesses is that if they are not online within the next five years or so they run the risk of being destroyed by competitors who are.
One of the key changes will be the lowered cost in b2b transactions, where paper will become less prevalent as will postal services. Companies are beginning to insist that their suppliers and customers deal online, or not at all. This trend is bound to continue.
Ford, GM and Chrysler deal: The big three are to set up a global e-exchange linking tens of thousands of suppliers. By 2002 it is expected that 17% of their purchasing will be done on-line, that would equate to USD$28,500 billion. That would change the nature of their business.
Sectoral analysis
Which sectors are most likely to be effected by e-commerce? NOIE report that there are likely to be two clusters -industries/sectors directed effected, and those indirectly effected.
How to assess whether a sector is likely to be directly impacted by e-commerce
NOIE have applied four criteria:
- Is there a high reliance on information in the sector?
- Is the product or service easily virtualised?
- Is the product more important than its location?
- How extensive is the existing information infrastructure in the sector?
The impact on Call centres
Much of the work currently being done in call centres is a target for e-commerce. Much of the transactional work could be done electronically. German research suggests that at this stage levels of employment in call centres are unlikely to contract, but growth may slow. Certainly the role of call centres will change, as will the jobs of employees.
While the jobs within call centres may change, the existence of central customer service centres is likely to continue. For example, customers may want help while 'surfing the wen' and call centre operators may even be able to take control of the customers search to find the good/services they are looking to buy.
Call centres are likely therefore to continue to operate extended hours, and to suit internet users, it may become common practice to be operational 7 days, 24 hours.
How are unions responding overseas
Having checked out some of the web pages of the major US and UK unions, there is little work being done.
Our friends at the SEIU are however running a campaign about the outsourcing of transactional work to a firm that specialises in e-commerce.
Impact on union membership
e-commerce is likely to have a significant impact on membership levels over the next decade. Even a cursory glance would suggest that the retail and finance sectors are going to face huge changes. Other sectors are also likely to be affected. Whether e-commerce creates more jobs than it destroys will be something we will find out about over time. Certainly jobs will change.
Proposal
For unions the challenge is going to be two-fold. If the movement is to grow we have to organise emerging and growing employment sectors. That challenge is significant. If we are to halt the existing membership decline, we at least need to be retaining members.
The concern about the internet and e-commerce is that it has the potential to wipe out the jobs our members are concentrated in. For some unions, responding to e-commerce may not be a matter of expanding membership, but fighting to keep members. The changes in the finance and retail sectors spring to mind.
Further work is therefore proposed. The objectives would be to:
1. Position the ACTU as an organising and campaigning resource for unions planning to organise in growth areas;
2. Position the union movement as a credible and relevant voice for workers in the 'internet revolution';
3. Enable the union movement be in a position to lead the debate on employment conditions and rights for affected workers;
4. Develop the capability to identify and respond to new forms of work, ie telecommuting; and
5. Develop strategies to address the issues of the information 'rich' and 'poor'.
David Whiteley is the manager of the ACTU Trust
But if you measure performance relative to means than the achievements of the Dons stacks up with any.
23 years ago Wimbledon was playing in South England's Isthmian League - a football equivalent of the middle of the Borneo jungle. In 9 years they went from election into the fourth division to the dizzy heights of the Premier League. Red hot favourites to be relegated in their first season they finished in the top six. Within another two years they won the FA Cup beating the mighty Liverpool - then the giants of European football.
But last week the whole fairy tale imploded when a disastrous run of losses at the end of the season saw them relegated from the premier league after 14 years at the top.
Wimbledon's demise is a stark reality check of where soccer is going in a free market. When Wimbledon reached the Premier League their whole team was worth about the same as Paul Gascoigne's left leg. Their ground -Plough Lane - held 9000.
They have been competing against the like of multinational clothing label Manchester United with its 1.5 billion pound sharemarket valuation and unlimited resources to pour into their hobby football team.
Wimbledon's style of play was not always socially acceptable. It was built on aggro and team spirit - the crazy gang mentality of Vinnie Jones, Dave Bassett and John Fashanu. It wasn't at all pretty but it was all they had and they used it to amazing effect.
Wimbledon fell apart when the long time owner Sam Hammett brought in rich Norwegian partners to boost the club's cash resources. Out went manager Joe Kinnear - who had fashioned a formidable record - after he suffered a heart attack. In came Egil Olsen, a Norwegian marxist with a penchant for wellies and a bizarre line of conversation as well as an impressive coaching pedigree.
But he was a totally inappropriate choice - a quiet Norwegian who was more at home in the fjords and valleys of Scandinavia than in the South London prankster environment of Wimbledon.
Wimbledon has been a living fantasy for all small clubs and players - that they too could fulfil their dreams. But now its over and it's both sad and worrying.
The free market and big money - in football as in all else - continue to devour.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The growth of precarious employment in Australia is spreading across all groups in the workforce . This growth is not only limited to the Private Sector. Federal and State governments have been outsourcing their operations across a number of Government Departments and Agencies, often in the attempt to reduce costs. Labor Council submits that the shift towards labour hire (a particular category of precarious employment) is undermining security of employment and replacing permanent workers with casual/precarious employment.
In the current environment, Labor Council believes legislation covering Employment Agents in New South Wales should remain, if not strengthened to ensure that employers are held accountable if they act in a way that exploits their employees. Labor Council also supports the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union's (CFMEU) proposals in their submission.
Labor Council submits that an outcome of the National Competition Policy Review must be the retention of the Employment Agents Act and the continued regulation of employment agents in New South Wales. We are opposed to a further deregulation of the industry. Labor Council submits that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of licensed employment agents which indicates a strong and competitive industry.
INTRODUCTION
Labor Council is the peak trade union body in NSW, representing 70 affiliated unions with a combined coverage of more than 800,000 workers. One of the Council's key objectives is to protect and promote the interests of all workers. This includes full-time, part-time and casual workers. A key component of the casual workforce employment is sourced through employment agents/labour hire firms and Labor Council is concerned with the increasing incidence of precarious arrangements which are replacing permanent jobs across the economy.
Over the last ten years, there has been a significant growth in casual/temporary and part-time employment in Australia. By 1994 it was estimated that about one quarter of Australia's employees were casuals . The growth and extent of temporary employment in Australia has outstripped all other OECD countries except for Spain. Part of this growth has been in the labour hire/ employment agency sector .
The Employment Agents Act 1996 was introduced to regulate the large number of licensed private employment agents in New South Wales. According to the Department of Fair Trading the number of employment agent licences have increased from 942 in 1991 to 2248 at present. This represents an increase of 138% over nine years. With this increase there has been a great incidence of uncertainty about the employment conditions of employees engaged by labour hire firms/employment agents.
OPTIONS FOR REVIEW
Scope of the Act (Issue 5)
Labor Council supports the CFMEU's proposal to clarify the intent of the Act in relation to labour hire firms. We believe there is a need to strengthen and extend the existing legislation to ensure that employees whose services are used by a labour hire firm/ employment agency are not worse off than what they would have been by the Principal Organisation using the agency. The Labor Council is seeking changes to State Industrial Relations laws which would guarantee this right.
Labor Council submits that the Employment Agents Act should include adherence to a Code of Conduct as a condition of registration. This Code of Conduct could be similar to the current Job Network Code of Conduct. The Act should also ensure that organisations providing retrenchment or outplacement services are covered by the legislation, and therefore that these services also adhere to the Code of Conduct. Further, Labor Council supports the creation of appropriate penalties for labour hire firms/ employment agents who breach the Code of Conduct.
Currently, the Queensland Government is reviewing their own Employment Agents Act. Labor Council calls on the NSW State Government to consult with all other State Labor Governments to-where possible - achieve a co-ordinated approach on this important employment issue.
Retention of the Act (Issue 24)
Any proposal to deregulate employment agents would in our view make it easier for unscrupulous operators to take advantage of employees. It could also lead to workers being forced to pay to get jobs.
The NSW Labor Council submits that any move to abolish the Act would strip away what little ammunition the Government has against unscrupulous operators. The Employment Agents Act specifically prohibits job-seekers being charged a fee to be placed in work, however the current penalties are too low.
The Labor Council believes the Act should be revamped to make licensing requirements more stringent including the revocation of licences from companies who fail to meet their legal obligations under awards/ agreements approved by Industrial Tribunals.
Industrial Relations Issues (Issue 6)
A recent case in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission re-inforces the legal status of labour-hire employees and the limited rights they possess. A full bench of the AIRC in Fox V Kagan Batman Tafe AIRC1257/99 M Print S0253 overturned a decision of Cmr Simmonds and found that a TAFE had the right to dismiss a labour hire employee. This employee could not claim unfair dismissal against the TAFE, because she had been engaged by a labour hire company, Advanced Australian Workplace Solutions (AAWS).
By overturning Cmr Simmonds decision the AIRC has confirmed that companies who use the services of workers from Labour hire companies have no responsibility for those labour hire employees, even though they can sometimes set the workers duties, hours of work and daily directions.
The case also highlights the limited status of labour-hire employees in relation to superannuation, workers compensation and other employment entitlements. With these very limited rights the employees have in this industry, tighter regulations are necessary to ensure at least some recourse of action can be taken against those employers who exploit their workforce.
Establishment of objectives (Issue7)
Labor Council views the establishment of a set of objectives as paramount to the review of this legislation as the current Act does not set out any objectives. It would appear that the implied objective of the Act is to protect consumers who seek employment through the services of an employment agent. This in our view is compatible with an objective which is to ensure employees of labour hire firms/ employment agents are paid wages and conditions which meet minimum legal standards.
The Objectives should be specifically stated by the legislation and should be developed in consultation with the Labor Council and the RCSA. Further, we recommend the setting up of and Industry Committee to oversee the workings of the Act. Such an Industry Committee could also make recommendations to the Minister in relation to the cancellation and suspension of licenses.
The Act should include a requirement for agents to inform clients of their rights under the Act, including their industrial rights. The conduct of business of Employment Agents is set out in Part 3 of the Act however there is no obligation on the part of employment agents to inform clients of their industrial rights under the current Act.
Occupational Health and Safety and Workers Compensation
Labor Council supports the CFMEU's submission in relation to Occupational Health and Safety and Workers Compensation. In addition, a recent article by Michael Quinlan outlines the emergence of a new type of labour hire contract which has obvious OHS implications. According to Quinlan, Hold Harmless contracts are a "corporate lawyer solution" that attempt to shift risk and liability to another party rather than addressing the central problem of managing safety when outsourcing. This means that the more powerful party to a contract, such as a large buyer of outsourced labour, is able to transfer costs and risks to the weaker party, such as a small labour-hire firm.
Employers in the USA, where such contracts are widespread, have been found to be liable for OHS incidents when they have outsourced all their labour to labour-hire firms. The courts have been willing to find the owner and operator of the workplace liable, not the firm supplying the labour. Clearly, the obligations of agencies towards the workers they contract out or place in their client's workplaces must be defined in the Act with respect to Occupational Health and Safety and Workers Compensation
Unfair Competition in the Industry
Whilst some Labour Hire firms and Employment Agents are able to exploit their workforce (including below award rates), these companies will continue to have an unfair competitive position in the market place against those companies who abide by their legal obligations. There is an unfair price advantage for organisations who exploit their workforce.
In order to have a level playing field in this industry and ensure that competition is fair, the Employment Agents Act needs to contain measures where action can be taken against Labor Hire Firms and Employment Agents who continue to exploit their workforce.
LABOR COUNCIL OF NSW RECOMMENDATIONS
As our submission outlines, there are a number of areas where agency workers are unprotected with respect to their workplace rights. Therefore, Labor Council supports legislative reforms which will bring about more protections for workers who are employed through labour hire firms and employment agents.
Specifically, we make the following recommendations:
� Labor Council submits that the Employment Agents Act should be retained and extended in particular to clarify the intent of the legislation in respect of labour hire employees so that such firms are clearly covered by the Act.
� Labor Council supports the establishment of Objectives in the Act in consultation with the industry which would ensure: (a) that Labour Hire Firms/ Employment Agents meet their minimum legal employment standards;eg, complying with awards and industrial agreements, (b) requirement to inform clients/employees of their industrial rights under the Act.
� Labor Council supports the proposal to increase regulation for labour hire firms/ employment agents to require them to match enterprise agreement/ award standards of the firm or business their client is placed in.
� Labor Council supports the setting up of an Industry Committee to oversee the workings of the Act and the establishment of a Code of Conduct as a condition of registration.
� Labor Council supports the submissions of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union to the review of the Employment Agents Act.
Napthine's the only one who stuck his hand up after Kennett was booted out of office, showing the sort of judgment usually associated with One Nation office administrators.
And don't be fooled by the title - he may be Doctor, but he's no scholar. The qualifications come from his ability to stick his hand up the orifii of animals.
We went trawling around Melbourne this week for stories of the good Doctor's exploits, but came away empty handed - the guy doesn't even have a big enough profile to have any negative stories about him.
In fact, the general vibe from Victoria is that Napthine is close to invisible; his backbench irrelevant and his Coalition partners (who last weekend lost the country seat of Benalla for the first time in 95 years) incompetent.
So lacking the normal war stories all we can do is invite you to add a bit of colour to Australia's most transparent politician. You could even make him interesting.
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