
Issue No 55		26 May 2000

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Unions Dues Test Case Looms

A major test case is looming over the rights of workers to have union dues paid directly by their employer under NSW industrial relations laws.

Australian Workers Union state secretary Russ Collison says the NSW Industrial Relations Commission has flagged the importance of the case by convening a full bench to hear the union's bid to vary the Horticultural Industry Award.

The union is seeking to include a clause that will place an obligation on employers to remit union membership fees on the written request of an employee.

While this has already been successfully inserted into one state award, Collison says a full bench decision would be the trigger to apply the rule across the state.

Collison says the issue is an important one for freedom of choice, particularly for regional workers who suffer a deteriorating service from banks.

"All too often employers have used their power to interfere with this right as an industrial weapon during disputes by cutting off payroll deduction facilities," he says.

The AWU has asked Labor Council to consider coordinating a Senior Counsel to run the case on behalf of the union movement.

The matter next goes before the Commission on July 10.

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Issue 55 contents

Interview: The University of Rupert
National Tertiary Education Union president Dr Carolyn Allport on News Corp's move into tertiary education and the Universitas 21 experiment.

International: The Unionist Who Sparked a Coup
Workers Online's Fiji expert Andrew Casey profiles one of the men at the centre of the crisis, detained PM Mahendra Chaudry

Unions: The Call to Action
The Australian Services Union is leading the push into the call centre industry. But winning these new workplaces is a major challenge.

Politics: Workplace Gladiators
Peter Reith as Russell Crowe? That's the image Labor IR spokesman Arch Bevis conjured up in a frecent address to the Industrial Relations Society.

History: How to be a Good Unionist
It's 1917, WWI rages and federal public servants are given these rules on how to dischare their responsibility as members.

Legal: The Price of Solidarity
Intimidation, threats and even murder still await many workers who attempt to organize in a number of countries around the world, says a new ILO report.

Review: Inconvenient History
In may be cold comfort to Republicans, but the vote for Federation was every bit as tempestuous as this collection of articles shows.

Satire: World Bank Caves In
In a victory for Seattle protestors, international monetarists have decreed that global utopia to begin immediately.

» Fiji Faces International Union Blockade

» Workers Return to Dump Reith's Third Wave

» Budget Raises More Questions than Answers

» Teachers Finally Achieve Satisfaction

» FairWear Campaign Targets Uniforms

» Rio Tinto Appeals for Industrial Peace

» Beer Hike Sparks Worker Concerns

» Libs Fail to Block Family Friendly Laws

» No Joy For 'Back Door' Pete

» Angry Truckies Converge on Border

» Unions Dues Test Case Looms

» Why Solidarity Messages Mean Something

» Radio Free East Timor Rocks

» The Soapbox

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Tool Shed

» Neale's Spot On!

» Silence on the GST

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