
Issue No 58		16 June 2000

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News

High Court Puts Workers At Reith's Mercy

This week's High Court decision upholding the constitutionality of Peter Reith's award stripping provisions represents a new frontier of industrial regulation in Australia.

The Shadow industrial relations spokesman Arch Bevis says the Court's 4-3 decision to reject Union's Constitutional challenge to the Federal Government's Award-stripping provisions of the Workplace Relations Act increases Federal Parliament's power to regulate employment conditions.

"This opens the way for Peter Reith to decide minimum employment conditions, rather than the independent umpire", he says.

"The High Court has confirmed that Minister Reith may, through legislation, direct the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to alter any existing award.

"This opens a Pandora's box where Peter Reith and any future government will be able to directly legislate on minimum award entitlements."

Bevis says the real losers today are the lowest paid workers who are totally dependent on the award system for all their conditions of employment.

"Given that Peter Reith has not supported any living wage application since becoming Minister, the possibility of him having more power does not auger well for the most vulnerable in our workforce," Bevis says.

"For these reasons, Labor is committed to maintaining a strong and independent Commission and will proceed with a private member's bill to support these measures.

"Australian workers may now have Peter Reith making laws setting minimum employment conditions instead of the independent umpire. I know who I trust", he says.

Miners Vow to Fight On

Meanwhile, the CFMEU has vowed to intensify its political and on-the-job campaign for industrial justice, as the Full Bench of the High Court ruled by the narrowest of margins.

CFMEU Mining and Energy Division General President Tony Maher described the decision as "controversial" with the High Court judges contradicting each other in their judgements. "While the result was by the narrowest of margins, the reality is that the legal door has now been closed on us," Maher says.

"However, while our members and other workers throughout Australia continue to be deprived of industrial justice by Reith's laws, we will continue to fight.

"We will defend our conditions on the job and we will intensify our political campaign to reverse these rotten laws which rob workers of rights and conditions and victimize many of those who are prepared to fight for them."

With the closure of the legal door to award-stripping, the Union's fight must now be directed to the political arena and this means ensuring the defeat of the Howard Government at the next election.

It also means campaigning to ensure that a re-elected Federal Labor Government reverses these rotten industrial laws.

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  Issue 58 contents

Interview: After the Gold Rush
NSW building union leader Andrew Ferguson on life after the Olympics and why Che Guevara is his political hero.

Unions: MUA Women's Policy Back on Course
A hard hitting report by the Maritime Union's women's delegate Sue Gajdos prompts the union to, once again, promote its female members.

Politics: Raising the Rafters
Opposition leader Kim Beazley delivered a stirring address to last weekend's NSW ALP State Conference. Here's every word of it.

History: Time and Tide
Greg Patmore surveys the themes of Working Lives in Regional Australia in this introduction to the latest issue of 'Labour History'

International: Fair in the Land of the Free
More than 20,000 immigrant workers, union members and community and religious leaders packed a Los Angeles Sports Arena on June 10 in support of immigrant workers' rights.

Environment: Life's a Beach
Workers are invited to join an environmental campaign to protect the coastal communities and coastline from exploitation by multinationals.

Satire: More Pacific Coups Forecast
The popular holiday resort of Great Keppel Island is bracing itself for a bloody coup, following the rash of rebel uprisings in other parts of the Pacific.

Review: At the Barricades
Denis Evans' photo essay on the Patrick dispute captures the camaraderie on the Melbourne picket lines - solidarity that, like solder, welded workers and their communities together into a human barricade.

Crackdown on Fiji Workers Intensifies
Building Industry Braces for Post-Games Slump
Call Centre Battle Hots Up
More Sackings Spark Entitlements Showdown
Carr Establishes Labor Hire Inquiry
High Court Puts Workers At Reith's Mercy
Miners Hit the Streets Over Death Threats
Unions Urged to Reignite Republic Debate
Tips Rip-Off Sparks Hotel Picket
Community Workers to Lay Siege to Parliament
Water Workers Accept 14% Pay Rise
Counselling for Workplace Accidents
Korean Food Festival is Union Business
Che Helps Doctors Save Lives
Maude Barlow Public Lecture - Sydney June 27