
Issue No 68		25 August 2000

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Trades Hall

Neale Towart's Labour Review

The latest from the mixed up world of industrial relations from the Man with the Answers.

Inferior AWAs approved by AIRC: Transfer of Business reasoning
Youth Wages and AWAs
Carers' Responsibilities Recognised
Pregnancy Discrimination in Employment
ILO Maternity Convention
Parental Leave in Sweden
Globalisation and Unions -Car Industry Changes
It's the Left, Jim - But Not as We Know It."

Inferior AWAs approved by AIRC: Transfer of Business reasoning

Senior Deputy President Harrison has approved AWAs in the security industry that failed the no disadvantage test. Her reasons were that the employees were already on sub standard AWAs approved by the Employment Advocate and to disallow the AWAs would have failed the public interest test. This was because the security company had been taken over by a new employer on the basis of existing contractual arrangements so to disallow the AWAs would have changed the basis on which the employees were transferred to the new business. She approved the deals for a limited period, stating that it was not appropriate to extend them for the three years sought by the employer, but a limited period was reasonable so that the business could adjust the terms of employment so that the no disadvantage test was met.

Australian Workplace Agreements. (REF: 2000/62-92, 141-144). Print S9090 (11 August 2000)

http://www.workplaceexpress.com.au/workplace/wpredirect?in_id=16324

Youth Wages and AWAs

The ALP and the Democrats have combined to get rid of regulations allowing the payment of youth wages in AWAs in breach of the anti-discrimination legislation. The ALP had allowed the passing of the amendments to the Workplace Relations Act last year on the condition that the AIRC would consider the merits of incorporating age based youth and training wages in awards and agreements on a case-by-case basis. So AWAs are now not exempt from age based discrimination laws, but awards and agreements are.

Carers' Responsibilities Recognised

The NSW Anti-Discrimination Act was amended earlier this year making it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee or an applicant for employment on the grounds of the employee's or applicant's responsibilities as a carer.

Who is a carer? Anyone with responsibility for a child in a comparable role to a parent and includes a step-parent or a person with parental responsibilities for a child which have been granted pursuant to various State and Commonwealth laws.

Immediate family members are also defined in the amendments to include a spouse or former spouse of the employee, grandchildren, parents and step-parents of the employee or their spouse or former spouse, and brothers and sisters of the employee or of their spouse or former spouse. Spouse includes same-sex partners.

Direct discrimination under the amendment would occur when a person with carer's responsibilities is treated less favourably than someone who does not have carer responsibilities. Indirect discrimination would occur when a requirement or condition which is not reasonable in all the circumstances of the case is imposed which is harder for a person with carer responsibilities to comply with than a person without carer responsibilities. A complainant would have to show that substantially higher proportion of people who do not have responsibilities could comply than those who do and that the requirement is not reasonable.

Examples highlighting some of the grounds which may give rise to such forms of discrimination include a woman who is not hired because she has children, someone not hired or not sent on a training course because they have to drop off their brother who has a disability each morning.

Reasonableness is not defined in the legislation, but is determined by considering the extent of the discrimination weighed against all of the circumstances, including reasons for requirements, commercial considerations, and the ability of the employer to accommodate the employee's needs.

For employers this means, in relation to recruitment and termination, a defence must be based on the inability of the employee or prospective employee to carry out the inherent requirements of the job, without the employer having to make provision for the employee that would cause undue financial hardship.

(Equal Time; no. 45, August 2000)

Pregnancy Discrimination in Employment

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found that an employee was dismissed solely on the basis of pregnancy. Ms Haas had worked for Cachet Communications part-time since January 1997. After she became pregnant in March 1998, she informed her employers and sought firm arrangements about maternity leave. Mr Mackey, one of the directors, would not commit to any definite arrangement.

On her last, day, Ms Haas was thanked by Mr Mackey for her hard work, and told that they were going to employ someone with more accounting experience to do her job. He did not offer her another position in the company.

The Commission awarded $10,000.00 damages for economic loss and emotional distress.

(Equal Time; no. 45, August 2000)

ILO Maternity Convention

The ILO has substantially revised its convention on maternity protection. The new convention covers those in "atypical forms of dependent work. It also contains a provision for protection of the health of the mother and child.

On maternity benefits, the new convention says that "cash benefits shall be provided, in accordance with national laws and regulations or in any other manner consistent with national practice, to women who are absent from work on leave." The cash benefit should be provided "at a level which ensures that the woman can maintain herself and her child in proper conditions of health with a suitable standard of living."

On breastfeeding the convention states "a woman shall be provided with the right to one or more daily breaks or a daily reduction of hours of work to breastfeed her child." "These breaks or the reduction of daily hours of work shall be counted as working time and remunerated as such."

(World of Work; no. 35, July 2000)

Parental Leave in Sweden

Nearly 50% of fathers in Sweden have taken more than one month off work since 1995 to care for children. The Social Democratic government is to introduce draft legislation to help men spend more time at home. One company already allows a salary subsidy of 80% of full time salaries for stay at home fathers.

(World of Work; no. 35, July 2000)

Globalisation and Unions -Car Industry Changes

IG-Metall, representing workers in the German metals industry, has taken steps to set up a global enterprise committee of workers employed by Volkswagen. The committee comprises thirty delegates representing over 300,000 salaried employees from 40 production sites worldwide. Company-wide labour co-ordination and negotiation is now possible, no matter where plants are located.

This is one union response to the globalisation of the automotive industry, with car makers as essentially parts makers. The makers are turning into marketing firms, using logos to market themselves with finance, insurance and credit. Customers may be able to configure the cars they need on line, and to base the manufacturing numbers on actual orders. The numbers of employees with parts makers already outnumber workers in final assembly plants.

Meanwhile at an International Metalworkers Federation meeting, Ken Jackson, the general secretary of the AEEU, Britain's largest engineering union, said that the formation of global partnerships through mergers and amalgamations across national frontiers could see unions transform themselves from "insecure bystanders into innovators of change."

(World of Work; no. 35, July 2000)

It's the Left, Jim - But Not as We Know It."

Tom Morton talks to various people, who he sees are from "the left" about the future of movements who try to present an alternative to global capitalism. Peter Lewis gets a guernsey, as does Lindsay Tanner. Naomi Klein author of a great book called No Logo, and a participant in the Seattle protests sees the early stages of a new international political movement in the forms of protest that have developed against corporate power, including the Biotic Baking Brigade, Guerilla Gardening, International Lobster Party and others. The campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was a catalyst for many groups, as explained by Jane Kelsey, the author of Reclaiming the Future - New Zealand and the Global Economy.

Critics from the establishment left of the groups who stopped the Seattle WTO talks seem to base their arguments on the unstructured disparate interests of the various protest groups, forgetting that no oppositional forces spring fully formed to life but develop ideas, strategies and focus as they go. With capitalism now hyper-flexible, protestors can't be tied to rigid formulae. "All That is Solid Melts Into Air".

The Third Wayers from the ALP increasing resemble the Liberals, as they all claim to be from "the radical centre".

One way of uniting many groups may be Pierre Bourdieu's attempt to develop a European charter of social movements opposed to neo-liberalism.

The recent Pluto Press/Fabian Society Unchain your Mind Forum was an opportunity to address some of the new currents in Australia.

Background Briefing; August 13 2000

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/s164552.htm

View entire issue - print all of the articles!

Issue 68 contents

Interview: New Unionist
Britain's Trade Union Congress secretary John Monks on life under Blair and why the future of unionism could well rest in Europe.

History: The Victims of Whiggery
George Loveless, the leader of the rural workers who became the Tolpuddle Martyrs, recorded his ideals and experiences in a pamphlet that brings his story to life.

Economics: The Final Station
Corporatisation was first introduced into Australia by the former Greiner Coalition government. What is 'corporatisation' and who should we hold to account under its prescriptions?

International: Massive Union Win in American Telecom
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced on Thursday a settlement with Verizon Communications ending a fifteen day strike by 87,000 telephone workers from Maine to Virginia.

Unions: A Vital Community Service
What keeps the engine of the Australian economy running? Manufacturing productivity, the stock market, exports? Try child care.

Satire: Putin copies Clinton: dead seamen stains reputation
MOSCOW, Tuesday: Russian naval authorities today faced staunch criticism, and the anger of a nation gripped by tragedy, as they conceded that all 118 Russian submariners trapped in the nuclear submarine, the Kursk, had died.

Review: Blow Up The Pokies
Whether it arouses public debate about Gambling is best left to the public but Peter Zangarri thinks Tim Freedman is on a winner with the Whitlam's latest CD.

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» City Rail Security Guards Win Olympic Bonus

» Making a Difference in ICANN Elections

» Sydney Hotel Stoppages Throughout Next Week

» Scientists Protest IT Outsourcing

» Dealing With Workplace Deaths