
Issue No 75		27 October 2000

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Labour Review

Neale Towart's Labour Review

More interesting and valuable info from the man with all the answers.


	Neale Towart

Woman Sacked because of Family Responsibilities:
Knowledge Nation: a Field of Dreams?
Attitudes Towards Trade Unions: Sources of support and opposition in Australia
Women's Participation in the Labour Force: ideals and behaviour
Deconstructing Casual Work: what do statistics really tell us?
AWAs as a Bargaining Tool?
OHS and the Labour-hire Industry

Woman Sacked because of Family Responsibilities:

The Federal Court has found that a company that sacked a woman because could not work late due to childcare responsibilities has breached the Workplace Relations Act's discrimination provisions.

Justice Michael Moore found Downer Group Ltd contravened s170CK(2)(f) by terminating the woman's employment for reasons that included a proscribed reason - family responsibilities. The woman started with the group in October 1997 as personal assistant to its managing director, Stephen Gillies. Her letter of appointment, which she signed, stated her hours were 8.30-5.30pm, Monday to Friday, but added that: "It may be necessary for you to work outside these hours, while the Company will endeavour to keep such additional work to a minimum it is expected that you will make yourself available for such requirements." Justice Moore said he was satisfied that the managing director was made aware before the woman started that if she were required to work beyond 6pm on the two evenings her husband lectured at nights, she would have to be given notice so other arrangements could be made to care for her child. In April last year, while the woman was on annual leave, Gillies advertised for a new personal assistant and interviewed applicants. Both sides later agreed that by then they'd had at least one discussion about her performance, including her inability to work late. In June, the managing director offered the personal assistant's job to another person, with the woman still unaware it had been advertised. Three days later she told him that she was pregnant and proposed to take maternity leave from December 1999 until July 2000. That afternoon, she realised she was going to lose her personal assistant's job when she opened a thankyou note from an unsuccessful applicant for her position.

The Downer Group argued that it was an inherent requirement of the personal assistant position that the employee be available to work when required beyond 5.30pm without prior notice. But Justice Moore disagreed. While accepting that "whether a requirement is an inherent requirement is not simply answered by referring to the terms of the contract of employment", in this case the woman's contract implied that working beyond 5.30pm would be the exception rather than the rule and, as a corollary, "the work the position entailed could ordinarily be completed by that time". He continued that: "In the present case there was no body of evidence demonstrating any of the following; firstly that there had been work (significant either in its quantity or quality) that should have been done by the applicant after 5.30pm, secondly that it was not done by her on the day in question, thirdly that her failure to do it had a consequence of substance whether for Mr Gillies or the company more generally and fourthly notice could not have been given that the work was required. "While it is probable that the failure of the applicant to work beyond 5.30pm or even 6.00pm was, on occasions ( an perhaps may occasions), a source of irritation to Mr Gillies (to be inferred from his complaints about the matter) I do not consider that this fact can found a conclusion that the inherent requirement identified by Downer in these proceedings was, in truth, an inherent requirement of the position."

Laz v Downer Group Ltd [2000] FCA 1390 (11 October 2000) http://www.workplaceinfo.com.au/alert/00105.htm

Knowledge Nation: a Field of Dreams?

Stephen Long

The ALP and the Liberals talk a lot about education and lifelong learning as a key to solving unemployment. However, Canadian and Australian research indicates that most workers already have more skills and education than needed for their jobs.

Dr Livingstone of the University of Toronto shows that in the USA the number of people with more skills and education than their jobs required rose from 16% in 1972 to 60% in 1990. In Ontario, Canada the figure rose from 44% in 1990 to 60% in 1996. SO now we have underemployment of learning.

Mark Cully has reached similar conclusions for the Australian workforce. At the high skill end, some appear underqualified because they have learnt on the job over a number of years. Increasingly however, there is over-qualification in the middle and low skilled sectors. The taxi-drivers and fast-food workers with doctorates thesis.

Cully fears that the knowledge nation will simply rearrange the job queue, not shorten it.

http://www.workplaceinfo.com.au/

Attitudes Towards Trade Unions: Sources of support and opposition in Australia
Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans

The authors try to make a scale of an overall measure of attitudes towards unions. On their analysis factors affecting attitudes include:

Parents political party preferences (by far the biggest influence)
Vintage; that is the era in which respondents grew up
Education levels
Occupational status and whether in the public or private sector, non-profit organisations such as charities or universities
Trade union membership
Income

Young people appear more sympathetic than older people, confirming findings of Labor Council's own polling, and indicating the importance for unions reaching young people.

In the private sector, those at the top and bottom of the income scale rated similarly in their attitudes to unions, whilst in the public sector, those towards the top of the public sector hierarchy were much more strongly in favour of unions than those in the lower echelons.

(Australian Social Monitor; vol. 3, no 2, October 2000)

Women's Participation in the Labour Force: ideals and behaviour
M.D.R. Evans

Explores workforce participation across the life-course by women, using International Social Science Surveys/Australia (IsssA) data. After finishing their education, almost all Australians enter the labour force, mostly in full-time employment. For women, employment generally continues after marriage, but then drops sharply when the first child is born and rises slowly, in complex and changing patterns, as the children grow older, enter school, and eventually reach adulthood/leave home. International comparisons are also presented.

(Australian Social Monitor; vol. 3, no 2, October 2000)

Deconstructing Casual Work: what do statistics really tell us?

The Productivity Commission released a paper arguing that the ABS classification of casual work was seriously overstating the extent of casualisation. This article looks at what various researchers have been saying about measuring casualisation and how categories of non-standard work should be constructed.

Some have said that fears about precarious employment are overstated but not only ABS figures have indicated that work arrangements have altered drastically for many in Australia in recent years. The Productivity Commission argues that casual jobs that are long term (as many are) should not be considered precarious. However, that begs the question: if the majority of casual jobs are of long-term duration, why do employers hire people on a casual basis? Perhaps because this avoids the entanglements of "permanent employment" ie its easier to get rid of people when necessary.

Attitudinal surveys also indicate that the experience of casual work affects employees. They do feel as integrated as permanent employees and training and career paths are uncertain.

(IR Intelligence Report; issue 8, 2000)

AWAs as a Bargaining Tool?
Kristin van Barnveld and Betty Arsovska

With the Commonwealth bank threatening to offer AWAs to 22,000 employees following negotiations with the FSU, this article discusses recent federal Court cases relating to AWAs being used as a bargaining tool. The Burswood Resort case, Employment National case, Peerless Holdings case, G & K O'Connor case and the Burnie Ports case are examples of this trend.

The Peerless case is the example discussed in detail.

(IR Intelligence Report; issue 8, 2000)

OHS and the Labour-hire Industry
Ballanda Sack

The changing nature of the employment in recent years has seen the increasing use of labour-hire agencies in many industries. There has been an associated growth in the number of accidents and injuries to labour-hire workers. This article looks cases where the issues of who is an employee and who is responsible for OHS and training have been examined.

Labour-hire agencies seek to avoid liability by establishing that:

The worker is not their employee
It took all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the worker.

Courts have been willing to place the responsibility on the labour-hire firms.

(Occupational Health and Safety Update; newsletter 9, 12 October 2000)

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Issue 75 contents

Interview: Civilized Capital
The FNV's Harrie Lindelauff explains to Peter Lewis how a friendly government and moderate employers make for a different sort of workplace in Holland.

Politics: Where Too Much Politics Is Barely Enough
With daily newspapers providing polling and analysis, television, cable, radio and Internet providing 24 hour coverage over a year long campaign -- there's more than enough politics for even the most voracious American political junkie reports Michael Gadiel.

International: US Cleaners on Hunger Strike
A number of US cleaners have this week gone on a hunger strike to back a union campaign for higher wages.

Economics: The Pass The Risk Trick
Derivatives, often seen as the currency of casino capitalism, are the fastest growing, largest and potentially most volatile aspect of capitalist economies. Economist Dick Brian sees behind this image an even deeper danger.

Health: Depressing Workplaces
New technologies and the impact of globalisation have sparked more stress and bouts of depression for workers, while causing a growing burden for social security systems, a new ILO report says.

Unions: Costello's Con
The low paid are bearing the brunt of the GST with inflation at a 10 year high argues the ACTU's Greg Combet.

Satire: Bush campaign an in-joke, admit advisors
TEXAS, Thursday: Following Bush's disastrous performance in the first Presidential debate it has been revealed that his bid for president is actually the result of a in-joke about how stupid the American people are.

» ACTU Calls For Compo For Costello's Inflation Spike

» Despair At Our ABC

» Outlaw Banks Strike Again

» Church Leader Confesses: We're Not Always Good Employers

» Building Workers Win $150 A Week Pay Rise

» MUA Prosecutes Patrick

» WA Secrecy Laws Gag Union Members

» LHMU Seek $1 An Hour Rise

» Picket Protects Broadway Squats

» APHEDA Appeal For Palestinian Medical Relief

» World Bank, IMF To Consult Unions

» Festering Joy

» Heath Our Hero Wins Two Gold