
Issue No 82		20 December 2000

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News

All We Want for Christmas

As they break for Christmas, NSW workers have hung out their stocking and sent their wish list of outstanding industrial issues currently before the Carr Government.

Deeming Provisions

Labor Council has called on the Carr Government to give the Industrial Relations Commission the power to deem workers as 'employees' regardless of their formal status. Under the proposal workers engaged as contractors in areas where they have traditionally been employees, would be able to apply to receive benefits like long service leave, annual leave and superannuation paid be their employer. This would stop employers changing the formal structure of employment to avoid their obligations. Similar legislation already operates in Queensland and is being considered in Victoria.

Online Rights for Online Workers

Labor Council has been pushing for protection for online workers for more than 12 months. We are seeking two things: protection from employer scrutiny of personal emails and trade union access to internal communication systems for legitimate organising activites. The proposal stalled before former IR Minister Jeff Shaw pending the outcome of a long-running Law Reform Commission report on privacy. With still no sign of that report, unions will be asking new IR minister John Della Bosca to kick-start the issue in the New Year.

Minimum Standards for Government Contractors

The Labor Council has been working with the department for Public Works and Services to formulate a more proactive strategy for ensuring government tenderers practise good industrial relations policy including adhering to awards or collective agreements and recognizing the rights of workers to belong to trade unions. While the Carr Government says this is already official policy, the operation of several companies doing government work - including Stellar call centres - has left union s wanting a more practical commitment.

Labour Hire Inquiry

Unions are waiting on the government 's response to the inquiry into labour hire conducted by former ACTU President Jennie George. The final report was handed to IR minister John Della Bosca just before Christmas and is understood to contain a series of positions on which there was agreement between the parties and others on which there has been no agreement.

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Issue 82 contents

Interview: Being Michael Costa
Labor Council�s secretary on the 2KY sell-off, the Olympics and his plans for the future.

Unions: Millennial Milestones
In a year of highs, some trade union stories stuck in the collective consciousness. Here's ten of the best.

International: Eric Lee's Year in Review
The editor of Labourstart looks back on the global issues that mobilized labour in the past 12 months.

Organising: Dispatches from the Field
Despite the 'Botsmanesque' critiques which have been levelled at Organising, it would be hard to deny that the year 2000 has seen more and more unions in NSW latch onto the approach - at least in principle anyway.

Economics: Who Gets Gold??
At the end of this Olympic year, Sydney Uni's Frank Stilwell charts the winners and losers in the new sport of redistribution of income.

Politics: Election 2000: The Winner is Gridlock
In the last in his series on the US Federal Election Campaign, Michael Gadiel, our roving reporter, gladly signs off.

Satire: Chaser Launches Book
In the great tradition of repackaging old material to cash in on Christmas, the team from The Chaser & Silly 2000 has produced its first book.

Review: Cultural Wasteland
The spotlight was on Australian culture in 2000. But was it a missed opportunity, asks Peter Zangari.

» Mad Monk's Secret Union Past

» New Life for Trades Hall

» Top Cop is Our Organiser of the Year

» All We Want for Christmas

» Summer for Social Justice

» Unions Return to Mosh Pit

» Unions Head West

» Big Bastard Censors Dissidents

» South Coast Labor President Steps Down

» As a Died in the Wool Westie Steps Up

» Dying Workers' Asbestos Plea

» Workers at Centre of Turn Of the Century

» Truth about S11 Starting to Come Out

» The Soapbox

» The Locker Room

» Trades Hall

» Tool Shed

» The Greatest Team Ever?

» ABC Online Did Strike

» Why Nader Vote was not Wasted

» John Scrooge's Christmas Gift

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