Issue No 9 | 16 April 1999 | |
UnionsMore Jobs, Better Pay?By Mark Hearn
Peter Reith shears the Pastoral Industry Award, making a mockery of his election rhetoric.
"What Peter Reith wants is an impoverished and desperate workforce", John Thompson gives me a hard look. Once again, I'm glad that I am not Peter Reith. "He wants workers at each other's throats." Anger can make a quiet bloke passionate about ordinary things once taken for granted. Like your whole working life. "The Award has evolved over the years to maintain decent standards", John explains, his hands working hard to try to shape the right words. "The Award encourages you to stay in the industry, to do the job." Shearer John Thompson is talking about the Pastoral Industry Award. Like shearing, the Award seems to have been around forever. Created in 1907, the Pastoral Industry Award was the first handed down by the new Commonwealth Arbitration Court, decisively ending "freedom of contract" - the boss free to run his shearing shed, to determine wages and conditions, without the interference of uppity shearers or the meddling Australian Workers Union. You can see why Federal Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith likes the idea of freedom of contract. He was unimpressed that the National Farmers Federation and the AWU recently negotiated a new Award, and had that streamlined Award approved by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, settling years of conflict. Reith has appealed the decision, demanding still more cuts. It's all part of Reith's promise of a new era of workplace relations, based on his slogan, "More Jobs, Better Pay". How does that bold promise stack up against the changes he wants to impose on the Pastoral Industry Award? Reith wants to cut clauses that govern the condition of the sheep and the number of sheep to be shorn. He even questions whether the farmer should supply the sheep, and provide shearers and shedhands with basic amenities, like clean water and accommodation. Cuts that some farmers will certainly welcome, as John Thompson explains, and as only a life-long bushie can. "Some owners would have you sleeping in the chook shed on a bag of thistles, if they had their way." Shearer Peter O'Conner describes removing the clause guaranteeing shearers a minimum number of sheep as "a back door way of lowering shearing rates". Shearers pay - piece rates - relates to the number of sheep they shear - not the number of hours they work. As shearing is seasonal and itinerant work, shearers need to be able to schedule work in advance - confident that they will have enough sheep to shear to justify travelling long distances between pastoral stations. Peter Reith is expecting shearers to turn up at a station with no guarantee of a reasonable income. Peter O'Conner says Reith's demand that workers lift productivity is irrelevant in the pastoral industry. "We're already working flat out". Shearers work as fast as they can to make a good living, to build a strong tally of shorn sheep, and a good pay cheque - 30-40% of a shearer's income disappears in work-related costs. They can't shear night and day, although there is constant pressure to shear on weekends. Reith's award cuts will only intensify that pressure. The AWU is aware of contractors advertising in New Zealand for shearers to work "seven day" rosters in Australia. Every day, for the entire shearing season. An impossible workload, says Peter O'Conner. "You can't go out with a spanner and a set of nuts and bolts and repair a human being". Many shearers already retire with permanent disabilities from a life of wrestling sheep that can weigh up to 65 kilos. The AWU is fighting Reith's appeal of the AIRC decision. National Secretary Terry Muscat says "Peter Reith has broken his word. He promised that under his Workplace Relations Act no worker would be worse off. Yet he knows that once you remove the legal responsibility of award conditions, employers will try to cut pay rates and working conditions." John Thompson doesn't expect farmers to provide him with luxury when he goes out shearing: just "decent standards". Peter Reith has a bad habit of upsetting decent people. Once roused, decent people make obstinate political opponents.
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Interview: Ms Plibersek Goes To Canberra The new MP for Sydney talks about her new job, new ideas and why she won�t be writing a book about them. Unions: More Jobs, Better Pay? Peter Reith shears the Pastoral Industry Award, making a mockery of his election rhetoric. History: Work and Community This is the story of a little corrugated iron factory. In a lane. In Rozelle. Review: Tailing Out When BHP left Newcastle steelworks, it also left a rich working culture. A ground-breaking project is now honouring what has been lost. International: ILO Warns Danger Evolving With Technology The ILO estimates over 1 million work-related fatalities each year -- and the danger spots are changing. Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre View the latest issue of Labour Review, Labor Council's fortnightly IR newsletter for unions.
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