
Issue No 92		20 April 2001

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Politics

In Defence of Della’s List

By Michael Costa

The proposition that trade unions should ask members of the ALP for a commitment that they uphold Party policy should hardly be controversial.

The Party platform and election policy are the items of faith upon which trade unions and their members commit to work for the election of Labor Governments. In a very real sense, it is the glue that binds the political and industrial wings of the labour movement together.

The Carr government's proposed workers compensation reform package has brought these issues to the surface because, on their face, the Workers Compensation (Amendment) Bill breaches a clear principle: it reduces benefits and access to benefits to a large number of injured workers.

We have four core areas of concern with the package:

- it forces workers to submit to binding medical panels, where their injury is decided by people who do not even have to be qualified in the filed they are ruling on.

- it reduces access to compensation by raising the threshold for taking legal action against a negligent employer

- it imports a US_based method of medical assessment which has been shown to lead to smaller payouts for claimants.

- it totally ignores the critical issues of compliance, workplace safety and non-payment of premiums by rogue employers.

A workers compensation package that was consistent with ALP platform and policy would not have these deficiencies.

Because the package was introduced into the State Parliament without formal consultation with the trade union movement, we did not have the opportunity to raise these concerns with the government in advance. Instead we have been forced to raise a public campaign to hold the Labor government to account.

This campaign has involved media events, industrial action, direct lobbying of MPs and the, perhaps novel, request for Labor members to indicate publicly where they stand on the issue.

To this end, we contacted all Labor backbenchers and asked them to indicate whether they would be prepared to support amendments to the package that safeguarded benefits for injured workers. Not surprisingly, a significant majority of MPs (33 out of 52) - from across the factions - have publicly committed to this core Labor value.

We have not, at this stage, asked Labor MPs to cross the floor. The Premier's intervention yesterday threatening the re-endorsement of Labor MPs was unhelpful in resolving these important issues. After all, the Premier and the IR Minister have already agreed to consider amendments to the Bill. I can only assume he has not been briefed properly on what the Labor Council sought from the back-benchers.

Labor Council published the names of the Labor MPs on our 'Workers Online' website, to ensure that working people could identify those politicians prepared to stand by them on this core issue. It's just an element of our web-based campaign which has provided a range of information and materials on the Net, so that delegates in individual workplaces can run their own campaigns at the grass roots.

Those who have not put their hands up for injured workers are now facing direct questions in their own electorates, with local workers committing themselves to persuading them into changing their position. Of course, they are welcome to add their names to the list' at any time.

The names of the Labor MPs have been posted on the Internet for more than a week before the mainstream media picked up the story, some incorrectly stating these were MPs who would 'cross the floor'. This is to overstate the case, as far as we are concerned, the MPs' commitment is to support sensible amendments, which we hope will be moved by Minister Della Bosca after due consultation.

To this end, Labor Council is working with other stakeholders, including employers, lawyers and doctors, to develop a fully costed package which meets the Premier's desire to rein in the WorkCover deficit, with the imperative that workers benefits are protected. As we have said from the start, we accept that the Scheme needs reform, we just don't see inured workers being the group who a Labor Government should ask to carry the can.

In the meantime, it is unfortunate that some Labor MPs may be uncomfortable by being forced to declare their hands. But they should take heart in the knowledge that injured workers, who they are elected to represent, will be a lot less comfortable if this package goes through unamended.

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  Issue 92 contents

Interview: Beyond the Accord
Simon Crean cut his teeth in the trade union movement, now he's gearing up to run the economy.

Politics: In Defence of Della’s List
The proposition that trade unions should ask members of the ALP for a commitment that they uphold Party policy should hardly be controversial.

Corporate: The Real Rorters
The unspoken sore of the WorkCover Scheme is non-compliance by employers. None more so that in the construction industry, as this CFMEU paper details.

Legal: In the Real World
Lawyer Ross Goodridge exposes the defficincies in the new medical assessment guidelines for workers compensation by looking at real case studies.

International: The Docklands and Global Labour
Ma Wei Pin and Jasper Goss recount how the struggle of a group of Indonesian hotel workers effected a lucrative Melbourne contract.

History: Sweatshops in America
Since the dawning of the Industrial Revolution, many generations of Americans have toiled in sweatshops.

Unions: Losers Never Start
At the end of her six week vigil, Grenadier delegate Michelle Booth gave her heartfelt thanks to the trade union movement.

Review: Working Classes: Global Realities
The Socialist Register 2001 looks at class realities and the lives of workers in the new century.

Satire: Democrats Change Leader
The Democrats have a new leader after belatedly discovering that Meg Lees had become the second Democrats leader in a row to defect to another party.

» Costa To Join Della’s List

» Compo Campaign Gathers Steam

» Della’s List: Dissident MPs Targeted

» Day of Mourning to be Compo Focus

» Small Steps in Negotiations – But Hard Yards Still to Come

» Important First Step for E-Mail Privacy

» Outraged Cleaners Continue AXA Axings Protests

» Grenadier Picket Ends – But Legacy Lives On

» Entitlement Dramas in Health and Printing

» Nurses Still Waiting on Olympics Bonus

» IRC Delays Hit Eight Month Barrier

» Claims of Dirty Tricks Conspiracy at Mobil

» Sydney Water Workers On Strike

» MUA Rides Anti-pollution Wave

» Governments Urged On Child Slavery

» Time To Act on Pay Discrimination

» Construction Union Supports Folk Festival

» Activists Notebook