
Issue No 98		01 June 2001

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Casuals Win Parental Leave Rights

In a landmark breakthrough for Australian casuals, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has awarded maternity and parental leave rights for more than two million casuals across the country.

The full bench decision granted the ACTU's Parental Leave Test Case application giving 12 months unpaid maternity leave to casuals who have worked regularly for the same employer for a year or more.

The decision has instant ramifications with over 1.2 million Australian workers immediately eligible for this new right.

It vindicates the ACTU's long standing belief that casual workers should receive the same entitlements that the rest of the workforce take for granted.

Lodged by the ACTU last November, the application was initially opposed by major employer groups, who eventually were forced to bow to the weight of intense community pressure and lend their support to the measure.

"This decision is an important step in the union's ongoing campaign to improve both the job security and living standards of the growing number of casual workers in the modern economy," the ACTU's Greg Combet says.

"The conditions of casual employment need to be further improved, as many long-term casuals are employed in circumstances for which casual work was never originally intended."

Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Arch Bevis and Shadow Minister for the Status of Women, Dr Lawrence, have both welcomed the decision of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to extend parental leave to casual workers, heralding it as long overdue.

"The fact that the peak employee and employer unions had reached agreement

on this matter is to be commended.," Bevis says

"However, the Federal Government has been dragged kicking and screaming to this decision, and their attempts to ensure that these rights be awarded case-by-case and award-by award, rather than by incorporation in the parental leave test case standard, shows just how far out of touch they have become."

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  Issue 98 contents

Interview: Balancing the Books
Opposition Finance spokesman Lindsay Tanner on bringing a Labor agenda to managing the nation�s finances.

Compo: Undampened Spirits
Despite atrocious weather, building workers took to the streets this work over the carnage in their workplace. Mark Hebblewhite was there.

Unions: Giving Blood
Local government workers are mounting a campaign to have leave to give blood donations recognised in their award.

Women: A Checklist for Women Voters
With a mountain of demands on Australian working women, the biggest question could well be which is the biggest?

History: May Day Meditation
May Day has been and gone, but we thought Peter Linebaugh�s take on its meaning was worth reading on all the other days too.

International: The Weeks of Living Dangerously
The now almost inevitable fall of Indonesia�s President Abdurrahman Wahid could have drastic consequences for the increasingly militant working class movement in that country.

Economics: No More Mr Nice Guy
In his new book, Steven Keen outlines why the public needs to know that economics is intellectually unsound.

Satire: NZ to be Disbanded
Following the successful disbanding of the armed forces the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark, has unveiled a new bold plan to total disband the entire nation.

Review: Action in the House
Workers Online�s Big Brother Addict argues the time has come for the contestant�s to take some industrial action.

» Twenty Grand � The Cost of a Life in 2001

» Compo Protest Virtually Ignored

» Workers Tell Jodie: It's a Bit Rich

» Disbelief at Dubai in the Sky

» Wage Rise For Two Million Workers

» Casuals Win Parental Leave Rights

» Egan Budget Welcomed � But Social Audit Still on Agenda

» Bad Rosters �Like Being Drunk�

» Nurses Act on Ward Rage

» Council Workers Brace for Border Skirmish

» Meatworkers Win in Federal Court

» Hotel Bosses Linked to Tobacco Industry

» Workers Demand Treaty With Indigenous Australia

» Activists Notebook

» The Soapbox

» The Locker Room

» Trades Hall

» Tool Shed

» Pop and Politics - Where's Billy??

» Satire is not Serious

» Toasting May Day

» WorkCover - Questions for NRMA

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