
Issue No 98		01 June 2001

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News

Bad Rosters ‘Like Being Drunk’

By Andrew Casey

Security guards working at the Army Barracks in Randwick reckon that the individual employment contracts they were forced to sign are affecting their health.

" The doctor looked at my roster and said it was like being under the influence of alcohol," Paul O'Hanlon who signed an AWA, to get his job at the Army barracks working for UK multinational Serco.

Poor, unfriendly, rostering arrangements mean that no sooner have the security workers finished a shift they are back in the saddle doing access control. All the workers are complaining of headaches, dizziness, nausea.

" I wake up and lose balance. I have trouble sometimes driving even a short distance," Paul O'Hanlon, an LHMU Security Union said.

AWA individual employment contracts, introduced by the Howard government, have cut back workplace rights and increased the feelings of job insecurity.

" When we signed our AWAs the company, sure they sat us down and read it to us, but they didn't explain what I see as the hidden traps," Paul O'Hanlon said.

Paul had been unemployed when Serco offered him a job in January, so he was really happy and prepared to accept almost any working conditions.

Serco, who have a big government contract to supply security workers at defence bases, regularly insist workers sign AWAs - rather than operate under a collective award with union rights.

In Port Kembla, where Serco have just won the security contract at the BHP steelworks, union members went on strike last week to protest out-sourcing and the use of individual employment contracts.

There are half a dozen security guards employed at Randwick and they have all now joined the Security uniontration with the AWAs.

" Trying to get changes in rostering is almost impossible. They don't seem to listen.

" They promised to act but two months later they still have not changed the rosters."

Paul has had to see the doctor so often and take time off from work that he has used up the little sick leave available to him in his AWA.

Julie Power, from the LHMU Security Union says these guards hadn't been forced to sign AWAs they would come under the Security Guards Defence Contracting Award.

" The company would have had to introduce proper monitoring procedures for the rosters months ago - and changed them to protect the health of their workers," Julie Power said.

" The sick leave rights under the individual employment contract AWAs are way below the Award.. On their AWAs they can be expect to be paid as much as $6 an hour under the current Award provisions."

" I don't feel proud going on sick leave, using workers compo but I have got to look after my health. When I found I couldn't even drive properly I knew that I had to act."

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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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