21 December 2007
ACTU condemns Work Choices fines for WA construction workers
The ACTU has joined with the CFMEU and other unions to express their strong condemnation of fines up to $10,000 meted out under the Howard Government’s IR laws to 91 West Australian construction workers in a Federal Court decision yesterday.
The workers were fined for stopping work in protest against the sacking of a workmate who raised a workplace health and safety issue at the Perth to Mandurah railway construction site in late February 2006.
Although the workers’ dispute with their employer Leighton Kumagai was resolved in March 2006, the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC), a body set up by the former Howard Govt to attack the rights of construction workers, initiated legal action against the workers four months later.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
“These fines are very heavy-handed and show the unfairness of the former Howard Government’s industrial relations laws.
“Given that the original dispute that led to the stop work action was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both the workers and the employer, the legal action brought by the ABCC was totally unnecessary and the fines are unwarranted.
“The union movement is determined to continue to stand by the WA construction workers and their families and to help them with their legal costs and the fines.
“The case brought by the ABCC against the workers was never about justice or about improving the operation of the economy, it was only ever about implementing the extreme anti-union industrial relations agenda of the Liberal Party and sections of big business, said Ms Burrow.
The ABCC has coercive powers that infringe on fundamental legal and human rights laid down in United Nations conventions and that stretch back to the Magna Carta.
Workers hauled before the ABCC don't have the right to silence and must answer questions under threat of a six month jail term. They face a prison term as well, and prosecution for contempt, if they divulge the content of the interrogation to their union or event to members of their family.
The Rudd Labor Government has promised to abolish the ABCC on 31 January 2010.
21 December 2007
New job of IR extremist Peter Hendy in Liberal HQ shows Work Choices still alive & kicking
The appointment of a long-time industrial relations extremist, anti-union agitator and big business lobbyist Peter Hendy to Opposition leader Brendan Nelson’s office confirms that Work Choices is still alive and kicking in the Liberal leadership says the ACTU.
Peter Hendy previously helped John Howard write ‘Jobsback’, a precursor to Work Choices, and was the chief of staff to former workplace relations minister Peter Reith during the Howard Government’s disgraceful attempt to smash the wages and conditions of waterfront workers in 1998.
Mr Hendy was also with Reith during the 2001 children overboard affair after Reith moved to defence and later refused to give evidence to the Senate committee on the matter.
More recently Peter Hendy has been a Liberal Party apparatchik working with the big business lobby group the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).
The ACCI instigated and co-ordinated a pro-Work Choices advertising campaign by the so-called ‘Business Coalition for Workplace Reform’ that was hastily pulled off the air in September after two actors posing as union officials in an advertisement were exposed in media reports as notorious criminals.
It was reported that two of the ‘actors’ in the ad had been convicted of serious drug charges and one has been charged with sexual offences against under-age girls.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
“Peter Hendy’s new job shows that the announcement by Liberal leader Brendan Nelson yesterday that ‘Work Choices is dead’ was just a charade.
“The Liberals under Brendan Nelson clearly have no intention of listening to the Australian people and moving on from their hard line approach to industrial relations.
“Hendy’s apparently seamless shift from big business lobby group ACCI to Liberal HQ also confirms just how close is the Liberals’ relationship with big business.
“The Liberals have just suffered one of the biggest ever election losses because the public rejected Work Choices and the Liberals’ extremist anti-union IR agenda.
“Now they appoint a long-time industrial relations extremist and big business lobbyist to their inner circle.
“This shows that the Liberals under Brendan Nelson have learnt nothing from the election and are deaf to the desire of the Australian people to have their rights at work respected and who support the role of unions.”
20 December 2007
Big business should follow Liberals lead & admit Work Choices is dead, stop using AWAs
The ACTU has called on the business community to also admit Work Choices is dead and to immediately stop pushing workers onto unfair AWA individual contracts, following the announcement of Liberal leader Brendan Nelson.
But working families and unions are still concerned that the Liberals are not really genuine in their dropping of Work Choices, with Brendan Nelson still refusing to bring back unfair dismissal protections for workers that were lost under Work Choices.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
“The Liberals have admitted they got it wrong on IR and it’s time now for business to do the same.
“Many employers in Australia’s largest businesses as well as business lobby groups ACCI, BCA, NFF and others joined with the Liberals to vilify Australia’s trade union movement and promote the Howard Government’s unfair Work Choices IR laws.
“Sections of the business community not only received considerable resources from the Government to implement Work Choices but devoted millions of dollars to their own discredited advertising campaign in support of the unfair IR laws.
“The business community and the Liberals both need to wake up and listen to the Australian people.
“The emphatic election result shows that Australians want their rights at work respected and protected and they know and support the role unions play in that.
“It is time for the business community to admit Work Choices is dead.
“All employers should now put a stop to using AWAs and sit down and negotiate fair collective agreements with workers and their unions.
“In particular, large employers such as Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank should stop pushing their workers onto AWAs that reduce pay and conditions and take away their employees’ rights,” said Ms Burrow.
11 December 2007
Liberals must accept responsibility for ‘WorkChoices’ disaster: new figures on AWAs
Liberal leader Brendan Nelson and Shadow Minister for Workplace Relations Julie Bishop must accept that ‘WorkChoices’ was a disaster with new figures from the Workplace Authority showing the so-called fairness test and AWA individual contracts are continuing to fail thousands of workers.
These new figures from the Workplace Authority show that employers have been rushing to try and push workers onto unfair AWA individual contracts with a jump of almost 40,000 new AWAs lodged in the November — around 10,000 or 34 per cent more AWAs than were lodged in October.
The data also shows a huge rise in the number of workers whose workplace agreements have failed the fairness test.
In the past month the number of agreements failing the fairness test has more than tripled, with almost 5,000 workers found to have had their wages and conditions cut without adequate compensation.
The figures also show another rise in the massive backlog of workers waiting for their wages and conditions to be checked with now almost 150,000 workers in the queue to have their job contracts scrutinised.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:
“The figures show some employers are clearly doing the wrong thing and are continuing to push their workers onto AWAs which take away their rights and conditions.
“’WorkChoices’ and the ‘fairness test’ IR changes that the Liberals introduced have been a total disaster. It is very disappointing to see employers are still trying to push workers onto unfair AWAs.
“The fact that there is such a large amount of AWAs failing the fairness test indicates just how bad things are for workers on AWAs.
“These figures show that all the millions of dollars that was spent trying to inform employers and the public about ‘WorkChoices’ was a complete waste of taxpayer’s money.
“The Australian public completely and utterly rejected ‘WorkChoices’ and AWAs in the election and yet the Liberals and sections of big business still haven’t got the message.
“It is time for the Liberals and business groups including ACCI to stop using AWAs to take away workers’ rights,” said Ms Burrow.
10 December 2007
Employers should accept the Australian voters’ rejection of AWAs and ‘Workchoices’
Employers should accept the outcome of the federal election and immediately stop trying to push workers onto five year AWA individual contracts.
BHP Billiton has been caught out trying to push its workers into signing AWAs despite the incoming Rudd Labor Government’s plan to abolish AWAs.
BHP is the latest of several employers and employer groups who are rushing to try and put their workers onto AWAs. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), the business lobby group with links to the Liberal Party, have also recently encouraged companies to keep using these AWAs.
ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said:
“The federal election was a clear rejection of AWAs and ‘Workchoices’ by the Australian public.
“For over 20 years the Liberal Party and sectional big business groups have promoted individual contracts and an anti-union agenda. But the Australian people have voted overwhelmingly to reject this ideology.
“Companies need to accept that AWAs have been rejected by the Australian people because they are unfair and take away workers’ rights.
“Workers voted at the ballot box for the right to bargain collectively and to reject individual contracts.
“These companies need to respect the wishes of the Australian people and immediately stop the use of AWAs.
“The Rudd Labor Government is clearly committed to getting rid of AWAs and companies should accept this and sit down cooperatively with workers and unions to discuss collective bargaining”, said Mr Lawrence.
AWU National Secretary Paul Howes said of BHPs moves:
"Unfortunately BHP - reporting record profits this year - seems ready to ignore the will of the people to push more workers onto John Howard's harsh AWAs.
"BHP is joining a list of "renegade employers" who wanted to extend the life of the former Howard Government's AWAs by bribing workers.
"The community has voted for an end to the ‘WorkChoices’ laws. The Federal Government is committed to abolishing the AWAs by early next year. Despite that BHP is, right now, pushing people to sign five year AWAs", said Mr Howes.
4 December 2007
Unions praise workers who helped get rid of Work Choices
Workers who played a key role in helping get rid of Work Choices will be honoured by a formal vote of appreciation at today’s meeting of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Executive.
In a meeting of the ACTU Executive following the Labor Party’s landslide federal election win, Australia’s union leaders will pay tribute to all workers who spoke out against the Howard Govt’s unfair WorkChoices IR laws and contributed to the success of the ‘Your Rights At Work’ community campaign.
Two workers who appeared in the unions’ successful TV ad campaign will be on hand to receive the praise on behalf of all the workers that spoke out against WorkChoices.
· Andrew Cruickshank of Narre Warren in Victoria was sacked in late 2006 for ‘operational reasons’ under WorkChoices, an excuse which allows large companies to dismiss employees unfairly.
· Annette Harris of Coffs Harbour, NSW, was offered an AWA individual contract by her employer Spotlight which cut her penalty rates and overtime in return for a pay rise of just 2 cents an hour. Spotlight recently announced that it would no longer use AWAs.
ACTU President, Sharan Burrow said:
“All Australians should honour the courage and fortitude of the many workers who stood up against the Coalition’s unfair WorkChoices IR laws and withstood the disgraceful attacks on them by the Howard Government.
“Public awareness of their experiences of being disadvantaged and treated unfairly under Work Choices helped turn the tide against the Howard Government.
“The election was clearly a referendum on industrial relations — WorkChoices and the Liberals’ disgraceful attack on unions were totally rejected by the Australian people,” said Ms Burrow.
Unions today launched a new TV advertisement that thanks Australian workers for rejecting Work Choices and the Liberals’ dishonest anti-union scare campaign.
Click here to watch new ad
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