ACTU MEDIA RELEASE Issued 1.30pm Wednesday 7 December 2005

Howard Government's IR Dream Now A Living Nightmare For Working Families

The final passage of the Government's amended WorkChoices laws through Parliament will make John Howard's industrial relations dream a living nightmare for Australian workers and their families says the ACTU.

Commenting on the final passage of the amended IR legislation through the House of Representatives today, ACTU President Sharan Burrow said:

"The clear goal of the Government's new workplace law is to boost the profits of big business at the expense of the basic rights and living standards of working Australians. These are unjust and unwarranted new laws that will hurt the most vulnerable workers and reduce the job security and living standards of all Australian workers and their families.

The Government has made 337 amendments to try and paper over the flaws in the 'WorkChoices' legislation since it was released to the public just a month ago. But not one of these amendments alters the fact that the laws will remove even the most basic workplace rights and protections for millions of Australian workers.

For more than 100 years Australia has had an industrial relations system that has given working people a share of the benefits of economic prosperity when times are good and ensured that there are decent protections for people when times get tough.

This is the system the Federal Government's new workplace laws will destroy.

All ten million working Australians will be badly affected by the new laws, which mean:

* Any worker at any time can be put onto an AWA individual contract that cuts take home pay and removes conditions like overtime, penalty rates, meal breaks, public holiday penalties, weekend rates and redundancy pay.

* Award conditions will not be protected. AWAs that reduce existing entitlements can be offered to any current employees at any time.

* All workers in businesses with less than 100 staff will lose their protection from unfair dismissal. 'Unlawful' termination laws will provide no protection for workers from the most common forms of unfair sacking.

* The current yearly review of minimum wages by the Industrial Relations Commission will be scrapped and the Prime Minister has refused to guarantee that the real value of minimum wages will be maintained.

* The access of union representatives to workplaces will be severely restricted and in some cases banned. No Australian worker will have any legally enforceable right to bargain collectively with an employer. Even if 100% of employees in a workplace are union members and want a collective agreement an employer will have the legal power to refuse to even discuss a collective agreement and insist every worker signs an AWA individual contract.

These laws will remove basic rights for working people, cut the take home pay of workers, reduce their job security and hurt families. The Australian people can rest assured that unions will campaign for as long and as hard as it takes to overturn these laws and replace them with decent employment rights in this country," said Ms Burrow.

Media Contact: Susannah Greenleaf 0418 479 455

Ian Wilson, ACTU Media Officer
iwilson@actu.asn.au
ph 0408 513 849