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Workers Online Digest Edition - Issue 293
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Editorial: Waves of Destruction
2005 was the year book-ended by two waves of destruction - the first causing untold suffering across the Indian Ocean; the second reawakening our darker angels on beaches closer to home. In between, a hard-fought, but in the short-term losing battle, for the most fundamental of rights, the right to be treated with respect and dignity at work. And if you don't see the connections between the three, then you are not looking closely enough. http://workers.labor.net.au/293/editorial_editorial.html |
Workers Online Digest Edition - Issue 293
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Highlights
*The Bottom Ten Nathan Brown digs through his voluminous dirt files and comes up with the top 10 grubs of the year. http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200513/d_review_grubs.html* The Things People Say It was a year of quotable quotes, reports Phil Doyle. http://workers.labor.net.au/features/200513/a_guestreporter_abc.html * Melbourne Burns AWAs Eighteen Melbourne workers have kicked a big hole in John Howard's plan to deunionise Australia. On Monday, December 19, their employer, Colrain, wrote to the Office of the Employment Advocate, asking that their AWAs be scrubbed. http://workers.labor.net.au/293/news1_burn.html * Teenager Hit With Shrapnel Eighty people protested outside a Geelong fish and chip shop that paid a 16-year-old schoolgirl with 1196 five cent pieces. http://workers.labor.net.au/293/news7_shrapnel.html * Boeing Steals Christmas Boeing won't explain its preference for individual agreements, as its refusal to negotiate a collective agreement condemns Newcastle employees to Christmas on the picket line. http://workers.labor.net.au/293/news93_boeing.html More: http://workers.labor.net.au/293/ |
Treasury says wages for working families will
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ACTU MEDIA RELEASE Issued Monday 19 December 2005
Wage rises for Australian working families are likely to be lower in the future under the Howard Government's new industrial relations changes previously unreleased Treasury Reports has revealed. The reports obtained under freedom of information laws show that the Federal Government's own Treasury Department believe that John Howard's industrial relations changes will mean that 'increases in minimum wages are likely to be lower' and that this will 'slow award wage growth and flow on' to other workers. ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said: "These documents prove that the Howard Government has known all along that its industrial relations changes would lead to lower wage rises, cuts in the take home pay of workers and more pressure on working families. "The Treasury has also confirmed that there is no economic case or justification for the Government's new IR laws. The Treasury reports found: * That productivity is likely to be 'suppressed' by the Government's plans to push down award wages; * That there is no evidence that the Government's efforts to push more workers onto individual contracts will improve productivity because there is 'no clear difference in productivity gains between collective and individual agreements' and: * That Government claims that jobs growth will be boosted by IR changes are misleading because any employment gains would be 'not huge in the context of recent history'. "There is no economic case for these IR laws. They are simply about Liberal Party ideology. "Treasury has confirmed that John Howard's IR laws will lead to lower wages for Australian working families. They have also proven that the Government's claims that its IR laws will improve productivity and boost jobs growth are lies." Media Contact: Ian Wilson 0408 513 849 |
New International Alliance Of Unions, Politicians & NGOs Call for Decent Work
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ACTU 14 December 2005
"Decent work for decent lives" is the catchcry and heart of a fight back by a new international alliance of unions, progressive political leaders and NGOs that is calling on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to recognise core labour standards in trade talks this week. ACTU and Global Unions President, Sharan Burrow said the formation of the new alliance this week - the 'Global Progressive Forum' - headed by former Danish Prime Minister Paul Nyrup Rassmussen, SOLIDAR and Global Unions is cause for renewed optimism that international labour standards for working people will improve. "Too many people's livelihoods are threatened by the greed of corporations and the compliance of too many governments who have forgotten that economies are there to serve people." read more... http://www.actu.asn.au/public/news/1134513778_21215.html |
Howard's IR Dream Now A Living Nightmare
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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 |
Workers Online - Issue 292
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Editorial: A Free Vote
This week's charade of the Senate amending the Howard Government's workplace laws raises fundamental questions about the sort of democracy Australia has become. The PM's ideological obsession is old news. Barnaby's buffoonery and ultimate back down was to be predicted and the Opposition parties'outrage, while well-executed, was never going to change anything. What has been more striking are flaws in our system of government that have been exposed, the failure of our democratic structures to fulfilthe basic roles they were created for. When a 700 page Act has a six day Senate Inquiry and then when the Senate has just two days to deal with more than 300 government-sponsored amendments, any pretence to being a House of Review should be dispensed with. Of course, we are in an unusual moment in our nation's politics - never before has such an extremist and ideologically driven administration had control of both Houses. However, it does expose as farcical the alleged separation of legislative and executive power. |
Campaign For Asbestos Victims Harder Under New IR Laws
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ACTU 01 December 2005
James Hardie is today expected to sign a legally binding agreement which will provide more than $4.5 billion in compensation funding for Australian asbestos victims. Unions and workers who campaigned to achieve justice and proper compensation rights for James Hardie asbestos victims could be subject to crippling fines and damages for similar campaigns in the future under the Howard Government's new industrial relations laws, ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said today. Mr Combet said that while unions and asbestos groups would welcome the signing by James Hardie of a final legally binding agreement, the Australian community should also be very concerned that the Government's new IR laws would make future campaigns like the one against James Hardie much more difficult in the future. read more.. |
