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WORKERS ARE STILL

WAITING FOR ACTION


‘The RUDD Government will be judged by how fairly they treat all workers, how secure they make workers’ jobs and how they deal with rising living costs like petrol, food, rent and mortgages.’
- LEO SKOURDOUMBIS
FFTS BRANCH SECRETARY

After the defeat of the Howard Government and the election of a new Labor Government workers expected that WorkChoices would be ripped up. There was a widespread understanding and expectation that workers would no longer have to face the unfairness of WorkChoices. However, today WorkChoices still remains largely intact.

In the short term the RUDD Government has enjoyed a honeymoon period with the media and the electorate. That honeymoon period is coming to an end as people look for action on the the things that they voted voted for last November. Ultimately, the Rudd Government will be judged on whether or not they keep their promise to ‘rip up WorkChoices’.

The FFTS hopes that the Rudd Government does the right thing and removes the gross unfairness that is WorkChoices. But at this point the signs do not look good.

There are still too many extreme anti-worker laws, that leave us worse of than workers in Europe. Let’s have a look at some of the basic rights that need to be restored in our workplaces:

The right to see your union at your workplace


Current restrictive workplace laws make it hard for workers to access their union to protect their rights at work. Present laws breach international conventions and go against the Aussie tradition of a ‘fair go’.
Workers in our industries deserve fair representation
and laws that:

  • Provide better access with a quick union accreditation system not permits;
  • Give workers real support from union delegates in the workplace by ensuring those delegates have proper access to co-workers, training and strong protection from discrimination and dismissal.

It’s also unjust when workers are docked four hours’ pay for a one hour safety meeting.

The right to bargain together


Collective union bargaining ensures less disruption during negotiations and promotes equal pay for the same
work and skills across an industry or company. But we still have WorkChoices laws that stop us from negotiating common agreements across multiple workplaces. We still have laws that ban certain things going into agreements even when employers and workers all agree. Today employers, workers and unions still face hefty financial penalties and even jail sentences if they negotiate what WorkChoices calls ?prohibited content?. This ?prohibited content? is the extra conditions that we have won for members over the last 20 years. Important conditions that you deserve to keep and that we want to win for more workers through new union agreements.
We need to promote collective union bargaining with laws that:

  • Scrap the extreme ‘Prohibited Content Provisions’ and penalties;
  • Allow multiple employer common bargaining;
  • Stop employers from offering inducements (bribes) to not participate in union collective bargaining;
  • Fast track the total removal of unfair AWAs (rip off individual employment contracts).

Protection for all workers from unfair dismissal


Any restoration of rights here will exclude all workers in business with 15 or less employees. In other words 60% of the working population can still get sacked ‘at the drop of a hat’ or if their boss catches ‘smirking’. Under Rudd’s ‘WORKCHOICES LIGHT’ the bosses still do all the laughing.
Unfair dismissal laws need to apply to all employers irrespective of size of workplace, industry, or type of employment. We need a complete removal of the ‘operation reasons’ clauses in WorkChoices that allowed bosses to sack workers without giving any genuine reasons. Current exceptions from redundancy laws for employers with less than 15 workers, makes millions of workers less than equal.

To give all Australian workers the ‘equal and real protection’ we need new unfair dismissal laws that:

  • Remove provision excluding workers from access to unfair dismissal legislation because of a qualifying period or probationary period;
  • Ensure qualifying period definition does not exclude casual and seasonal employees;
  • Remove ?genuine operational reasons? clause that excludes most workers from

SCRAP THE ABCC: treat all workers equally before the law


The Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) targets unionists and union members simply because they organise for their work rights. The ABCC can interrogate any worker just for attending a union meeting. Just by refusing to answer questions workers face 6 months jail

To restore fairness Federal Labor needs to quickly:

  • Abolish the ABCC and related laws that trample over the rights of building workers;
  • Scrap the Code of Practice.

What happened to workers’ right to strike?


In Australia there is no real right to strike. We can take limited industrial action during a bargaining period but there are many barriers to this. Meanwhile workers and unions can face all sorts of legal threats, and not so legal threats, and there is no umpire interested in pulling them up. Without an enshrine right to strike workers still face a wild west situation with employers – they can sack you without much reason or notice and if you withdraw your labor for even for a health and safety issue you have the WorkChoices keystone cops, the ABCC questioning you and threatening you with fines if you don’t talk to them. Why should bosses be able to withdraw their capital and we cannot withdraw our labour? In the last 12 months in Victoria we have seen both nurses and cab drivers being forced to break these laws to get pay and safety issues addressed. Workers should not be made into criminals just because they withdraw their labor – the right to strike is a sign of a free democracy.