Employer Advisor Program: anti-union slush fund
Detailed information and assistance will be provided to both employers and employees on how they can best utilise the Australian Government’s WorkChoices reforms in their workplace and industry.
That sounds very even-handed and fair, doesn’t it? But the truth, as usual, doesn’t live up to the Government’s rhetoric. The program that will be set up to advise “both employers and employees” is the Employer Advisor Program — hardly setting itself up to be neutral.
But the name is just the beginning. Let’s have a look at who won the tender to run the EAP:
- ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry
- Aged & Community Services Association of NSW and ACT
- Agribusiness Employers Federation
- Australian Business Limited
- Australian Hotels Association
- Australian Industry Group
- Australian Mines & Metals Association
- Australian Retail Association
- Business SA
- Chamber of Commerce & Industry Western Australia
- Commerce Queensland
- Master Builders Australia
- National Farmers’ Federation
- National Retail Association
- Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce
- Recruitment & Consulting Services Association
- Restaurant & Catering Industry Association of Australia
- Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce
- Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce & Industry
It looks like DEWR opened the Yellow Pages to “Employer Organisations” and awarded contracts to everyone on the list!
Despite its constant denials that WorkChoices give employers the upper hand, the Government is blatantly tipping a bucket of money into the business lobby’s coffers, to subsidise its anti-union campaigns. In order to balance this blatant rort, the Minister would have to announce an Employee Advisor Program, and pour money into the ACTU’s advertising campaign.
Let’s call a spade a spade. This isn’t a public education campaign — it’s a slush fund for union-busting.
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