Solidarity

In yet another admission that WorkChoices is a failed policy, the head of the OEA, Peter McIlwain, has been demoteed. His organisation is being renamed the Workplace Authority, and its new director is Barbara Bennett. As Mark Bahnisch points out, this is part of a spin exercise. This is how the Minister explained the new appointment:

[B]ecause of the fact that I think Barbara has the capacity to be a very public face of the Workplace Authority, Barbara will be an excellent director and Peter will be an excellent Deputy Director.

Mark also notes that “beyond noting the appointment of Ms Bennett, nothing has been said about her experience, skills and qualifications.” That’s because her record is of undermining workers’ right to organise, and their safety at work.

DEWR

Until 2005, Barbara Bennett was the Group Manager for DEWR’s Workplace Relations Implementation group. She was responsible for pushing AWAs throughout the economy, including by forcing them on workers on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. She told a Senate inquiry (pdf, p 143-4) that workers had freedom of choice:

Senator WONG— … So, in relation to new employees, it would be consistent [with Government policy] to make a job offer conditional on acceptance of an AWA?

Ms Bennett—It is not inconsistent.

[…]

Senator WONG—In respect of such employees, their choice to be covered by a collective agreement would effectively be removed?

Ms Bennett—No. They can choose not to take the employment. They could choose to change their arrangements once they were employed. They could choose to indicate to the agency that they would prefer not to, and then the agency would make a decision. I do not think it is actually removing choice. There are options within that range for new people, as they enter into the service.

So when confronted with a take-it-or-leave-it AWA, a jobseeker can either refuse the job, or accept the AWA and hope that the agency changes its mind at some unspecified time in the future! While Ms Bennett was running the implementation division, DEWR adopted just such a policy for its own new employees — no AWA, no start. Enforcement of this disturbing anti-worker conception of choice is apparently what qualifies Bennett to apply the so-called fairness test.

Comcare

After running an aggressive pro-AWA regime at DEWR, Bennett was appointed the CEO of Comcare in 2005. Comcare is the Howard Government’s self-insurance scheme for workers compensation. Bennett pushed for legislative reforms that came into effect in March this year, allowing big business to opt out of State workplace safety regimes, to avoid workplace inspections and to reduce the level of insurance cover of their employees.

Bennett told ABC radio that because Comcare deals with “very large, sophisticated and mature employers … we don’t need to use a parking inspector approach to safety.” This attitude is reflected in the number of inspectors employed in each jurisdiction:

Currently, Comcare has only 40 safety inspectors nationally compared to WorkCover NSW which currently employs 287 inspectors with specialists from every major industry.

By opening up Comcare to private companies, the Government is allowing them to avoid safety inspections. And because self-insurance licensees are now exempt from State OH&S laws, union representatives lose their rights of entry to conduct safety inspections. This amounts to a double-dodge: companies can afford to cut corners on safety because they won’t have pesky government or union inspectors asking to take a look around. The latest example of a company using this tactic is Patrick Stevedores — in a move reminiscent of the War on the Waterfront, the company is restructuring so that it is covered by Comcare and the MUA is locked out.

The compensation payments under Comcare are inferior, too:

Compensation benefits for people killed or injured at work are lower for workers in the Comcare scheme. For example, under the NSW laws a deceased workers family can receive a maximum lump sum benefit of $319,250.00 and $140 per week for dependent children, under Comcare the maximum lump sum is $212,026.74 and weekly benefits of $70.56 per child.

In Queensland, a worker suffering permanent incapacity or dying as a result of a workplace accident could receive $100 000 less under Comcare. And the scope of Comcare insurance keeps shrinking, as the Howard Government legislates away coverage: “The reforms are expected to save $20 million a year in payouts from Comcare, making premiums more attractive to private companies interested in joining the scheme.”

So that’s the reason Joe Hockey is coy about Barbara Bennett’s experience prior to her new appointment as head of the Workplace Authority. The Australian called her a “key IR fixer” and “a key troubleshooter for John Howard”, and based on her track record that’s exactly what she is. As the head of Workplace Relations Implementation at DEWR, Bennett advised business that take-it-or-leave-it AWAs were “not inconsistent with” employees’ freedom of choice. As the head of Comcare, Bennett ran a weak safety inspection system, allowed business to sidestep State safety regimes, and pushed to restrict workers’ compensation insurance coverage.

That’s why Barbara Bennett is qualified to run the Howard Government’s Workplace Authority.