These posts are about the Howard Government’s anti-worker “WorkChoices” package.
Last week we learned that the new head of the Workplace Authority, Barbara Bennett, was not hired because she is capable of protecting workers, but because she fit the advertising agencies’ criteria for a propaganda “figurehead”. Now we know that her face on the screen hasn’t done anything to convince people that job insecurity is [...]
A secret Government report has been leaked to the press, revealing details of research on the public’s opinion of WorkChoices. Some of the comments from focus group participants include: “It’s like there’s a guillotine over our heads. Stability is gone.” “The kids will think it’s great to get five days’ annual leave and a bowl [...]
This is one of those rare occasions when I hope John Howard is right about industrial relations policy: In a speech to a Perth business audience yesterday, the Prime Minister said “the choice is a very stark one”. “If we are defeated at the end of the year, if the Labor Party wins, then the [...]
The Howard Government’s union-busting ABCC released a report (pdf) today claiming that smashing unions is good for the economy. Needless to say, The Australian ran hard with the story, giving it the front page, an opinion piece (“analysis”), and the editorial. The report was prepared by Econtech, a firm that is heavily invested in the [...]
You’ll remember that around the time WorkChoices was introduced, the Prime Minister refused to say that nobody would be worse off. He tried to argue that this was because it is unwise to make general guarantees of that sort, but his opponents said it was because he knew workers would suffer under the new laws. [...]
John Robertson is under fire for making the perfectly reasonable promise that the union movement would keep campaigning in workers’ interests even if Kevin Rudd wins the election. Dean Mighell was expelled from the ALP for using ETU members’ venacular when discussing the (legal) bargaining tactics he has used to win higher than expected pay [...]
The Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations today published a scathing criticism of WorkChoices, saying it is biased towards bosses. Denis Peters’ AAP story is quite good — it mentions the long list of problems with WorkChoices, including “the minimum wage, minimum conditions and bargaining, unfair dismissals and the role of unions.” But Peters gets [...]
Alexander Downer has suggested Australian Labor should look to the Tony Blair’s industrial regime for inspiration. Downer says the British ex-PM …saw the modernisation of his national economy as the key to job creation, fairness and equality for all workers… [and] set a strong example for future Labour leaders, both in Britain and around the [...]
A recent episode of Channel 9′s drama McLeod’s Daughters showed how AWAs are introduced as take-it-or-leave it contracts that cut pay and conditions. The script was apparently inspired by the real-life case of Bill Schultze, an Adelaide teenager who was pressured to sign an AWA by BP — it cut his pay by $2/hour, supposedly [...]
Labor’s new industrial relations policy, Forward with Fairness, includes a commitment to abolish AWAs in favour of collective agreements. The policy is very good: Collective enterprise agreement making and democracy will be the heart of Labor’s industrial relations system. Collective bargaining allows balanced, cooperative arrangements that foster improved productivity across a business and provide the [...]
