Solidarity against individual contracts

By Maree O’Halloran

TAFE teachers are the first members who will be offered Australian Workplace Agreement (AWAs) on individual contracts. Those agreements or contracts can be rejected by individuals. Federation and its members also need to demonstrate our collective rejection of them.

Annual Conference this year determined that if its members are offered AWAs or individual contracts, then Council or Executive should consider state-wide action. The purpose of such action would be to mark our collective rejection of individual agreements.

Information will be provided to members about the danger of AWAs/contracts. Federation will also take legal action that may be available to protect members. For example, Federation needs to question whether TAFE is a 'Constitutional corporation' and therefore roped in by the Federal Government's proposed industrial laws ("WorkChoices"). If TAFE is not a Constitutional corporation, then AWAs may not be valid industrial instruments in TAFE. (Note, however, that the federal funding conditions in that case require individual common law contracts to be offered. These are different to the Federal Government's proposal, new AWAs, because common law contracts cannot undercut awards or federal certified agreements or state enterprise agreements.)

The State Government has agreed, under threat of funding penalties, to the conditions contained in the Federal Skilling Australia's Workplace Act 2005. One of those conditions is the offering of AWAs and individual contracts to TAFE employees.

Speaking at the Marrickville by-election candidates' meeting at Petersham TAFE on September 14, Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt said: "We do not support AWAs in NSW." But Ms Tebbutt also said: "We can't afford to lose the funding that the Commonwealth gives."

If the State Government continues to roll over every time the Federal Government attaches a condition to funding provided to the states under section 96 of the Constitution, then it will become merely an administrative rump. It will have forgone the ability to implement its own policy directions.

The Federal Government's industrial relations attacks are being undertaken on two fronts. The first is the proposed changes to Federation industrial relations laws ("WorkChoices") and the second is through attaching conditions to direct federal funding.

In the short-term, the content of AWAs or individual contracts and the manner in which they are offered may be developed by the State Government in such a way as to lessen their impact. In the long term Federation must prepare to operate in a deregulated environment.

If TAFE is found to be a Constitutional corporation, and the "WorkChoices" package passes unamended through both Houses of Federal Parliament, then the award covering TAFE teachers, may, by the end of 2005, become a Federal Certified Agreement. TAFE teachers will then be operating in the federal jurisdiction and subject to federal laws. In that case, more than ever, Federation members will need to act collectively in solidarity both for themselves and their colleagues.

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WorkChoices: What the IR changes mean for workers

Campaign of information sparks community alarm

They said what?

Enough is enough

Howard urged to go even further

Gaoling unionists back on the agenda, says Ferguson

Shame file

Union women meeting the IR challenge

Your rights at work, worth riding for

For further information

October 2005 contents