Unions changing Australia

By Maree O’Halloran

The union movement changed the shape of 20th century Australia for the better, writes MAREE O'HALLORAN.

Union advances have not only changed working people's lives but forged a more just society. The award system, superannuation, equal pay, workers' compensation, long service leave and the eight hour day are but a few benefits conceived of and won by the union movement. Federation Representatives will soon receive a copy of a new text, Changing Australia: The Union Story, sponsored by a range of unions including Federation. The text contains stories about ordinary people dealing with extraordinary events. The stories address outcomes from a number of Human Society and its Environment, years 7-10 syllabuses. The stories were edited and the student activity sheets were designed by Federation members.

The Federal Coalition Government's proposed industrial relations changes are intended to strip away a century of union advances. The drive to replace collective agreements with individual contracts (also known as Australian Workplace Agreements) is to return us to the 19th century master/servant relationship. The award system was developed in the 20th century to override common law individual employment contracts that gave lesser benefits to employees. Awards made by industrial tribunals have legislative authority and therefore override the common law contract. Awards were designed to ameliorate the inherent power imbalance between an employer and employee.

Prime Minister John Howard's new Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) system will now use legislative authority to allow individual contracts to override awards. Not content with legislative changes, the Prime Minister also proposes to tie funding intended for educational programs in TAFE to a condition that TAFE employees be offered AWAs.

The Federal Government eschews "third party" (that is union) involvement in employment contracts, but has no hesitation in using threats to impose its own values and conditions on employment relationships where it is not a party. The Federal Government's threat to TAFE funding is an unprecedented misuse of public money and a form of government industrial action advanced in the interest of big business.

University and TAFE teachers will take stop work action on June 1 to highlight this insidious process. Federation is also exploring legal solutions to the Federal Government's actions.

The Federal Government's proposals are radical and dangerous. On the one hand, those in employment relationships are to lose rights. On the other, the Federal Government is holding out the allure of independence for "individual contractors" who as couriers, for example, are given none of the benefits won for employees by unions.

Women's Conference on May 21 considered the implications for women of the new industrial relations environment. In the era of the master/servant relationship, wealthier, more affluent families had wives at home with no property rights, amongst other things. Women from poorer families were expected to work in hard and difficult situations.

It is in this context that Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's 2004 Budget statement exhorting women to have babies must be considered: "some of you will have to have [more] than one for the country, you'll have to make up for some of your friends that aren't even replicating themselves." (Budget Lock-up Press Conference May 11, 2004) It is apparent from the 2005 Budget that only some women are included in this exhortation. Sole parent pension recipients (92 percent of whom are women) face punitive provisions in the 2005 Budget while the parenting allowance for single high income couples continues unabated.

Nine out of ten women will get the lowest tax cut of $6 per week from the 2005 Costello Budget. Only 0.9 percent of people paying the super surcharge are women. The state of Australia for women before the industrial relations changes is poor. Women, who make up more than half the population, earn less than men, have less secure employment than men and are more likely to need social security than men.

Currently the pay gap between men and women is around $310 per week and 60 percent of people on the minimum wage are women. (All figures from the Australian Labor Party Budget Statement on Women)

Federation has an important role to play fighting the Federal Government's changes and Federation Councillors, Representatives and Women's Contacts were authorised to attend the Unions NSW Sky Channel on May 27 as a starting point of the campaign.

In the wake of the Federal Government's retrograde changes, it is critical that Federation continue to make strong claims for salary justice, improved conditions and more resources for public education. These are legitimate demands that must not be silenced. The recent salary settlements for NSW nurses and police cement four per cent per annum (fully funded) as the current government benchmark and 14 weeks paid maternity leave is now achievable in the public sector.

The release of the Vinson audit prior to the State Budget on May 24 firmly established funding for public education on a par with transport and hospitals. Many newspaper editorials called for our public schools to be maintained including The Daily Telegraph (May 24) which said: "We insist that it is our right to send our children to public schools staffed by properly trained professionals, working in school buildings which are not falling into disrepair."

While the State Budget released some additional money for Aboriginal education and capital works, it failed to deliver even the modest investment increase called for by Professor Vinson.

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May 2005 contents