Legislative crackdown on unions

By Barry Johnson

Prime Minister John Howard's WorkChoices legislation will allow employers to unilaterally determine the pay and employment conditions of Australian workers. This process will be free of interference from unions, awards, collective bargaining and industrial tribunals. Workers themselves will have little or no choice.

Through the newly established institution of the Fair Pay Commission, minimum rates of pay, including casual loadings, will be held down over time. Even pensions will be affected by the decisions of the Fair Pay Commission as they are linked to the minimum wage.

The essential thrust of Howard's legislation is to hold down the costs of labour, workers' pay, to make the Australian economy more productive and pay structure more competitive with Asian countries.

There will be no award safety net and the ultimate aim is to get rid of all awards and to have only five minimum conditions to protect workers. There will be no protection at law for penalty rates, overtime rates, allowances, career structures, public holidays, meal breaks, redundancy pay or the hours in the working week, which can be annualised. Take home pay will not be protected by law.

These penalties are bad enough, but there is more.

Collective bargaining will all but disappear in what amounts to Howard's almost total rejection of international conventions on the right of employees to collectively bargain. Employees and their union will only be able to do so if the employer chooses to do so. Even if an award already exists, it can be cast aside in three ways. First, individual contracts (AWAs) can be offered at any time. Second, once an award has expired, an employer, with 90 days notice, can become award free and agreement free and recognise only the five minimum standards. Third, the employer can restructure the business, transmitting it to a new entity and thus get rid of the employees and existing agreements.

With full implementation, only the five minimum conditions of employment will pertain. To get more than the five minimum standards, John Howard wants workers to negotiate an individual contract (an AWA) with their employer. New employees will have to sign to get a job. Anyone who doesn't like what is on offer will be told to go elsewhere.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) will have its ability to protect workers removed and will have its role restricted to dealing with industrial disputes. Hence the new laws are designed to get rid of processes and institutions which have delivered working Australians and their families a fair share of the wealth of the nation. The new laws will get rid of the protections which have been there during hard times. Breaches of the new laws will be harshly dealt with.

Many legitimate union activities will be made illegal and the AIRC will be able to impose severe penalties on individual workers, union officials and union delegates. Fines will be imposed, $6000 for an individual or $33,000 for an organisation. These fines will be applied for asking for clauses in an enterprise agreement to protect workers from unfair dismissal. They will also apply for seeking to have a dispute resolution clause which includes union involvement. The same fines will apply for seeking to have included a clause which allows for trade union training. Clauses cannot be sought which commit the employer to future collective bargaining! Remember, public education teachers received such a guarantee from the employer in the recent salaries settlement. In the Federal jurisdiction, that would be illegal! Breaches of right of entry requirements also attract fines of $6000 or $33,000. Furthermore, in workplaces where all employees are on AWAs, unions will be banned from a general right of entry altogether, even though they may have members there.

The Minister can, by regulation and without any further reference to Parliament add, to the list of banned matters (see article page 2). That is, the Minister can decide what is illegal and therefore will attract fines of $6000 and $33,000 for each and every offence under the Act.

An employee acting on their own behalf in pursuit of a collective agreement may appoint a bargaining agent. Disclosure by an AIRC official of the name of the person who appointed the agent can bring a penalty of six months imprisonment.

Likewise, any official of the Employment Advocate Officer (OEA) who discloses the identity of AWA parties faces a penalty of six months imprisonment.

So workers, union delegates and union officials can be fined and AIRC and OEA officials can be imprisoned. What about employers? Well, duress in relation to making an agreement is an offence but it is not duress for an employer to require an employee to sign an AWA as a condition of employment.

Howard's vision for a new economic order in Australia is ideologically driven. The outcome will not be the sort of society we want for Australian workers and their families or for the students in our schools and colleges. Your rights at work are worth fighting for.

Barry Johnson is the General Secretary.

We will fight until we win

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November 2005 contents