Shame file

Blame shifting

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said that the advice by Australian Business Limited (ABL) advises employers how to explain the changes to staff and endorses a 'Blame the Government' approach when explaining to workers why their rights were being taken away.

Ms Burrow said an article, published on the ABL website Workplace Info, advised: '"Blame the Government' will be a popular strategy. If an entitlement has been removed by law, tell employees that you had no option but to get rid of it, because that is what the law required you to do."

Ms Burrow said the blame shifting by employers was understandable but disingenuous.

"The Howard Government's industrial relations agenda has been wholly conceived and sponsored by the business lobby," Ms Burrow said.

"Employers are not forced to take away rights from workers -- they can choose to allow arrangements to remain as existed in the past -- it is their 'WorkChoice'.

"At the end of the day, workers should be blaming the Howard Government -- but they should also be blaming big business for the decade-long campaign it has run to strip away their working rights."

'Industrial relations bully'

The Williamtown Boeing workers, on individual agreements, were seeking a collective agreement.

The full bench reported: "The Boeing witnesses were simply unable to explain why the same outcome could not be attained under a Collective Agreement."

The IRC also found that the system of individual contracts Boeing favours "entrenches an inequality in economic power between Boeing and each of its employees at Williamtown, and thereby maximises Boeing's discretionary capacity to set and change terms and conditions of employment to determine its own interests."

"A fundamental reason why Boeing values dealing with its employees individually is that it maximises its capacity to determine unilaterally the terms and conditions of employment for its employees, rather than having to accept a negotiated outcome with the inevitable compromises that such an outcome would carry with it," the IRC also found.

Boeing took the matter to Australian Industrial Relations Commission arguing the NSW IRC did not have jurisdiction to arbitrate the dispute. The AIRC accepted Boeing's argument and restrained the NSW IRC from dealing with the matter. The Australian Workers Union members returned to work after their 265 day strike and lockout.

Penalties start to disappear

ACTU President Sharan Burrow said: "The take home pay of workers is now under serious threat as employers take advantage of the new IR laws to get rid of penalty rates for weekends and public holidays.

"The national Union Helpline is receiving more and more calls from workers concerned they will lose penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work."

The ACTU encourages workers to call the national Union Helpline on 1300 362 223 for free advice.

Workplace toll worse than road toll

"This is a terrible statistic that means Australia's death toll from work is higher than the national road toll," she said.

"Australian unions are very concerned that the Howard Government is proposing changes to health and safety laws that will lead to more dangerous workplaces and could put lives at risk. The Government has already introduced new laws as part of its industrial relations changes that will make it harder for working people to access help or information from unions in their workplace when it is well known that workplaces with a strong union presence are safer workplaces.

"The ACTU calls on the Federal Government to implement the highest possible occupational health and safety standards and to reconsider its proposed changes to workplace laws. Considering the number of Australians who lose their lives through work it is also a national disgrace that the Government does not collect accurate national figures on workplace deaths and injuries," Ms Burrow said.

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Last Modified: 18 May 2006