The official IR reform thread! (9 Viewers)

[Generator]

An IR special issue. Interesting.

 

[Generator]

Howard dismisses IR protests

 

[ZabZu]

Howard dismisses IR protests

Howard's comments in that article are very disturbing. He is on a separate planet with free-market economists and big business who share his flawed unitarist IR ideology.

 

[Generator]

NSW moves to exempt under 18s from IR changes

The New South Wales Government says it will introduce legislation to protect workers under 18 from changes under federal industrial relations (IR) laws.

The Premier, Morris Iemma, says there are 150,000 young people under 18 employed in the state and, despite WorkChoices, the states retain jurisdiction over child labour.

[continued - see link]

 

[Captain Gh3y]

IR Victims actually Union Officials

 

[Generator]

Workers say overtime refusal resulted in week without pay

Workers' pay docked for overtime ban
All work and no pay may be immoral but it's legal, company says

Test for IR laws as workers docked

 

[Generator]

Vanstone under fire in visa row

The news comes as the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, is expected to announce changes to Labor's industrial relations policy today, which could force employers to bargain collectively with workers.

Under the plan, workers who did not want to sign individual contracts could hold a ballot. In the event a majority opted for collective bargaining, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission would direct employers to negotiate.

Such a system would end the power the WorkChoices law gives to employers to shift their staff onto Australian Workplace Agreements when current agreements expire and would return collective bargaining - and unions - to the centre of the industrial system.

"If the majority want a collective agreement, they should have it. If the majority don't, they shouldn't," Mr Beazley said last night.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Would that apply to small businesses too?

 

[Generator]

Time will tell. There should be something about it on Labor's website by tomorrow night.

 

[Generator]

Beazley announces IR policy

 

[Generator]

More on the Cowra case:

Cowra abattoir owner faces investigation
ALP questions Govt over Cowra abattoir case
Workers meet with Cowra abattoir administrator

 

[Generator]

Govt/Opposition face internal rebellion

Lateline Broadcast: 13/09/2006
Reporter: Dana Robertson


TONY JONES: Back home, and just as it appeared to be gaining ground over the political fight the Opposition has been dealt an embarrassing blow from its own side. The ACT secretary Greg Combet has revealed he wants the power to bring agreements on businesses even if the majority of employees don't want one. It opened up a new line of attack for the Government during question time, but John Howard is still facing troubles of his own with a serious backbench rebellion over planned changes to media ownership laws. Dana Robertson reports from Canberra.

DANA ROBERTSON: Kim Beazley thinks he's on a winner with industrial relations. But with friends like these, he might soon change his mind. Greg Combet has handed the Government a whole new line of attack after announcing that under his plan employers could be forced into collective bargaining, even if only one employee wanted it.

GREG COMBET: That is not a system where the right to collectively bargain is predicated upon a majority decision of the employees. It's a system where any party can enter into collective bargaining negotiation at any time.

DANA ROBERTSON: And what is more, he said that Kim Beazley agreed. It was all the Prime Minister needed to fuel the question time charge.

JOHN HOWARD: Under our policy you can choose, Mr Speaker. Under his policy, you can't, Mr Speaker. What he would do...

DANA ROBERTSON: Labor couldn’t back away fast enough, saying the document wasn't even ACTU policy, let alone the ALP's.

STEPHEN SMITH, OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN: If an employer says, "I do not want to engage in collective bargaining”, a majority of employees would have to show, or the commission would have to be shown a majority of employees wanted it.

DANA ROBERTSON: Either way, business isn't impressed.

HEATHER RIDOUT, AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP: This is a retrograde step that guess beyond even what the ALP themselves have put in place.

STEPHEN SMITH: When industry see the full detail of our policies approach, they will be comfortable with the view we've taken.

 

[Rafy]

Editorial from The Australian:

Union sights on iron
The ACTU is taking Labor down a slippery path on IR

IT is now clear that to understand the ACTU's position on IR rollback it is necessary to study the past – the days before Labor established its economic reform credentials with Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating. Back to when the union movement had a stranglehold on the commodity export industries that now underpin Australia's booming prosperity. ACTU secretary Greg Combet let slip in June when he declared: "I reckon we used to run the country a while back. I reckon it wouldn't be bad if we did run it." Mr Combet dismissed the comment as a joke but he freely admits the ACTU has identified Western Australia's iron ore industry as fertile ground to re-establish its industrial dominance.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley can only look on in horror as the stakes are raised in the anti-Work Choices push, past exploiting the fears of ordinary workers and into the well-documented territory of union abuse of power. Mr Combet said unions wanted to test support in the iron ore industry for re-establishing collective agreements. About 90 per cent of employees in the iron ore industry are on individual contracts, after a protracted and emotionally fought battle to break down a nightmare of restrictive work practices and featherbedding in the mid-1980s.

Mr Combet says if employers are confident their workers are happy with individual contracts they have nothing to fear. He says the union movement will be benign in its efforts to solicit support for collective bargaining. But this is at odds with the history of union involvement on the Pilbara. The celebrated Robe River dispute of 1986 was a watershed in Australian industrial relations. Union coverage at Robe was a closed shop and representatives were in effect full-time, paid on-site agitators. The workplace had more than 200 restrictive practices and workers would strike over a shortage of ice-cream flavours in the canteen. Employees would take complaints to the union delegate, rather than the company. When Robe River attempted to force change it was challenged not only by the union movement but also by the State Industrial Commission, which overstepped its powers in seeking to force the reinstatement of illegal union practices. The State Labor Government also sided with the union. Mining union leader Jack Marks used a government minister's fax machine to send messages about the strike.

This history explains the difficulties faced by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley in tying his re-election hopes too tightly to ACTU expectations of a Work Choices rollback. The impact of Labor's scare campaign will be increasingly blunted as the good news on job creation, low unemployment and rising wages continues. At the same time, the ACTU's ambitions will provide the Government with a scare campaign of its own. The workplace abuses in the iron ore industry were scandalous and never supported by the community at large. John Howard will have no problem reminding voters this is exactly what Mr Combet means by the good old days when unions, and the Labor Party, ran the country.

 

[Generator]

Beazley seeks to clarify IR stance

 

[Rafy]

Bosses push Beazley on IR line

BUSINESS leaders have grilled Kim Beazley over his industrial relations policy, amid accusations the "drip-feed" approach is leaving employers in the dark.
The Labor leader pledged an open-door policy towards business, which might include a seat at the cabinet table from "time to time", but industry groups warned yesterday that more detail was required on IR.

After participants paid up to $5000 for the privilege of speaking directly to frontbenchers at the ALP's business forum in Sydney, Mr Beazley faced questions from the floor over collective bargaining, indigenous policy and union power.

But his response that business leaders should not expect "draft legislation" outlining workplace reforms in the lead-up to next year's election sparked concern among some present, who warned last night that he "still didn't get business". [...]

Full Article - The Australian

 

[Rafy]

Howard steals a march on Beazley's higher ground
IR has always been Labor’s best shot, but it can’t be its only shot—and it is going to have to be better aimed than it is at the moment.

 

[ZabZu]

Heres a column written by a Labor MP in the SMH today.

No control for workers means poorer health
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/...s-poorer-health/2006/09/19/1158431709532.html

 

[Rafy]

The Workplace Relations Regulations have been amended.

Howard IR shift will protect sickies

JOHN Howard has begun to soften the impact of his new workplace laws before the federal election next year by ensuring employees cannot be penalised when they are sick.
A raft of changes to the Howard Government's Work Choices package also seek to prevent workers being forced into "cashing out" their leave entitlements.

The changes, which take effect from today under amendments to regulations obtained by The Australian, follow a union scare campaign that has damaged the Coalition's standing with voters.

They indicate the Prime Minister is willing to moderate his industrial relations reforms in the lead-up to the election amid community concern that workers could be disadvantaged.

An important boost for employers in today's changes is a further delay of six months before they must comply with onerous new record-keeping requirements for employees' working hours.

This amendment follows complaints from employer groups that many small to medium businesses, employing up to 90 per cent of the workforce, were not ready to meet tough new rules starting next week that carry a maximum $2750 fine for each offence.

The Government's decision to make it illegal for employers to penalise workers who are absent from work due to illness - or who fail to meet notice or evidence requirements - follows the case of a miner from the Hunter Valley in NSW.[...]

Full Article - The Australian

Expect more tweaks of IR laws

 

[Generator]

Greg Combet: All have a right to a fair deal

Govt denies softening IR laws

 

[Rafy]

A summary of the changes:

Amendments To Workplace Relations Regulations

The Australian Government has today announced amendments to the Workplace Relations Regulations.

Firstly, the regulations will extend the transitional period during which employers cannot be prosecuted for failure to comply with the record-keeping obligations. The current transitional period expires on 26 September 2006. The proposed regulations would extend this timeframe to 26 March 2007. This will provide employers with additional time to ensure compliance with the new record keeping requirements.

Secondly, the regulations will take steps to ensure that employees cannot be penalised monetarily where they are absent from work due to illness, or for failing to meet notice or evidence requirements. These penalties are not appropriate and have potential to create hardship for employees. The Government proposes to amend the regulations to prohibit penalties of this kind in workplace agreements, and to clarify that they will be overridden by the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard.

In addition, the regulations will clarify that the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard does not apply in relation to personal/carer’s or compassionate leave entitlements that accrued before the introduction of WorkChoices. This would apply for a transitional period of five years. The new regulation will not affect entitlements that have accrued since the introduction of WorkChoices.

Amendments of a technical nature include:

- crediting of leave annually in arrears of service is less favourable than the Standard, but that crediting of leave in advance of service is more favourable than the Standard;

- a term of a workplace agreement about cashing out annual leave is prohibited content only to the extent that it provides for the cashing out of annual leave other than at the written election of the employee (to ensure that an employee cannot be required to forgo annual leave);

- ‘cashing out’ personal/carer’s leave or compassionate leave means the forgoing of such leave for an amount of pay or other benefit;

- amend definitions of ‘defined benefit fund’ and ‘contributions’ for the purposes of superannuation record keeping requirements); and
correct minor typographical errors.

Media Release - Kevin Andrews

Workplace Relations Amendment Regulations 2006 (No. 3)