Turmoil in the global economy has increased the urgency for a fair and balanced industrial relations system, said Australian Council of Trade Unions (actu) general secretary Sharan Burrow on Wednesday.
Addressing the National Press Club in Canberra, Burrow warned working people would not be immune from the fall-out from the crisis on global financial markets.
Economic uncertainty added extra imperative to restore collective bargaining rights for all Australians under the Rudd government’s planned new industrial relations system, she said.
‘The current global financial turmoil is a reminder for working Australians of their own exposure to a potential downturn that could affect their livelihoods,’ Burrow told the NPC.
‘It adds urgency to their desire for a balanced and fairer industrial relations system that delivers better job security and a fairer share of the nation’s wealth.
‘Business and the economy will also benefit from new Industrial Relations laws that put collective bargaining at the centre of workplace relations.’
Burrow said the legacy of the previous Howard-Costello government is a profound financial fragility among working families with household debt at an unsustainable and dangerous 156% of GDP.
She said a fair and comprehensive system of collective bargaining would protect incomes and jobs, grow workforce skills, drive productivity, enhance energy efficiency measures to tackle climate change, and deliver increased participation through measures that assist with the balance of work and care for parents and older workers.
But Burrow warned there were still gaps in the government’s industrial relations plan, and unions would press the Rudd administration to close them before the legislation was finalised.
‘Collective bargaining, good faith collective bargaining with a strong independent umpire, will turn WorkChoices (the government’s anti-union policy) on its head,’ she said.
‘But we must get the new system right.’
At the Press Club on Wednesday, Burrow said it was essential that the new national system adopted protections for independent contractors that exist under state jurisdictions, including the right to sue over unfair contracts.
‘This is particularly important in a modern economy, where outsourcing and contracting practices have meant that many vulnerable workers are now formally classed as independent contractors, and so have lost all of the protections available to employees under the law,’ she said.
Burrow called for urgent moves to increase regulation of the financial sector, including curbs on lending practices that push debt onto vulnerable consumers and greater protection for homebuyers at risk of default.
Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) national council travelled to Canberra last week and delivered a clear message to Labor to deliver all the rights workers voted for at the last election.
The AMWU councillors met with over 40 MPs and Senators during the two-day trip, focusing on the MPs elected in marginal seats where WorkChoices was the key issue.
Polling after last year’s election showed that 67% of voters who changed their vote cited the difference between Labor and the Coalition on the IR laws as the reason for doing so.
Before the election, 64% of voters said that they would be ‘concerned’ or ‘very concerned’ if ‘Labor was elected and decided to just make some changes to the IR laws, rather than get rid of them completely’.
AMWU National Secretary, Dave Oliver, said Government MPs were very concerned when they heard practical examples of how Labor’s current proposals would let workers down.
During the lobbying trip two backbench MPs told newspapers they were concerned about Labor’s policy being ‘watered down’ and would raise it with ministers.
One unnamed MP was quoted as saying of the latest announcement, ‘It doesn’t look like our election policy to me’.
The AMWU also highlighted a key part of Labor’s Forward with Fairness election policy, which stated ‘Under Labor’s system, bargaining participants will be free to reach agreement on whatever matters suit them’.
This was contradicted in statements made by Industrial Relations Minister, Julia Gillard, last week, where she indicated the government would restrict matters, including the right to bargain for job security by seeking clauses to limit contracting out.
The AMWU will continue to campaign for the rights workers voted for at the last election, as the legislation enters the final stages of negotiation.
l Health worker Joyanne Higginbottom worries that her children and her neighbour’s kids won’t be able to buy a house and have the Queensland lifestyle she and her generation enjoy.
‘Job security underpins our generation’s ability to buy a house and live the Queensland dream’ Joyanne, who was a speaker at a big rally in Brisbane in Queen’s Park last Wednesday, explained.
The rally was organised by the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and other health unions, meanwhile, thousands of workers attended other rallies and demonstrations throughout the state.
Speaking in front of a huge crowd is not normal for Joyanne but she is worried that her three children won’t get the same job security as she and her partner have come to expect . . . and that’s driven her to speak out.
Joyanne has been working for the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Woolloongabba for three years, and her partner, Mark Muir, has worked at the same hospital doing the same job, except on the night shift, for 18 years.
Joyanne and Mark live at Browns Plains and have three kids at home – 18, four and a one-year-old. She has only just returned to work after maternity leave.
Speaking before the rally, she said: ‘We are a little like ships in the night passing each other but once the children have grown up that will change.
‘The job is important to me, not just for the money, but I enjoy working with the patients and with my workmates.’
Working as porters at the hospital the couple each earn a minimum of $19 an hour. They could lose about 20% of their wages if a contractor was brought in – that’s about $200 less in the pocket.
‘We know that if these jobs are contracted out we would see both a cut in our wages and lose our job security because the contractors prefer casual workers, not permanents,’ Joyanne said.
‘In these stringent times banks will not look as kindly on people employed as contractors. They know that if a contractor loses a tender then the employees almost always lose their jobs.’
AWU wants the Queensland Premier to hear the workforce’s demand for respect
AWU State Secretary, Bill Ludwig, says it’s important that the Queensland Premier hears the views of the workforce in Queensland Health.
‘These people are campaigning to ensure the state has the best health system,’ Bill Ludwig said.
‘That’s why we will have the voices of health workers heard at the rallies today in Townsville, Rockhampton, Mackay and Cairns,’ Ludwig said.
‘Listen carefully you will hear that all our members are asking for is the respect for the jobs they do, recognition of the importance of their place in the health system, and the resources to do their jobs properly. The health system can’t operate without them,’ Bill Ludwig said.