AlexWhite.org » labour law

Opposition IR Shadow Minister cut from Reith cloth

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:31:22 +0000

Workforce Daily has a few interesting takes on Eric Abetz’s elevation to the IR portfolio as part of the new Opposition Shadow Ministry. (No link unfortunately, as it’s an email newsletter).

Abbott:

Abbott praised Abetz for his “long-interest in employment issues and his record of standing up for the rights of employees and small business in the area of workplace relations”.

Michael Keenan (who was dumped in favour of Abetz):

Former WR Shadow Michael Keenan was dropped from the front benches to justice and customs. “I appreciate his work in this area particularly in the significant amendments he was able to deliver to the Rudd Govt’s recent Fair Work Act,” Abbott said.

Paul Howes (AWU National Secretary):

AWU nat sec Paul Howes issued a statement immediately after the appointment was announced. “I had hoped the new Liberal leader would at least try to cover his tracks in his desire to return Australia to Work choice style laws – but with Senator Eric Abetz we now know that we will have all out engagement from here to the next Federal election,” Howes said.

More from the ACTU Media Release (no link yet):

Ms Burrow said the appointment of hardliner Eric Abetz to the Shadow Workplace portfolio is another sign that the Tony Abbott-led Liberals plan to bring back WorkChoices Mark II.

â€œSenator Abetz and Mr Abbott are industrial relations zealots.

â€œThere is no doubt they want to bring back WorkChoices.

â€œSenator Abetz was intimately involved with the Coalitionâ€™s $121 million promotion of WorkChoices and wrote the notoriously deceptive â€˜Protected By Lawâ€™ WorkChoices booklet.

Was Work Choices a Roadblock to Productivity?

admin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:16:25 +0000

A critical assessment of the Work Choices laws in addressing its stated aims and objectives

The 2005 legislation, Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act represented one of the most fundamental shifts in industrial relations laws and Commonwealth-State relations since Federation. With the principle aim of Work Choices to “unleash a new burst of productivity growth”, John Howard described â€œindustrial relations reform as “an article of faith for the Coalition parties”. This “article of faith” statement was also allegedly repeated in a speech to the 2005 Liberal Party Federal Council, although this appeal to ideology was not repeated in later public statements.

Using the corporations power in the Australian Constitution (Section 51(xx)), Work Choices sought to introduce a single national workplace relations system, overriding most state industrial relations systems. This in itself was remarkable, upheld by the High Court; until Work Choices it was widely believed that the Commonwealth’s direct role in industrial relations was limited by Section 51(xxxv), limiting powers to make laws to “conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes beyond the limit of one state”.

Work Choices elevated individual statutory agreements (Australian Workplace Agreements, AWAs) as the pre-eminent form of workplace agreement, with enterprise level workplace agreements (collective agreements) and state and Federal Awards relegated to lesser status. The arbitration system, encapsulated by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) that had been a feature of the Australian workplace relations system since 1904 had its role greatly reduced, with new Offices and Commissions responsible for overseeing the application of workplace agreements, setting of minimum wages and settling of industrial disputes.

When introduced to Parliament in November 2005, the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews MP said: “the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Bill 2005 moves Australia toward a flexible, simple and fair system of workplace relations.” The central objective, according to the then-Government was to “encourage the further spread of workplace agreements in order to increase productivity and hence the living standards of working Australians.” For the Howard Government, Work Choices was not merely an economic argument, “it is a moral argument”, with the new laws to create a “good society” and a “brighter future”.

You can download the entire paper here.

A critical assessment of the Work Choices laws in addressing its stated aims and objectives by Alexander White is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.

Australia needs strong collective bargaining

admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 11:03:43 +0000

The right to collectively bargain was gutted by the Howard Government… unfortunately it looks like the Rudd Government may squib at fully restoring that right. Under the WorkChoices laws, Australian workers have no enforceable right to collectively bargain. Employers can indefinitely delay collective bargaining, denying their employees rights.

Collective bargaining at a workplace level is the most effective way to improve conditions and pay at work.

Paul Keating on collective bargaining:

If you go to 200 or 300 people in a factory or 200 or 300 people in a workplace and come to a three or four year bargain to the improve productivity and share it between wages and profits you’ve got a good chance of getting productivity from the whole enterprise. But if you just take one person at a time, bring them into the boss’ office and cut their wages there’s no chance of getting any productivity. That’s why trend productivity is now rapidly on the way down. It was 3 per cent under me. It’s now under 1 per cent. So how are we going to keep inflation low with, at the moment wages are running at about 4 per cent, productivity is under 1. This is consistent with an inflation rate of 3 per cent, or higher. The Reserve Bank knows that. That’s why they’ve got the rates on hold.

The great lie of the Howard Government in respect of workplace changes, they are simply a set of arrangements to keep unions out of workplaces. They’ve got nothing to do with productivity and the quicker we move away from that kind of discriminatory structure to a truly trust based co operative sharing of work and workloads, then we get back to reasonable levels of productivity and again, reasonable rates of growth in real wages. It’s no accident as you saw in today’s front page of The Sydney Morning Herald and other places that the wage share in the economy has gone down, and the profit share in the last four years has gone up because wages are now in real terms, are declining.

Labor’s policy is to legislate for collective bargaining rights, but it appears as more details come to light that no enforceable rights will be granted to Australia’s workers.

The ACTU is running a campaign to promote collective bargaining.