Dictating the Job

New bill gives government & employers draconian powers over working men & women

That the Government chose to introduce its new industrial legislation the same week as the so-called terrorist laws was no coincidence. Both are designed to take away the democratic rights of all Australians, undermining centuries of civil and workers' rights.

Some of the ugliest parts of this bill, designed to emasculate strong unions like the MUA, are:

• ministerial power (dubbed the Henry VIII power) to unilaterally strip any condition from federal awards or agreements or intervene and stop any industrial action.

• company right to unilaterally terminate any agreement that comes into effect under the new laws with only 90 days notice from time it is due to expire

• ability to restrict strike action -- unions must follow complex secret ballot provisions taking days of red tape, while employers can lock out workers without notice

• power to entirely outlaw strikes in 'essential industries', including the maritime industry.

• unprecedented powers to stop workers taking industrial action if the company or the government say it has a bad affect on the employer or another company.

• $33,000 fines and criminal conviction of any union official seeking to prohibit individual contracts, unfair dismissals or independent contractors in an agreement or promote protected action, trade union leave, paid union meetings and anything else the minister choose to ban in an agreement

• restriction of unions right of entry by forcing any elected worker representative to prove he or she is a 'fit and proper person'.

• forcing union reps to request in writing when and why they want to visit the site and then quarantining them to one room.

• employer rights to sack people for "operational reasons", thereby extending the removal of unfair dismissal laws to enterprises with more than 100 employees

• employer rights to require employees to work "reasonable additional hours" over the basic 38 hour working week with no overtime loadings or penalty rates in industries with fluctuating work.

• as new agreements come under the new laws the award will never apply again

"There's nothing democratic about this bill," said MUA Assistant National Secretary and union Campaign Co-ordinator Mick Doleman. "And the way they gave parliament only a couple of days to read the hundreds of pages of complex legislation is not what you'd call democratic either. They're taking away the rights of the majority of Australians and it's going to cost us $500 million as well as our jobs and our kid's future, if we don't do something about it."

Mick Doleman said the changes were all about handing all power to the boss and stopping Australian working men and women taking a stand for their rights and the rights of others.

"If the Government gets its way on this one, we'll be little better off than downtrodden seafarers on ships of shame or wharfies back in the days of the Hungry Mile," he said.

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet told the Maritime Union National Council the week before the rally to expect the worst:

"It's a myth that if you are on a collective agreement, you're okay," he said. "A lot of people have been suckered by that. An AWA can be offered at any time, any day, any shift, at any time. And once you've signed there's no going back. You go back to 5 minimum conditions and bargain your way up from that, sport. It's not restricted to new employment. The boss can tell you any time, and good luck fighting it in court."

Current agreements are preserved but all 'prohibited content' like trade union training is unenforceable. If the business or company is sold the EBA only applies for a maximum 12 months.

Industrial action will become a thing of the past. But the ACTU is confident the union movement can still win the hearts and minds of the Australian people, like we did to get compensation from James Hardie for asbestos victims or get the wharfies their jobs back at Patrick.

"This is worse than anything Thatcher did in the UK," said MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin. "Howard is the bum boy of international capital. But we'll fight him and we'll overcome his laws. If they take away our right of entry, we'll organise at the pub or outside the gates. If we stay a united disciplined union we'll give his corrupted vision for Australian workers a run for his money"

Opposition leader Kim Beazley has promised a Labor Government will repeal the entire WorkChoices package and is meanwhile joining the states in a High Court challenge.

He likened the laws to a nest of termites, that will "in the months and years ahead ... slowly eat away at the foundations of living standards of Australian families.

"Today one man's tired old dream becomes a living nightmare for all Australia," he said.

ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said he was so enraged by the new IR laws breaching civil liberties that he would resist every step of the way even if it meant going to prison.

ACTU campaign

The Rights at Work website is home to vital information about how the changes will affect you. The ACTU will be updating it frequently during this crucial period, so please check in regularly.

As part of the MUA IR campaign the Annual General Meeting will adjourn at 11am to become a branch activist IR committee meeting.