Call to dump anti-union laws

by Anna Pha

The ACTU has called for the withdrawal of the Federal 
Government's regressive anti-union Bill (second wave legislation) 
now before Parliament and for basic amendments to the Workplace 
Relations Act. In particular, the ACTU has called for amendments 
to strengthen the award system, collective bargaining and the 
right to strike.

On October 1 the ACTU put its case to a Senate Inquiry into the 
1996 Workplace Relations Act and the Government's proposed second 
wave amendments.

While the ACTU was putting its case, 30 "security guards", 
complete with balaclavas and dogs, were in front of Parliament 
House providing some trade union street theatre as a grim 
reminder to the Senate Committee of the use and intent of the 
laws.

The ACTU submission pointed to the long hours, increased 
workloads, casualisation, the difficulties of balancing work and 
family life, the many setbacks for women, loss of conditions and 
other impacts on health and safety that workers are experiencing.

"Even clerical and sales workers, in industries like banking and 
hospitality, are now expected to train in their own time, to 
attend meetings in their own time, and to take work home if it is 
not finished at the end of the working day", said the ACTU.

The ACTU raised the increased use of casual and contract 
employment which has "led to an explosion in precarious 
employment without security or the entitlements which attach to 
permanent employment."

"There is a serious problem in relation to distribution of work 
between those who have no work, those who have too little work 
and those who are working excessive hours."

The ACTU called for the Industrial Relations Commission to be 
provided with "the power to arbitrate on all employment-related 
matters in order to ensure that employees have the protection of 
effective awards which provide fair and relevant terms and 
conditions of employment."

This would enable many important conditions that have been 
stripped from awards to be restored and improved on an ongoing 
basis.

In particular the ACTU recommends that the Commission be given 
the powers to regulate the hours of work of all employees, 
particularly part-timers and casuals, including setting minimum 
and maximum hours of work.

The strengthening of awards is one of a number of recommendations 
that would make the system more centralised and reliant on 
collective bargaining.

As the ACTU says in its recent unions@work report, "It is 
impossible for full-time officials to meet the demands of 
bargaining and negotiating at every workplace..."

The present Act basically rules out collective agreements 
covering more than one employer. The ACTU proposes that multi-
employer agreements could be negotiated on the same basis as 
single-enterprise agreements.

Right to strike

"The right to strike is integral to the right to bargain 
collectively."

In this regard the ACTU makes a number of important 
recommendations:

* Trades Practices Act be amended to make industrial action legal 
in respect of multi-employer agreements, and sympathy and protest 
actions;

* repeal of Section 127 of the Act — relating to powers of the 
Commission to order industrial action cease or not commence and 
court injunctions for breaches.

* Protected industrial action to be taken on a multi-employer and 
multi-union basis in relation to any issue of concern to 
employees (unless specifically prohibited by a certified 
agreement).

"In particular, protected action should be possible in support of 
multi-employer agreements, and for the purpose of indicating 
sympathy and support for industrial action by fellow unionists, 
and for protest on economic and social issues which are seen by 
unionists as affecting their welfare."

The new Bill specifically outlaws sympathy and political strikes.

There are a number of ACTU proposals on Australian Workplace 
Agreements (AWAs — individual contracts) which focus on making 
(collective) Certified Agreements prevail over AWAs and outlawing 
AWAs where workers have voted in favour of a Certified Agreement.

They also call for the abolition of the Office of the Employment 
Advocate and the return of powers to the Commission.

"The Act does not prevent employees being compelled to sign AWAs 
in order to obtain or maintain employment." The ACTU seeks to 
amend the Act to end this situation which allows bosses to force 
workers to sign AWAs.

In effect the ACTU recommendations seek to give primacy to 
collective agreements over individual contracts, but they fall 
short of calling for the abolition of individual contracts and 
the full restoration of the award as the primary vehicle for 
determining wages and conditions.

The 132-page submission also contains recommendations on wages, 
hours of work, job security issues, family and work, contract 
labour, protection of employees' entitlements, and trade union 
rights (rights of delegates, right of entry, trade union 
training, etc) and employee share ownership.

It argues for the complete withdrawal of the Bill that is 
presently before Parliament.

It was the Australian Democrats who moved for the Senate Inquiry 
to be held. It is the Democrats who still need convincing that 
this Bill should be thrown out and that the present Workplace 
Relations Act is unacceptable.

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