There is something a little intriguing about the “one-stop shop”, Fair Work Australia proposals that leaves me wondering what deals have on between the ALP team and the ACTU over these proposals and any post-election ALP industrial relations policy. Some of the details, like no-strike periods and secret ballots, would be hard for the unions to accept from “their party”, but many core foundations of the trade union platform are likely to continue in place, or even be extended.
For example, the current five minimum Australian standards will be expanded to include certain holiday allowances and penalty rates (or equitable compensation for trading them away), collective bargaining will be restored, and new initiatives will be introduced to ensure “good faith” bargaining with trade unions.
However, Fair Work Australia requires state governments handing over their IR powers to a future Rudd-led Labor government. A few years ago, both the NSW and Queensland Labor governments spent millions of taxpayer dollars on legal costs associated with High Court action against the Howard Government’s use of the corporations power as the basis for WorkChoices’ national system. Will they hand over control this time (perhaps at Brother Combet’s persuasion) ?
The Rudd proposal includes a ban on unfair dismissal claims for workers with less than 12 months’ experience (for businesses with fewer than 15 employees) and workers with less than six months’ service (in businesses with more than 15 employees). Increased churning of staff by small businesses that dismiss workers before the 12-month deadline can be expected in some areas such as retail.
Given the political stakes involved, some argue that this ideology-driven IR debate has little to do with disadvantaged workers and a lot more to do with the very existence of trade unionism in Australia and the power of its leaders. According to the latest ABS statistics, which gave a grim view of the future of the trade union movement generally, only about 20 per cent of workers are members of a trade union, a fall of 125,000 or nearly 7 per cent in the past year. In the private sector, only 15 per cent of workers are in a trade union while the public sector also showed a fall in union membership, to 43 per cent.
For the unions, WorkChoices presents the last chance to avoid redundancy and irrelevance in Australian society.
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