Workplace Relations

The Principles

1. A just industrial relations system is designed to serve social as well as economic goals, allowing people to live in a manner befitting their human dignity and to fulfil family responsibilities.

2. Every person in the work force has a right to safe, healthy working conditions and just wages.

3. Governments, as part of their overall responsibility for the common good, have an obligation to regulate market forces by legislation.

4. Local laws regulating market forces should, as a minimum, uphold international standards set by the United Nations, the International Labour Organisation, the Human Rights Commission.

5. Workers have a right to form Unions in order to claim their rights when necessary and to negotiate working conditions and wages. Therefore there should be no limitation or deterrent on workers choosing to be members of a Union.

6. Workplaces should be free from any form of discrimination, intimidation or harassment.

7. People whose work gives them little or no bargaining power have a right to adequate safeguards on working conditions and wages.

The Issues

1. Recent developments have increased the power of employers, decreased the power of workers to negotiate, increased the numbers of people working too much or too little, and widened the gap between those who are poorly paid and those who are well paid.

2. Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The role of the Commission, historically the arbitrator of industrial disputes, has been significantly weakened by the introduction of individual contracts regulated by the Employment Advocate, a situation which leaves low-paid, unorganised or industrially weak workers at greater risk.

3. Awards. The number of conditions protected by an Award has been greatly reduced. Employees must negotiate further conditions with individual employers. One result is the loss of provisions protecting vulnerable groups of workers.

4. Australian Workplace Agreements. These Agreements leave unions out of negotiations and are regulated by the Employment Advocate. Current data shows that these Agreements result in significantly lower wages than those achieved through collective awards. The average difference for non-managerial workers is $144 per week.

5. Entitlements. Workers entitlements are becoming less secure, particularly in cases of company bankruptcy. 'Shelf companies' set up by major employers employ workers and sub-contract them back to the parent company. If the shelf company is bankrupted, the workers can be dismissed without right of appeal, the parent company denying responsibility for the workers' entitlements.

6. Working Hours. One in five Australians now works more than 50 hours a week, whereas 35-40 hours has been the traditional full-time working week. The amount of unpaid overtime work has increased greatly. Both these factors are detrimental to family relationships and commitments; unpaid overtime also reduces real wages.

7. Casualisation of work. While in some cases this can have positive results for workers, many employers have used it simply to reduce wage costs. Casuals have fewer rights and less security, which can deny them access to credit, such as a home loan. Casuals who work for the same employer for several years are still denied the rights of a permanent worker.

8. Security of employment. Unfavourable characteristics of casual employment are now common in full-time work; such as having to be available whenever required or to be on call periodically. Security is diminished by the threat of redundancy, downsizing or outsourcing.

9. Trade Practices Act. Section 45D of this Act prevents unions from imposing secondary boycotts, such as refusing to accept goods produced by a company or to supply goods to a company. The law provides for penalties and significantly weakens unions' bargaining power.

Alternatives

1. Restore the power of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to enforce compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes.

2. Abolish Australian Workplace Agreements and the Office of the Employment Advocate. AWAs are at present a relatively small but potentially hazardous component of total employment. They are far outnumbered by contracts based on common law.

3. Set a reasonable minimum living wage.

4. Legislate reasonable working hours.

5. Increase the rights of long-term casual workers to receive the entitlements accorded to permanent employees.

6. Legislate to compel companies to inform workers about the identity of those by whom they are employed.

7. Legislate to protect workers entitlements, through insurance or an equivalent scheme.

8. Reconsider Section 45D in the Trade Practices Act.

9. Allow unions to charge a fee to non-union employees who benefit from a union-negotiated