Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Seven Myths About Howard's Industrial Relations Agenda: Busted

Howard’s arguments on industrial relations are embarrassingly flimsy. But he keeps repeating them. Howard’s main claims collapse under any sort of basic scrutiny. Take these seven myths for starters:

1 Howard says the Workplace relations Bill is not about cutting wages and conditions.

Busted! You wIll get less and lose more!

Fact: The minimum requirements for employment have been reduced to five only (the minimum wage, four weeks’ annual leave, 10 days’ sick leave, 2 months’ unpaid parental leave, and a 38-hour week). Longstanding conditions such as redundancy provisions, penalty rates, shift payments and so on can all be refused by an employer. An employer can require you to work on any public holiday, including Christmas and Anzac Day, without compensation.

2 Howard says all this can happen under existing laws anyway.

Busted! You Will Not Be protected By Law!

Fact: Under existing laws anything negotiated away between employer and employee must be compensated for by an equivalent amount of money because of the ‘no disadvantage’ test. So if you agree with an employer to give up penalty rates, for example, the employer must increase your fixed wage by an equivalent amount. But under the new law, if you want the job, you can lose your penalty rates and other conditions and get nothing in return.

3 Howard says these laws are about creating choice.

Busted! Virtually No ChoIce For Workers!

Fact: There’s plenty of choice for employers and virtually none for employees. Employers can force job-seekers to take an Australian Workplace Agreement and accept only the minimum five conditions if they want the job. The Howard Government has even press-ganged employers it has sway over to force AWAs on to their employees as a condition of receiving future government funding or contracts.

4 Howard says awards are protected by law.

Busted! Awards Will Be Replaced By an AWA

Fact: To the extent that workers on awards are protected, they’re living on borrowed time. There’s a 10 per cent annual turnover of jobs – and as workers leave award jobs, their replacements can be forced on to AWAs. Moreover, the new Act makes it so easy to sack people that employers can easily get rid of award employees and replace them with those on AWAs.

5 These changes are good for the economy, especially productivity.

Busted! In Other CountrIes, Productivity Is Worse!

Fact: The Government has provided no evidence whatever to support this. There is no public Treasury material supporting Howard’s claims. The experience in other countries provides little support for this proposition either. Over the past 15 years, New Zealand, one of the Howard Government’s favourite examples, has had a worse labour productivity performance than Australia. NZ now lags 23 per cent behind.

6 Howard says that even a job without the pay and conditions we’ve come to expect is better than no job.

Busted! It Creates The New Working Poor!

Fact: This is a recipe for low-wage, low knowledge, low-capital-intensive country – the exact opposite of the path we need to follow. We will never compete with China, India, Vietnam and others on that level, and we should never seek to. It’s a path that leads inevitably to a class of working poor just like that which blights the US.

7 Howard says that the furore over the industrial relations legislation will pass.

Busted! It’s Here to Stay!

Fact: Howard is going to have to do a lot better to win this argument. The union movement has declared that we are in for the long haul. Howard’s IR laws have galvanized workers and the community like no other issue for a long time. Our fight will be sustained all the way to 2007.

What you can do:

Get active in your work place and your community!

Here are some practical ways of ensuring that you and your workmates are not forced to work harder for less.

1. Pass a workplace motion opposing the Government's proposals and calling on your employer to guarantee that your current wages and conditions will be maintained and that they will respect your right to collectively bargain.

2. Make an appointment with your local federal member of Parliament and present the motion to him/her. Let them know how the changes will disadvantage you and your family.

3. Talk to your workmates who are not in a union about why there has never been a better time to join and why if the government gets their laws through, we will have to stick together to keep our livelihoods. Work towards majority union membership in your area by talking to people and educating them about how these changes will affect them.

4. Stay informed and involved through checking the Trades Hall and ACTU websites for regular updates (www.vthc.org.au or www.actu.asn.au) and becoming involved in your union.

5. Take your message to the community. Ring talkback radio and tell them how your life and the life of your family will change for the worse if you have to work harder and longer for less pay. 3AW (03) 9696 1278, 3LO 1300 222 774, Regional Drive 1880 033 800. Speak at your local sports club, parents group, community group etc. about the changes. Your union and Trades Hall will have material available to help you explain these changes to others.

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