Getting organised to protect our rights into the future
The November election was the death-knell for WorkChoices, but how can we ensure it never comes back, asks Stephen Jones.
As promised during the election campaign, the Rudd Government has torn up WorkChoices and put an alternative plan before the Parliament. With any luck new laws will be in place later in the year.
Even the Coalition and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry appear to have heard the community’s concerns, at last, and publicly renounced WorkChoices.
Removing these unfair laws was one of the main objectives of the successful Your Rights at Work campaign. It was the reason thousands of CPSU volunteers spent their free time last year pounding the pavement in marginal seats and working the phones.
Winning decent legislation is important, but what do we need to do to ensure the rights of Australian workers are never threatened again? It was no coincidence that the people most hurt by WorkChoices were those in industries without union protection. In my view, without strong and active unions, workplace rights remain at risk. Would the previous Government have dared to launch such a fierce political attack on workers and their unions if Australian union membership was 50%, rather than 25%?
The CPSU will always defend your right to bargain collectively and to join a union and be represented. But if we are to really lock in the success of the Your Rights at Work campaign, we’ll need to do more. We are working with activists and delegates on new strategies to build the strength, capacity and relevance of the CPSU in your workplace. This will include new membership benefits, better support for workplace delegates, better use of new technologies, pro-active campaigns in support of public sector jobs and services and much more.
With the Your Rights at Work campaign, union members showed they can work together and win. The challenge for us now is to build on that victory by growing in size and influence.
Comments(8)
Posted by:David Gallagher - 21 Apr 2008, 10:50am
Thanks for the chance to pass on what I think should be the CPSU's agenda, now we have a government which is sympathetic to the good work unions can do.
Can I suggest that the CPSU start to re-evaluate how relevant some of our long term 'rights' are, and to think of putting to the new Government how a modern workplace should be structured.
Here are two suggestions
Long Service Leave. This is a 'right' which unions fought for and should be proud of what we achieved. But it must be questioned as to how relevant it is today. The reality is that most people joining the public service (like most private sector jobs), don't see themselves working in the public sector - you should look to a new agenda which aligns long service leave to the modern worker. It should aim to provide a vehicle to take a break after a time in employment, however many organisations they have worked for. It could be linked to superannuation - ie. an accumulate benefit to give choices to workers. What it shouldn't be is tied to how long you have lasted with one employer - and provide an incentive to employers to move people on when their LSL entitlements get to the stage of being a significant cost.
Personal Leave. Needs to be based on need not on how long you have worked, and should not be an incentive to older workers to want to 'use up' their 'entitlement'. Why not say that all permanent staff have up to 3 months available to them based on evidence of illness - doesn't matter whether you have worked 3 months or 30 years (like me). After that is is subject to independent assessment of need. The system should also have inbuilt mechanism to monitor regular users (or abusers) of entitlements - so that workers feel they are fairly treated by this entitlement.
After 33 years as a proud union member I am about to retire - I think it is time for the union to look at how it can make the workplace fair and rewarding in today's world. We have too proud a history to be seen as protecting outmoded 'rights' but yet not looking out for emerging needs of workers.
regards
Posted by:David - 10 Mar 2008, 7:26pm
Perhaps John had better expeiiences than i did with individual bargaining. In the department that I worked in an AWA was certainly not negotiated. it was a straight template with no room for any "individual bargaining" - take it or leave it!. And if you were a new employee it was simply take it or leave. Workchoices was only choices for employers if you really believe that the the society we live in has any respect for the rights of individuals I would really like to see where you obtained such facts. Over the past few decades i've seen the rights of individuals disappear like leaves in the wind. If there was any respect for the rights of individuals under Workchoices why was it found necessary under that contemptable legislation to remove the individuals right to have a court review an unfair contract?
Posted by:John - 10 Mar 2008, 9:10am
Do you think, maybe, that Union membership has dropped to 25% because individuals have felt that they can do a better job of bargaining with employers than many unions can? Maybe if people feel that they would get value for money from their union fees they would be more willing to pay them.
Posted by:Joan Hutcheson - 7 Mar 2008, 11:12am
When are the Government going to look at the AWA's that are in place for their own employees ?
Posted by:Paul Johnson - 7 Mar 2008, 8:40am
It is true that the best way to prevent a future Coalition government from pushing through a legislative regime similar to Workchoices is higher unionisation.
The moderate and non-triumphal approach of the new federal government has to this point quelled the fears of the electorate.
The ALP must, however, be put under pressure to systematically remove all AWAs presently in force. The ALP should be encouraged to draft legislative measures to totally remove the primacy of AWAs over all other collective agreements, and have a sunset clause on all AWAs, of no more than 5 years. I can't see why in the mining sector, AWAs couldn't be completely replaced by common law contracts, without any tangible loss in productivity.
The sad fact is the widespread ignorance in the community about the benefits of union membership, particularly in small and medium enterprises. Key points such as the tax deductability of union membership are not widely known. Many people struggling to pay their bills would be far better off (with better workplace agreements, conditions and benefits) being union members.
Thanks for the chance to pass on what I think should be the CPSU's agenda, now we have a government which is sympathetic to the good work unions can do.
Can I suggest that the CPSU start to re-evaluate how relevant some of our long term 'rights' are, and to think of putting to the new Government how a modern workplace should be structured.
Here are two suggestions
Long Service Leave. This is a 'right' which unions fought for and should be proud of what we achieved. But it must be questioned as to how relevant it is today. The reality is that most people joining the public service (like most private sector jobs), don't see themselves working in the public sector - you should look to a new agenda which aligns long service leave to the modern worker. It should aim to provide a vehicle to take a break after a time in employment, however many organisations they have worked for. It could be linked to superannuation - ie. an accumulate benefit to give choices to workers. What it shouldn't be is tied to how long you have lasted with one employer - and provide an incentive to employers to move people on when their LSL entitlements get to the stage of being a significant cost.
Personal Leave. Needs to be based on need not on how long you have worked, and should not be an incentive to older workers to want to 'use up' their 'entitlement'. Why not say that all permanent staff have up to 3 months available to them based on evidence of illness - doesn't matter whether you have worked 3 months or 30 years (like me). After that is is subject to independent assessment of need. The system should also have inbuilt mechanism to monitor regular users (or abusers) of entitlements - so that workers feel they are fairly treated by this entitlement.
After 33 years as a proud union member I am about to retire - I think it is time for the union to look at how it can make the workplace fair and rewarding in today's world. We have too proud a history to be seen as protecting outmoded 'rights' but yet not looking out for emerging needs of workers.
regards
Perhaps John had better expeiiences than i did with individual bargaining.
In the department that I worked in an AWA was certainly not negotiated. it was a straight template with no room for any "individual bargaining" - take it or leave it!. And if you were a new employee it was simply take it or leave.
Workchoices was only choices for employers if you really believe that the the society we live in has any respect for the rights of individuals I would really like to see where you obtained such facts. Over the past few decades i've seen the rights of individuals disappear like leaves in the wind. If there was any respect for the rights of individuals under Workchoices why was it found necessary under that contemptable legislation to remove the individuals right to have a court review an unfair contract?
Do you think, maybe, that Union membership has dropped to 25% because individuals have felt that they can do a better job of bargaining with employers than many unions can? Maybe if people feel that they would get value for money from their union fees they would be more willing to pay them.
When are the Government going to look at the AWA's that are in place for their own employees ?
It is true that the best way to prevent a future Coalition government from pushing through a legislative regime similar to Workchoices is higher unionisation.
The moderate and non-triumphal approach of the new federal government has to this point quelled the fears of the electorate.
The ALP must, however, be put under pressure to systematically remove all AWAs presently in force. The ALP should be encouraged to draft legislative measures to totally remove the primacy of AWAs over all other collective agreements, and have a sunset clause on all AWAs, of no more than 5 years. I can't see why in the mining sector, AWAs couldn't be completely replaced by common law contracts, without any tangible loss in productivity.
The sad fact is the widespread ignorance in the community about the benefits of union membership, particularly in small and medium enterprises. Key points such as the tax deductability of union membership are not widely known. Many people struggling to pay their bills would be far better off (with better workplace agreements, conditions and benefits) being union members.