Commenting on the Prime Ministers statement yesterday that families could benefit from the Governments IR reforms, Sharan Burrow said:

Prime Minister John Howard is wrong, again.

Families will be worse off under the new IR laws and a recent report by the Federal Government itself shows this to be the case.

A recent report by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations contradicts the Prime Ministers assertion.

The 2004 DEWR report finds that of all individual contracts (AWAs):

• 92% do not provide paid maternity leave.
• 95% do not provide paid paternity leave.
• 96% do not provide unpaid 'purchased' leave such as extra leave during school holidays.

The only widely available family-friendly provisions in individual contracts (AWAs) are for bereavement leave (49 per cent).

It must be of little comfort to employees on individual contracts (AWAs) to know that the most common family-friendly clause in their employment contract is for leave in the terrible event that a family member dies.

This report shows that working families are already worse off when they are employed on one of the Governments preferred AWA individual contracts.

And it suggests they are going to be even worse off under the new IR laws.

The Governments industrial relations plans are all about pushing workers on to individual contracts (AWAs) that can cut peoples take-home pay and remove conditions like overtime, shift penalty rates, meal breaks, rostering protections and public holiday penalties.

Removing these protections will lead to longer and more irregular hours as well as unsocial work at nights and on weekends.

All of this will clearly be bad for families.

It means working parents will have less time with their children and less time for leisure, friends, volunteer work and household chores.

By lifting controls on longer and irregular hours, as well as removing protections from night work and weekend work, the Governments new workplace laws will only make it harder for working parents.

Families are already struggling to keep their heads above water and will be much worse off by the Governments changes, said Sharan Burrow.