Your rights at work are worth fighting for
Families are built on strong foundations and the certainty of secure jobs is one of the most important.
- Secure work - gives working families the confidence to commit to buying a home
- Secure hours - allow working families to plan their time, develop a routine and be together
- Secure wages - mean working families can run a household budget and pay their bills
Join the campaign to protect Your Rights at Work. Go to
http://www.rightsatwork.com.au or phone the campaign hotline on 1300 362 223.
How can you?
- Tell your work collegues, family and friends about the Government's plans by giving them a copy of this flyer.
- Be active through your union - strong unions are the best way to protect your rights at work.
- Let your local Liberal or National Party Federal MP know that you oppose the Government's plans to take away basic rights at work.
Come to the Australia-wide hookup and join in the National Community Day of Protest on November 15.
For further information & venues near you click here.
New laws will hurt Australian working families
I was offered a new contract at work. I've got to work nights and weekends with no penalty rates and they want me to cash in two weeks holiday. I thought this country cared about families."
I had a job with good hours so I could pick up the kids. But then my boss changed the hours. When I quesioned him he sacked me. It's going to cost me $30,000 to sue for unlawful dismissal - and I haven't got a job!"
In the contract they cut my pay by over $1000 to do the same job. The boss said if I didn't sign the contract there was no future for me at the company. I work really hard and haven't done anything wrong. Why are they doing this?."
New laws will hurt Australian working families
The Federal Government plans to take away many of your basic rights at work. It wants to change Australia's workplace laws to:
1. Abolish protection from unfair dismissal for 4 million workers employed in companies with less than 100 staff
2. Allow employers to put workers onto individual contracts that cut take-home pay and reduce employment conditions to only 5 minimum standards - workers who refuse to sign may fear being sacked
3. Change the way minimum wages are set to make them lower
4. Effectively abolish the award safety net and replace it with just 5 conditions:
- a minimum hourly rate of pay (currently $12.75)
- sick leave
- 4 weeks annual leave (2 weeks of which could be 'cashed out')
- unpaid parental leave
- 38 hour week but no extra pay for overtime, long shifts or weekend work.
Many workers could lose conditions like weekend, shift and public holiday rates; overtiime; redundancy pay; allowances; and loadings.
5. Keep unions out of workplaces and reduce the capacity for workers to bargain collectively with their employer
6. Take away the powers of the independent Industrial Relations Commission
What do these changes mean for you?
These changes will take Australian families backwards when many are already struggling just to keep their heads above water.
Find out more about the Government's proposals
Download the Your Rights At Work Are Worth Fighting For- Introduction in black and white (Revised 11 October 2005)