The Morrison Government’s proposed Ensuring Integrity Bill is an extreme and unprecedented attack on the basic rights of workers guaranteed under international law, according to a resolution from the International Trade Union Confederation Asia-Pacific (ITUC-AP). The ITUC represents 207 million workers worldwide.
The ITUC-AP resolution passed today in Tokyo states that the bill would make “Australia unique in industrialised liberal democracies globally in the draconian measures that it imposes. This legislation will undermine workplace safety, increase wage and superannuation theft, and make it harder for workers to get pay increases and be represented in the workplace.”
The Morrison Government is willing to ignore Australia’s international obligations in their pursuit of employers’ interests.
Quotes attributable to ACTU President Michele O’Neil:
“The ITUC-AP makes clear that the Ensuring Integrity bill would restrict freedom of association, the right to organise, and the right to collectively bargain, in violation of ILO’s Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 98).
“The bill would mean that regulations on unions would be more severe than those imposed on any other group in society, including corporations.
“This union busting bill will make it harder for unions to support working people, keep workplaces safe and fight for better pay and conditions.
“This resolution from the ITUC-AP makes it clear the position that this bill would place Australia in, an international outlier on labour rights and regulation of the lives of working people.”
