Employment Minister Andrews has today admitted that the Government is not interested in fairness in Australian workplaces.
In a major speech in Melbourne today outlining the Government’s agenda for
industrial relations reforms, Mr Andrews claimed that ideas of ‘fairness’ in
workplaces were ‘misconceived’ and that ‘…an emphasis on fairness only leads
to regulatory excess and inefficiency’.
Detailing the Government’s long-term agenda in workplace relations, Mr
Andrews gave support to business plans to:
currently cover about half the Australian workforce.
leave, jury service leave, notice of termination, and superannuation
provisions.
conditions and settling industrial disputes.
In response to the Minister’s statements, ACTU President Sharan Burrow
said:
“From July 1 this year the Federal Government will have control of the
Senate.
What Mr Andrews has said today is that he wants to use John Howard’s
legislative blank cheque to eliminate any idea of fairness from Australian
workplaces.
Minister Andrews has made it clear that the Government’s agenda is all about
creating workplaces where people work harder and longer for less – that will be
bad for employees, it will be bad for families and ultimately it’s the wrong
direction for Australia.
The Government’s workplace agenda is a step down the low road to economic
insecurity.
It’s a path to cheapen working Australians in a race to the bottom that we
can never win.
Where is the Government’s plan to improve productivity and opportunities for
Australians through investing in people’s skill, business innovation, economic
infrastructure and co-operative approaches to workplace relations?
Mr Andrews has also failed to outline how the Government’s plans for reform
would give employees a genuine right to have a say in the type of agreement –
whether individual contract or collective agreement – covering their workplace.
A right they currently don’t have in Australia.
Fairness and real choices for employees are clearly absent from the
Government’s agenda.”
