ORWELLIAN-TITLED "BETTER BARGAINING BILL" AIMED AT NTEU MEMBERS
The Government's proposed Better Bargaining Bill is aimed at unions which conduct coordinated bargaining strategies to maintain and improve industry-level conditions or to protect quality through industry standards. Important gains which have been recently gained through enterprise bargaining in a co-ordinated way are in the areas of academic workload, maternity and parental leave, and indigenous employment. It is as yet unclear how the Industrial Relations Commission and the Courts will apply the Bill if it is passed by the Senate. Nevertheless, the Bill represents another significant shift in bargaining power to employers.
A copy of the Bill can be found at;
http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb//Repository/Legis/Amend/Linked/05090501.pdf
But see in particular the proposed Government amendment to the Bill to prohibit pattern bargaining (Proposed S17LGA) listed at that site.
And here is a Media Release from the ACTU about the Bill;
New Govt law unfairly shifts workplace power to employers
ACTU Media Release Issued 11am Wednesday 7 September 2005
A proposed new Federal Government law introduced in Parliament this week (Tuesday) unfairly shifts power in the workplace to employers and will make it much harder for workers to bargain collectively to protect their pay and conditions says the ACTU.
Commenting on the new law ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said today: "The Government's so-called 'Better Bargaining Bill' will now ban workers from asking for similar wages and conditions across multiple employers - 'pattern bargaining'.
This will be a major new restriction on the right of workers to bargain collectively. For example, it would prevent aged care nurses from seeking paid maternity leave throughout their industry. Collective bargaining is the key means by which workers can protect or improve their pay and conditions and yet the Howard Government is taking every step it can to prevent workers from bargaining collectively.
At the same time, the Government is actively promoting individual contracts - the key means by which employers can reduce the wages and entitlements of employees.
This is a clear case of hypocrisy by the Howard Government. It is blatantly unfair because the law only applies to collective agreements and not individual contracts.
In fact, the Government is supporting employers that want to 'pattern bargain' by actively promoting template individual contracts (AWAs) for employers across entire industries. These are available on a Government website - www.oea.gov.au
Another aspect of the new law that shows the hypocrisy of the Government is that it fails to require 'good faith' bargaining by employers seeking to put workers onto individual contracts.
If the Government was serious about fairness and 'good faith' in workplace bargaining it would give Australian workers the legal right to have a democratic vote in the workplace to reject individual contracts and bargain collectively with their employer.
The Federal Government talks about choice for workers, but what their proposed workplace laws are only about is giving greater choice and power to employers.
The proposed amendments to the so-called 'Better Bargaining Bill' should be rejected by Parliament and the Government should abandon this absurdly unfair attempt to constrain the right of employees to bargain collectively.
The Government has tried to introduce a law of this type three times previously and yet each time it has failed to gain Parliamentary approval because it is unnecessary and unfair."