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 Home Campaigns Your Rights At Work News
Howard confirms some will be worse off08 July 2005The Prime Minister John Howard has confirmed some workers will be worse off under his changes to work laws. Mr Howard said today it would be impossible to give a guarantee that the changes would not leave workers worse off. "Nobody, whether you're John Howard or Kim Beazley or Bob Hawke or Paul Keating or Bob Menzies or Ben Chifley can give a guarantee that no single individual is going to be worse off in the future," he said on radio. But Mr Howard appeared to conveniently forget that he gave that exact type of guarantee about his industrial relations policy before he was first elected in 1996. He told a Young Liberal convention on January 8, 1996: "Under no circumstances will a Howard Government create a wages system which causes the take-home pay of Australian workers to be cut. "Under a Howard Government you cannot be worse off, but you can be better off. "I give you this rock solid guarantee." HSU national secretary Craig Thomson said that it was clear the reason Mr Howard could not give a guarantee this time was that his changes would undermine awards. "Under what is proposed new agreements will not have to improve on the award as is currently the case," he said. "All new agreements will have to include is just five conditions: a minimum hourly rate of pay ($12.75), 8 days sick leave, 4 weeks leave, unpaid parental leave, and weekly working hours. "Everything else is up for grabs and that includes meal breaks, penalty rates, overtime, holiday loading and redundancy pay. "Australians will be working longer for less if John Howard gets his way." Contact Details Health Services Union of Australia hsu@hsu.net.au |
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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU) |
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