ACTU Campaign: WorkChoices - Never Again

The ACTU and affiliates are continuing the fight to protect the rights at work of Australian workers.

WorkChoices took away the rights of working Australians. Today's Liberal leader Tony Abbott was a key Minister in the former Liberal Government that introduced WorkChoices. Now, he wants to bring it back. He just won't call it WorkChoices.

When he was first elected leader of the Liberals, Mr Abbott said, "The phrase WorkChoices is dead," and it is now clear that this means he will only change its name.

Unfair dismissals

At a recent meeting with business executives, Mr Abbott said he will remove protection from unfair dismissal for workers in small business.

"You know, at four elections running we had a mandate to take the unfair dismissal monkey off the back of small business and we will once more seek that mandate." (12 February 2010)

When Mr Abbott released his book last year he was asked if he would revisit WorkChoices and remove protection from unfair dismissal and his evasive answer was:

"Well, if we are going to have productive workplaces, we can never bring down the curtain on workplace reform." (27 July 2009)

Cuts to pay and conditions

Mr Abbott has also promised a return to individual contracts. AWA individual contracts were banned by the Labor Government because they led to widespread cuts to workers' pay, conditions and rights.
But Mr Abbott has said he will bring them back.

Mr Abbott has also said he will allow employers to negotiate job contracts with young workers that cut their pay and conditions by reducing the requirement to be paid for a minimum number of hours.

This means employers would be able to call in staff and send them home after as little as half an hour. It would mean more than two million casual workers would be worse off and could reduce workers' take home pay by more than $100 a week.

Mr Abbott said a Coalition government would remove the requirement that youths be engaged for a minimum number of hours and employers would be obliged to pay them only a minimum rate.

'Abbott policy on shift hours 'exploits' youth'
The Australian, 19 Feb 2010

Penalty rates at risk

Hundreds of thousands of Australians rely on penalty rates to compensate them for working shifts at night or on weekends. These are also at risk under the Liberals.

A newspaper article titled "Penalty rates face changes under Libs" reports that Liberal spokesman Eric Abetz avoided making a guarantee that weekend penalty rates would not be cut:

But pressed whether that meant all penalty rates were safe, including those on the weekend, he replied:

"Let's wait and see what the policy will be."
The Mercury, 18 Feb 2010

The Liberals' WorkChoices

Under WorkChoices, Australian workers faced the following cuts to their rights:

Protection from being sacked unfairly was stripped away from more than three million workers.
Employers had the power to put workers onto AWA individual contracts that cut the award pay and conditions of employees.
The award safety net was effectively abolished and there were changes to the way minimum wages to drive down the pay of low income workers.
Young workers, women and casuals were the most vulnerable to WorkChoices and ended up being its worst victims. More than a million low paid workers suffered real pay cuts of up to $90 a week from WorkChoices' changes to minimum wages.

Thousands of workers were pushed onto AWA individual contracts and:

70% lost shift loadings
68% lost annual leave loadings
65% lost penalty rates
49% lost overtime loadings.
25% no longer had public holidays
Working Australians and their families cannot afford a return to WorkChoices under Tony Abbott's Liberals.

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ACTU WorkChoices Never Again Fact Sheet [ pdf ]

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Last Modified: Thursday, 22-Jul-2010 19:37:23 EST