The battlelines for this year’s federal election have now been drawn. Australians have a clear choice between stronger job and income security, and having no job security at all and a return to worst elements of WorkChoices.
I was recently reminded of the tough times that many Australian families have had over the last few years when I spoke at the AMWU’s National Conference.
It reminded me how important manufacturing is for the strength of the Australian economy, and you can’t have national economic growth without having a country that makes things.
Unfortunately, there have been too many closures in Australian manufacturing over the past decade or so. Worse still, often the loyal employees of these companies have been left out-of-pocket because the employer failed to provide for their entitlements.
Workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own when companies collapse should not have to worry about whether they will be paid the wages and redundancy pay they’re owed.
That’s why Labor’s announcement to greatly improve the protection of wages, redundancy pay and other entitlements like annual leave is so important.
For over 20 years the AMWU with other unions have been fighting to protect the full wages and entitlements of workers. For the first time a policy is on the table that virtually delivers this.
We know that too often bosses send the business bust. Leave workers out of pocket. Entitlements and super unpaid. Workers who lose their jobs are ripped off when they least can afford it.
We have seen governments skirt around this issue. The taxpayer funded GEERS was a cynical quick fix to get John Howard’s brother, Stan, out of trouble. Covering only 16 weeks, it took months for workers to see any money and left thousands of workers short.
Labor’s policy - the Fair Entitlement Guarantee – will mean that 97% of workers will receive all their redundancy pay entitlements. That’s only fair.
The Fair Entitlement Guarantee is a good policy by a Labor Government which understands the needs of working people and their families.
The Liberals’ IR policy is incomprehensible. WorkChoices, is alive, dead, re-arisen. Like a bad sequel to a b-grade horror film.
We saw last week: no sooner had Tony Abbott declared WorkChoices ‘dead, buried, & cremated’, than 3 hours later he admitted he couldn’t give an ‘absolute guarantee about every aspect of workplace relations’.
Only to change his mind five hours later, claiming that ‘nothing whatsoever will ever be done by any Coalition government that brings back elements of WorkChoices.’
In the meantime Senator Abetz – his shadow minister for workplace relations – suggested that the legislation might need to be “tweaked”.
The very next policy the Liberal party announced included legislative changes to the Fair Work Act.
To get some clarification, I wrote to Tony Abbott, asking for a guarantee to rule out 198 possible regulation and other administrative changes that he could make to cut workers’ rights without changing the Fair Work Act. I received no reply.
WorkChoices cost working families pay and job security.
But Tony Abbott still believes, “WorkChoices wasn’t all bad.” He said that in his book Battleline – I assume that’s the gospel truth.
WorkChoices is a matter of faith for Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party.
They have so much trouble saying that WorkChoices is dead – because, it’s not. They cannot bear to part with it. The Liberal Party will always be the party of big business at the expense of ordinary working Australians.
Don’t be complacent. This election, Australian workers and their families have an important vote. You can vote to improve job and income security for all Australian workers.
For more information on the Fair Entitlements Guarantee check out this factsheet – and tell your friends about it.
Jeff Lawrence is Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
R@W News is a forum for news, analysis and commentary about rights at work and related issues. The opinions presented in R@W News are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent policies or views of the ACTU.