Liberals can do much more than ‘tweak’ Fair Work laws and can’t be trusted

22 July 2010

Community volunteers took to the streets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this morning in a blitz to inform morning commuters of the almost 200 ways in which Tony Abbott could change Fair Work laws and allow aspects of WorkChoices to be slipped in through the back door.

Volunteers handed out leaflets to morning commuters at major railway stations as part of a campaign to inform the public about the Coalition’s industrial relations plans. Stations to be targeted are Martin Place in Sydney, Flinders Street in Melbourne, and Roma Street in Brisbane.

None of these would involve legislation, and they make a mockery of Mr Abbott’s claim that WorkChoices is “dead, buried and cremated”, says the ACTU.

ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said an analysis of the Fair Work laws had uncovered 198 separate sections which would allow the Government to make changes impacting on working Australians without the approval of Parliament.

“Tony Abbott simply can’t be trusted not to make substantial changes to workplace rights,” Mr Lawrence said. “You just have to look at his track record. WorkChoices is in his DNA.

“At the stroke of a pen, Tony Abbott could reduce unfair dismissal protections for small business employees, reduce minimum conditions in modern awards or enterprise agreements, and cut their entitlements to redundancy payments.

“With 198 possible changes to the Fair Work laws that can be made through regulations, you have to wonder just how much ‘tweaking’ Tony Abbott and the Liberals intend to do.

“We are only a couple of days into the election campaign, and Tony Abbott has already broken his promise that he would not be making any legislative changes to laws governing workplaces.

“His proposal to cut funding for Australian Electoral Commission oversight of union elections would require rewriting to the Fair Work laws and seriously curtail democracy in the workplace. This shows again that Mr Abbott’s campaign promises change like the wind, and he cannot be trusted.”

List of possible Regulation Changes
Potential changes to regulations by the Coalition that will effectively bring back the worst aspects of WorkChoices and reduce rights at work (selected list):

·         Modify the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code provided for by section 388 of the Act, so as to reduce or remove the unfair dismissal protections for up to two million employees of small business;

·         Make Regulations under sections 127 or 129 of the Act to permit Modern Awards or Enterprise Agreements to include terms that are contrary to the National Employment Standards allowing reductions in minimum conditions;

·         Make Regulations under sections 22(2)(c) or  22(4)(a)(ii) to exclude periods of employment from counting towards an employee’s period of service (e.g. for purpose of calculating redundancy pay);

·         Make Regulations under sections 127 or 129 of the Fair Work Act 2009 to prohibit terms being included in Modern Awards or Enterprise Agreements which may remove workers’ job conditions;

·         Amend or repeal Regulation 1.04 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009 (“the Regulations”) to restrict the definition of “designated outworker terms” for the purposes of section 12 of the Fair Work Act;

·         Amend the definitions contained in Regulation 1.07 of the Regulations, to allow employers to avoid the obligation to pay Notice or Redundancy pay;

·         Make any further regulations for the purposes of section 178(3) of the Fair Work Act (“the Act”) to introduce further restrictions or controls on the qualification or appointment of Bargaining Representatives for agreement negotiations;

·         Modify the Model Flexibility Term prescribed in the Regulations pursuant to section 202(5) of the Act to increase the number of conditions of employment susceptible to individual negotiation;

·         Modify the Notice of Representational Rights prescribed by the Regulations, or the means by it may be given to employees under Regulation 2.04;

·         Modify or repeal Regulation 2.13 of the Regulations, which sets out the High Income Threshold for the purposes of section 333 of the Act, to reduce award coverage or unfair dismissal protection;

·         Make any regulation or other law as referred to in section 342(c) of the Act to reduce the scope of actions which constitute “Adverse Action” for the purposes of the General Protections provisions;

·         Modify or repeal regulation 3.01 or 6.04 of the Regulations to reduce unlawful dismissal protections for workers who are suffering from an illness or an injury;

·         Modify the Regulations to increase the application fees payable by workers or their representatives making applications to Fair Work Australia in relation to Unfair Dismissal or contravention of the General Protections;

·         Make Regulations under section 437(6) of the Act to create more onerous requirements on the making of an application for a protected action ballot;

·         Modify Regulations made under Division 9 of Part 3-3 of the Act dealing with payment for protected industrial action constituted by partial work bans;

·         Modify or make any further regulations under section 492(4), section 494(3) or section 521 or concerning the rights of employees to have access to representation at work or advice in relation to Health and Safety laws;

·         Make Regulations under section 534(1)(h) of the Act to provide exemptions in relation to the requirement to notify Centrelink of and consult with Unions regarding redundancies.

·         Modify or repeal any Regulations made under Division 3 of Part 3-6 of the Act regarding the content of Employee Records and Payslips.

·         Modify the Model Dispute Settlement term provided by the Regulations for the purposes of section 737 of the Act.

·         Make regulations under section 28 of the Act to exclude the operation of any further State and Territory Laws that protect workers rights in certain States; and

·         Make or modify Regulations under section 31-34 of the Act that would exclude the Act from applying to particular categories of workers and giving them rights and protections.

Source - ACTU – www.actu.asn.au