New national employment standards will benefit all workers say unions

The Labor Government's proposed new National Employment Standards (NES) are an important step towards scrapping Work Choices and restoring workers' rights say unions.

Releasing the ACTU submission to the Govt on the draft NES today, President Sharan Burrow said:

"Unions welcome the expansion of national minimum legal employment standards to the ten areas that the Rudd Labor Government proposes.

“This is double the number of minimum employment conditions that were protected under the former Liberal Government’s WorkChoices IR laws. The employment conditions dealt with by the NES are:

(a) Maximum weekly hours of work

(b) Requests for flexible working arrangements

(c) Parental leave (and related entitlements)

(d) Annual leave

(e) Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave

(f) Community service leave

(g) Long service leave

(h) Public holidays

(i) Notice of termination and redundancy pay

(j) Fair Work Information Statement.

“The ten minimum legal standards, when enacted, will underpin a set of modern awards to provide a comprehensive safety net for all Australian workers.

“In conjunction with modern, flexible awards, the NES should help prevent workers suffering the widespread loss of entitlements to public holidays, overtime pay, penalty rates, leave loading and other conditions that occurred under the former Liberal Government’s WorkChoices IR laws.

"In particular, the NES could benefit many women workers, especially those in low paid, casual or part time work and who do not have the benefit of awards or agreements. The NES will also be to the advantage of workers with caring responsibilities by providing new rights to parent leave and flexible working arrangements.

 “In our submission the ACTU proposes a number of changes to the draft NES, including a stronger right for parents of young children to request flexible working arrangements with an onus on employers to give fair consideration to the request and a right to appeal unreasonable employer refusals.

 “Importantly, the ACTU Submission also flags the desire of unions to upgrade minimum entitlements in the NES over time.

“In particular, unions will push for the right to 14 weeks paid maternity leave to be included in the National Employment Standards following the outcome of the Productivity Commission inquiry into the paid maternity leave which is due early next year,” said Ms Burrow.