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 Feb 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 Jul 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.
Labor's new Fair Work laws have restored many rights lost under WorkChoices. Workers are protected from unfair dismissal and new AWA individual contracts are banned. There is a safety net of National Employment Standards, awards and minimum wages with a stronger independent workplace umpire. Workers have collective bargaining rights and the right to join a union and be represented.
These changes are a good first step but more needs to be done - especially for workers in the construction industry and those covered by awards.
We need to go forward on workers' rights, not backwards to the Liberals' new version of WorkChoices.