New Industrial Relations Legislation

In Early November 2005 John Howard revealed the new Industrial Relations Legislation called “Work Choices”. The proposed legislation, which is due to be passed in the senate by July 1st 2006, is aimed at creating a fairer system, yet many unions believe, it will make the system less fair by reducing job security and enable employers to dictate minimum wages and working conditions.

According to the Work Choices booklet the current industrial relations legislation has been in some way holding Australia back the economy because of its complexity and unfairness. These proposed new laws are claimed to lead to a stronger economy whilst also leading to a stronger and fairer system for the future. The new legislation intends to achieve all this simply by lowering employee wages and reducing job security. This however would involve eliminating the current minimum wage legislation and introducing a new business dominated “Fair Pay Commission”, which will slash the minimum wage limit. As a result Workers will have next to no choice but to sign an individual contract on the employees terms. Employees are in fact allowed to negotiate they’re pay conditions through there employer, but are not allowed the assistance from a union of any sort. This campaign has been labelled as “Protected by Law” and states that under the new legislation factors such as Leave, penalty rates and the right to join or be represented by a union. However these basic rights and protection can be taken away if your are on individual contract.

Under the new legislation one of the major changes is the abolition of unfair dismal restrictions on firms employing up to 100 people. As a result 5 million workers who equate to 2/3 of the Australian workforce will be directly excluded from unfair dismissal laws. In short, it will be harder for Australian workers to hold a job due to the fact they will have next to no Job security. Economists and Corporate Lawyers have already predicted that larger corporations or businesses can divide their business into smaller units of 100 as a way of evading unfair dismissal laws. Employees will have the right to object to any sub-standard conditions or resist changes to their contracts. Those who do are liable to be fired at will. Newer contracts will not have to include retrenchment pay. In addition the current probationary period of three months will be increased to six months. As a result employers can fire full time workers and replace them with casual or part-time workers invariably working on lower rates.

In addition to Australian workers having next to no job security the new legislation has had nothing but a negative effect on pay conditions as well as penalty rates by setting them according to criteria such as business viability and productivity levels. In an attempt to make sure that the government gets its way in the future it is abolishing the wage-fixing jurisdiction of the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). It will then be replaced with the fair pay commission, which will consist of seven easily removable government employees, headed by a business representative. The new laws intend to force more workers onto Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA’s). Which currently account for only 5% of the current workforce. As to promote flexibility in the workplace the laws will remove the “no disadvantages” test which