600 meet on Victorian Workcover

By Di Quin

MELBOURNE -- State award union delegates, occupational health and safety delegates and injured workers met on July 21 to condemn the Kennett government's Workcover scheme.

The meeting, organised by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), attracted more than 600 people, who were addressed by a panel of speakers including injured workers already affected by the legislation, which began operation in December 1992.

Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary John Halfpenny condemned the use of millions of dollars for a pro-Workcover publicity campaign, saying the funds should have been used to alleviate the plight of injured workers rather than to obscure the scheme's unfair and heartless treatment of injured workers.

The meeting called on the Kennett government to redress all unfair and oppressive aspects of the scheme and decided to continue the campaign of protest rallies and meetings. Protests include stop-work meetings by those unions on state awards affected by the legislation, rallies outside private insurance companies set to make huge profits as a result of the changes, and a protest march to Kennett's electoral office.

While there was unanimous agreement on the resolutions put forward at the meeting, the language used by Trades Hall officials created a somewhat defeatist atmosphere.

Remarks such as “the campaign must go through ebbs and flows”, and the prediction that Victorians may have to put up with Kennett's legislation for the next “three or four years” (presumably until the election of a Labor government) did not inspire the meeting. There was no joy for injured workers present already suffering under the Workcover scheme.

The meeting voted to support any further action endorsed by Trades Hall, although no action has been

decided upon beyond July.

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