The first four days of Work Choices

Sue Bolton

Just three days before the implementation of the Howard government's Work Choices legislation on March 27, federal workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews was downplaying its impact. He told the March 24 Workplace Express: "People will get up and go to work on Monday and they will do their work and they will go home from work on Monday just like any other day of the week, and other day of the year."

The reality for some workers has already been very different. Following are just a few examples from the first four days under the new laws.

• On March 27, a small Melbourne cabinet-making firm InstallEx laid off three workers without redundancy pay, then offered to rehire them on individual contracts as casuals. If the workers take up the new deal, they will lose sick leave, annual leave and public holidays, and will have to use their own vehicles instead of company cars.

• Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union members at the Sydney site of packaging manufacturer Valspar had imposed overtime bans in pursuit of a new enterprise agreement. They were ordered by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to cease their industrial action at midnight on March 26.

• Triangle Cables at Port Melbourne sacked eight unionists on March 28 with no reason given, despite having advertised for more workers the previous week. The company recently restructured itself to have fewer than 100 employees, exempting it from unfair dismissal laws. Other permanent workers at the plant were dismissed and re-employed as casuals on lower wages with no paid annual leave, sick leave or public holidays.

• Two photographic laboratory workers in Sydney were sacked on March 27 and told to leave at the end of their shift. They were told the company was overstaffed, despite a new employee having been hired the previous week. One of the workers, Erin McLemon, had been working up to 40 hours a week as a casual at the company for more than six months.

• Ramada Pelican Waters Hotel at Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast sacked full-time housekeeper Mila Kent and rostered her on as a casual. Kent was on an Australian Workplace Agreement (individual contract).

• The Health Services Union of Australia has revealed that St Vincent de Paul has used the new laws to dock a worker's pay for speaking to a union official. This is despite the Catholic welfare agency having issued statements opposing the new laws. HSUA members in the aged-care sector are involved in a pay dispute with St Vincent de Paul.

• Construction giant John Holland became the first company to take advantage of the "employer greenfields" clause in Work Choices, ending negotiations with unions over the pay and conditions to apply at a $160 million jetty construction in Port Hedland. The company has frozen unions out and begun to hire employees on its own terms and conditions.

• Telstra has introduced a total ban on union officials entering work sites where workers are on individual contracts, despite these workers having the right to join a union. A four-week-old internal memo revealed that Telstra was ready to use the Work Choices legislation as soon as it came into force.

• Brewery company Tooheys announced on March 29 that it had cancelled the contracts of 60 delivery drivers from July.

• Last October, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union won wage increases of up to $3200 a year for workers covered by the Graphic Arts Award. These increases should have flowed to people with the same skills in rural Australia, but the Printing Industry Association and Australian Industry Group have used the new legislation to prevent the flow-on.

• The Australian Valuation Office has used the new laws to refuse to negotiate a new certified agreement with the Community and Public Sector Union and instead put workers on individual contracts that cut employment conditions and reduce pay, in some cases by thousands of dollars. The AWAs remove access to overtime payments, higher duties allowance, flex-time, personal leave and other conditions.

• It was revealed by legal experts during the week that employers could sack people by using the "operational reasons" clause in Work Choices in order to escape redundancy entitlements as well as unfair dismissal claims.

[Send your story about the impact of Work Choices in your workplace or industry to Green Left Weekly at <glw@greenleft.org.au> or PO Box 394, Broadway 2007.

From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
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