Anti-worker legislation

Anti-worker legislation

Laws being rushed through the Victorian parliament include the Employee Relations Bill, the Vital State Industries Bill and the Public Sector Management Bill. Together they will:

• Abolish all state awards from March 1, 1993. Only basic conditions (excluding even meal breaks!) will continue as a deemed contract between employers and individual workers until actual contracts are negotiated or employers agree to preserve the award. Unions may not be parties to employment contracts.

• Abolish weekend penalty rates and overtime.

• Make most industrial action illegal and punishable by fines of $1000 for individual unionists and $50,000 for unions. This may apply to workers under federal awards as well.

• Make solidarity strikes and other actions (defined more broadly than under section 45D and E of the Trade Practices Act) illegal.

• Open "unlawful" strikers to full common law actions and punitive damages awarded by courts.

• Ban strikes by workers considered to be in "vital industries", with fines of $25,000 for individuals and $250,000 for unions for failing to carry out the government's instructions.

• Allow workers to be fined by employers for "unsatisfactory behaviour" if a contract provides for this.

• Give employers the right to stand down workers without pay or notice.

Other legislation will severely curtail access to workers' compensation.

From GLW issue 79