DEWR vetoes ATO agreement

Issue 

The federal government's Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has refused to approve a proposed agency agreement for the Australian Taxation Office, despite the fact that both the ATO and the Community and Public Sector Union had been prepared to sign.

DEWR checks all workplace agreements to ensure they conform to government policy. The ATO agreement had already been redrafted to take account of DEWR's objections to an earlier draft. For example, a non-binding statement of the ATO's intention to allow most workers to remain covered by the collective agreement was removed, because it might have been seen as limiting the ATO's ability to push workers onto individual contracts.

But DEWR was not satisfied. DEWR reportedly wants to remove a lot of conditions from the agreement and put them in ATO management policy documents that can be changed at will. The CPSU has asked the ATO to go directly to the workplace relations minister Kevin Andrews for approval of the agreement, bypassing DEWR.

Chris Slee

From Green Left Weekly, June 7, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.


If you like our work, become a supporter

Green Left is a vital social-change project and aims to make all content available online, without paywalls. With no corporate sponsors or advertising, we rely on support and donations from readers like you.

For just $5 per month get the Green Left digital edition in your inbox each week. For $10 per month get the above and the print edition delivered to your door. You can also add a donation to your support by choosing the solidarity option of $20 per month.

Freecall now on 1800 634 206 or follow the support link below to make a secure supporter payment or donation online.