By James Vassilopoulos
We spend at least one-third of our lives at work. Wages and working conditions, health and safety conditions, the right to organise, levels of stress and how hard our employers push us are all very important to workers. These all come under the heading of "industrial relations policy". What are the different parties offering workers in this election?
If the Howard government is re-elected, expect another round of attacks against workers. The Coalition is confident it can introduce new anti-worker legislation after the failure of the Australian Council of Trade Unions to fight the initial attacks in 1996.
Peter Reith, minister for workplace relations, has produced a report which recommends further attacks on the right to organise. The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) would be given new powers to deregister a union if it does not answer questions to the satisfaction of the government about its finances. Unions will be given a month to return the answers.
Reith has indicated this second round of attacks will include further stripping of awards, or "simplification" in Reith-speak.
The Workplace Relations Act — passed with the support of the Australian Democrats, then led by Labor-hopeful Cheryl Kernot — which came into effect from January 1, 1997, reduced the number of award conditions to 20 allowable matters. New conditions to be stripped include superannuation.
Big business has also unveiled its plans to attack workers. The Australian Industry Group, the main manufacturing industry employer group, which represents 12,000 bosses, wants the government to introduce tougher penalties for unions that break no-strike laws, more award stripping, changes to the enterprise bargaining process to require unions to give 14 days' notice of strikes, and more powers for the AIRC to arbitrate on disputes.
ALP no alternative
The Australian Labor Party is standing on its "10-step rescue plan", based on policies passed at its national conference in January.
The 10 steps are:
- stop any further award stripping and give the AIRC "power" to restore award conditions;
- make awards more comprehensive;
- make federal awards more accessible to workers in state systems;
- increase choice for employees and employers;
- ensure that workers are no worse off by abolishing the Australian Workplace Agreements, the individual contracts introduced by the Coalition;
- prioritise collective bargaining over individual contracts;
- abolish the office of the Employment Advocate;
- provide effective right of entry for union officials to workplaces;
- let the AIRC resolve industrial disputes. Repeal sections 45D to 45EA of the Trade Practices Act, which outlaw solidarity strikes, and replace them with provisions in the industrial relations law; and
- protect all workers, including independent contractors.
Labor's policy does not repeal the whole Workplace Relations Act. It does not get rid of individual contracts, oppose enterprise bargaining, reverse award stripping or remove penalties for solidarity strikes.
While agreeing the ALP's industrial relations policy is better than the Coalition's, Geoff Payne, a rigger at the BHP steelworks who is standing for the Democratic Socialists in the seat of Newcastle, points out: "The ALP plan will not save any worker. Workers will drown under both major parties — the difference is that it may take a bit longer to drown under the ALP."
The aim of the policy is to position the ALP slightly to the left of the Coalition by amending some of the worse aspects of the government's attacks. The ALP will still deliver big business improvements in "productivity", while appearing to be worker friendly.
The ALP's policy is couched in vague terms like giving the AIRC the "power" to restore award conditions. This does not mean the ALP will reverse the stripping of awards which the Coalition has already achieved.
The statement that Labor will "give priority" to collective bargaining over individual contracts does not mean that it now opposes individual contracts, enterprise bargaining or the trade-offs inherent in them.
Unemployment and job insecurity are workers' biggest fears. The growing number of casual employees are especially prone to being sacked, but so are an increasing number of permanent workers.
What is the ALP's solution? It is to "reduce" the trend toward casualisation and give "priority" to the provision of secure employment. Labor does not say how this is to be done.
Leaders of the union movement, with its weak delegate structures and low membership, are desperate to continue to embrace the ALP, even though it gives them little. They fear another term of the Howard government may lead to significant defeats for workers and that many in the union bureaucracy may lose their jobs.
Doug Cameron, national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, wrote in an article in the April Metal Worker — entitled, "ALP now committed to 'people' policies" — that the ALP was committed to improving the lives of all Australians.
His evidence was the policies adopted at the ALP national conference in January. Yet there is no indication that the ALP, if elected in October, will improve the lot of working people. With a recession pending, Labor will do what it has always done in government — cut workers' living standards.
As Payne explained to Green Left Weekly: "When Labor was in government from 1983-96 they cut award wages by up to 28%, privatised public utilities, cut welfare, introduced fees for education, introduced enterprise bargaining and individual contracts. Doesn't Cameron remember that it was the ALP who smashed the Builders Labourers' Federation and the pilots?"
An alternative
A pro-worker industrial relations system needs three major components: fair wages, hours and conditions; guaranteed democratic rights, including the right to strike; and full employment and complete job security. All of these could be part of new legislation and enacted immediately, but they could only come about in the context of a mass workers' movement.
For the Democratic Socialists, Payne explains, a fair wages system would include full wage indexation "so workers would not lose real wages as prices rise.
"Unions would be able to struggle for higher wages. There would be provision for wage catch-ups, particularly for lower-paid workers, to reverse the savage cuts to real wages since the 1970s. There would be pay equity for women workers and big business would be penalised for discriminating against women. Youth wages would be abolished."
Payne added that a 32-hour week, without loss in pay, would create thousands of new jobs. "It is not a dream for this to occur. In Italy and France, where radical labour movements have organised, a 35-hour week has already been legislated."
"Enterprise bargaining would be abolished and so would individual contracts", Payne said. "Award stripping would be immediately reversed. Wages and conditions agreements would be industry-wide. Strong unions would assist weaker ones in getting pay increases."
A key aspect of any radical approach to industrial issues would be to democratise society to allow workers more rights to struggle, the Democratic Socialists believe.
"Sections 45D and 45EA of the Trade Practices Act, which outlaw workers striking in solidarity with other workers, should be abolished, not just placed into other industrial laws the way the ALP intends", said Payne.
"The right to strike should also be enshrined in a bill of rights. Common law rights to sue unions for damages would be abolished and essential service legislation would also be repealed. Workers would not have to have secret ballots before they strike."
Society must provide full employment, insists Payne: "This cannot occur through tinkering with the private profit system. Labor promises of reducing unemployment to 5% are false unless they also promise to defend, revive and democratise the public sector. Hospitals, public transport, public schools, child-care and aged care centres all need billions of dollars of investment.
"Privatisation leads to thousands of lost jobs. The privatisation that has occurred under the previous Labor government and the present Coalition government must be reversed. The banks, telecommunications and transport industries must be placed in public hands, with compensation only for small investors."
Payne told Green Left Weekly that the Democratic Socialists oppose the bosses' right to sack. Employers must open their accounts to public scrutiny to prove they are going broke, he said. If a enterprise is not viable, its workers must be given the opportunity to run it themselves, or be retrained on full pay until other work is found.
"All this would be just be the beginning. It is about workers, students, the unemployed and pensioners — 90% of the population — taking control of their lives. Working people make this society run, therefore they should run society!", declared Payne.