By Peter Boyle
MELBOURNE — On March 1, some 800,000 workers in Victoria covered by state awards are forced to make a choice: sign an employment contract (individual or collective) or have award conditions automatically rolled over into an individual employment contract. Workers can apply for a new state award only with the agreement of their employers.
While the Victorian Trades Hall Council hopes to allow a third of these workers to escape to a federal award, the Kennett government is challenging such moves in the High Court.
The draft employment agreements presented so far by employers indicate clearly that employers are trying to cut wages and remove conditions through the new contracts.
According to a report in the February 20 Age, nine contracts drawn up by Victorian businesses show almost total abolition of holiday leave loading, shift and penalty rates, and a reduction in sick leave to the bare five-day minimum required under the Employment Relations Act.
In most cases redundancy and termination provisions are inferior to the old award. On February 23 the state opposition released 11 draft agreements, all of which sought wage cuts.
In the public sector, it appears the Kennett government is going to present collective agreements, but according to State Public Services Federation president Kay McVey, a model contract sighted by the union contained "outrageous" clauses. The union was still seeking legal advice on the matter.
Some examples of draft contracts raised by employers in the private sector are:
- Copperart: All penalty rates abolished in favour of a flat rate of pay. Banning of leave between November 1 and January 14 and from Easter Monday to Mother's Day. Employees can be summarily dismissed for 24 different acts of "misconduct", including "immoral conduct", gambling, making false or malicious statements about the company, distributing written or printed matter without permission, posting or removal of signs or notices without permission, wasting time in lavatories or smoking on premises.
- Pyramid Hill Bush Nursing Hospital: Scraps penalty rates and holiday leave loading for nurses. Staff are already donating 10% of their pay to keep the hospital going.
- Apollo Bay Hospital: Ends penalty rates but increases wage rates to compensate. Eliminates leave loading and some public holidays and introduces more flexible rostering.
- Westco Jeans: no penalty rates, and new wage rates not specified. Workers may be directed to work public holidays at ordinary time with no provision for an equivalent day off. Holidays may not be taken between November 15 and January 14. Compassionate leave to be unpaid. Employees to face instant dismissal for gambling, distributing written material without permission, wasting time in the toilets or removing signs on bulletin boards.
- Colbar Australia: Removes leave loading but lifts pay by 1%. Penalty rates reduced and workers can be sacked for swearing at a company director or smoking.
- Fancy Fingers: Bans workers leaving the company from working in any rival manicure salon within a 10 kilometre radius for three years.
- Speed Shoes: Weekend, evening and overtime penalty rates cut but basic pay rate raised by $1 an hour. Part-timers working mainly weekends or evenings would get a significant pay cut, a company spokesperson has admitted.
- Shepparton Private Hospital: Removes penalties and maternity leave but raises the nurses' wage rate.
Workers who don't sign a contract face the immediate loss of any over-award entitlements on March 1 and cannot get another pay rise until they sign a new contract. In the meantime, they cannot call a strike without a secret ballot and may not strike for more than five days in any 28-day period.
Any agreement signed must by law include a dispute-handling procedure, and workers are banned from striking during the lifetime of the agreement except on a health and safety issue. Workers may be fined by a court or sued by their employers for breach of conditions.
New employees won't even have any of the conditions of the old awards as a right. Unless they sign new contracts (and they are not automatically covered by collective contracts covering their fellow employees), they are entitled only to the minimum conditions provided for under the Employee Relations Act. These are: four weeks' annual leave, one week sick leave, the base hourly rate of pay under the old award and one year's unpaid parental or adoption leave.
After the March 1 statewide strike and march, the union movement may begin a campaign of employer boycotts, according to ACTU assistant secretary Jennie George. She told the press that it was hard to sustain industrial action during a recession. However, VTHC secretary John Halfpenny said that the campaign of industrial action would continue but expand if the Coalition won the federal elections.