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11 February, 2008
Opposition coalition parliamentarians last week threatened to derail the elimination of Australian Work Agreements (AWAs), a cornerstone to former Prime Minister John Howard’s draconian WorkChoices laws, adopted in 2005. Members of Parliament from the Liberal and National Parties caucused on 7 February and decided on a strategy to separate individual work contracts signed with employers from repeal of WorkChoices.
The Labour Party government of Kevin Rudd is expected to present a sweeping industrial relations rollback bill to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 13 February. That bill would repeal WorkChoices and also replace AWAs with interim arrangements for new individual employment contracts until a fairer industrial relations system is operational in 2010.
The transition bill to be introduced this week would outlaw creation of new AWAs, and replace the fairness test of individual agreements contained in WorkChoices with a more suitable no-disadvantage test.
The effort to preserve AWAs is led by Julie Bishop, the Liberal Party’s deputy leader and industrial relations spokesperson. Bishop comes from Western Australia, a state in which major mining houses have used AWAs to circumvent collective bargaining agreements.
The separation of AWAs from Labour’s rollback bill could delay progressive reform of the country’s industrial relations statutes. Australia’s Senate is still controlled by opposition parliamentarians until 30 June 2008. Delays to the Labour Party agenda could mean thousands more workers will be subjected to AWAs in 2008.
Australian trade unions have demanded that all Members of Parliament adhere to voters wishes made in November 2007, when the Howard government was crushed in national elections. Howard’s enactment of WorkChoices was the number one issue by voters in forcing his ouster.
“The Liberal Party’s decision to support AWAs is an insult to the Australian people who voted overwhelmingly to reject WorkChoices at last year’s election,” said Sharon Burrow, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU). “AWAs were the centrepiece and cruel heart of the Howard government’s unfair WorkChoices laws.
“With the Liberals planning to oppose the Labour government’s clear mandate to scrap WorkChoices,” she added, “many more Australian families risk being hurt by AWA individual contracts.”
Research presented recently in Australia reveals that employers with fewer workers tend to use AWAs to cut labour costs, while larger employers use them to reduce the influence of trade unions. The research paper, commissioned by Industrial Relations Victoria and presented at an early February conference hosted by LaTrobe University, found that the average wage of a worker on an AWA is 7.3% less than a worker covered by a collective agreement.