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12 November, 2001Bill Shorten, of the Australian Workers' Union, says that Australia's workplace laws and reform agenda are turning the country into an outcast of the developed world.
SYDNEY: A third term of the Howard government is set to push Australia even further behind the U.N.'s International Labour Organisation standards, declared Bill Shorten, national secretary of the IMF-affiliated Australian Workers' Union, on November 12 at the International Metalworkers' Federation 30th World Congress. He told the 800 Congress delegates that "by outlawing secondary boycotts and collective bargaining, John Howard's 1996 Workplace Relations Act is already outside ILO conventions. More conservative changes to Australian workplace law will only serve to make our nation a pariah of the developed world."
Key concerns for Howard's proposed industrial reforms, which would give additional powers to employers at the expense of workers, include exempting small business from unfair dismissal laws, enforcing secret ballots and diminishing the powers and resources of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
Shorten said that the main challenge for the international trade union movement was unfettered deregulation allowing market forces to dictate the global economy with no regard for social consequences.
One of the central themes of the IMF Sydney Congress is how to deal with the challenges of economic globalisation.
Key concerns for Howard's proposed industrial reforms, which would give additional powers to employers at the expense of workers, include exempting small business from unfair dismissal laws, enforcing secret ballots and diminishing the powers and resources of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
Shorten said that the main challenge for the international trade union movement was unfettered deregulation allowing market forces to dictate the global economy with no regard for social consequences.
One of the central themes of the IMF Sydney Congress is how to deal with the challenges of economic globalisation.