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It may not have been checked against the broadcast or in any other way. Freedom from error, omissions or misunderstandings cannot be guaranteed.

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PM

Tuesday 21 June 2005

Minister discusses proposed industrial relation changes especially working hours and AWAs

MARK COLVIN: Get ready for a long and angry few months on th e union front. The Prime Minister has declared that industrial relations will be the Government's number one priority when Parliament comes back in August, after the long winter break. 

 

That's when the Coalition will have a majority of one in the Senate, and that's when the Government will press ahead with its industrial blueprint, which it wants passed by the end of the year, ready to start in 2006. 

 

In Federal Parliament the Opposition targeted the Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, for considering whether to make the working week longer - 40 hours under the new safety net instead of 38 hours, the standard in most awards. 

 

But without actually mouthing the words "38 hours" the Minister has now said he's inclined to opt for the "community standard". 

 

Alexandra Kirk reports from Canberra. 

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: As the Government looks forward to gaining control of both Houses of Federal Parliament, it's full steam ahead preparing the package of industrial changes.  

 

Currently, minimum employment conditions are set out in a plethora of awards overseen by the Industrial Relations Commission.  

 

Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews plans to leave the awards in place, but impose a new safety net of five minimum conditions, one covering ordinary working hours. 

 

The working week varies between 35 and 40 hours. Thirty-eight is the standard in most awards. Mr Andrews has been tossing up whether to opt for the longer 40-hour working week. 

 

After Labor challenged the Minister to guarantee workers won't be worse off, he's told Parliament he's now leaning towards sticking with the status quo. 

 

KEVIN ANDREWS: The Government is still considering at the moment, as he …  

 

SPEAKER: Order. 

 

KEVIN ANDREWS: … as he rightly points out, there is a range of hours in various awards. What seems to be the most common is around 38 hours. The Government is considering this, but I expect that what represents the common community standard will be what we decide. 

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: That said, Kevin Andrews was given the opportunity to talk up the positives of Australian Workplace Agreements with a question from his own side. 

 

He says analysis of all 700,000 AWAs shows those employees earn on average 100 per cent more than workers on awards, taking a swipe at the union movement's $6-million-plus advertising blitz.  

 

KEVIN ANDREWS: Now, we have currently, Mr Speaker, a highly misleading campaign being conducted by the ACTU.  

 

(comments from the House: "yeah", "shocking") 

 

Now, Mr Speaker, this is interesting, that when challenged by the Government about the accuracy of these advertisements yesterday, the Secretary of the ACTU, Mr Combet, Mr Combet defiantly defended the ads and he said that… 

 

SPEAKER: Order. The Member for Brisbane. 

 

KEVIN ANDREWS: … somehow we were frightened, we were frightened of the ACTU.  

 

I was surprised to last night read a three-page, a lengthy three-page clarification that was posted on the ACTU website. It acknowledges the truth of the Government's allegations and criticisms against this misleading ads.  

 

It concedes that the woman in the ad with the young family, in the first ad, who is said to have faced dismissal would in fact be able to bring a claim for unlawful discrimination. Now, we said that this was the case. This lengthy clarification, which the ACTU has sneaked onto their website overnight, is a concession that they were wrong about these ads. 

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Greg Combet stands by the ACTU campaign.  

 

GREG COMBET: Kevin Andrews, as usual, is wrong. No matter how Kevin Andrews tries to represent it, the fact is that they are abolishing protection against being unfairly dismissed.  

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: And Mr Combet says AWAs aren't always better. 

 

GREG COMBET: If you take the figures for professionals out of the AWA rates of pay, and look at what most people are working in, the sorts of occupations like labourers, service industry workers, salespeople, tradespeople, people in clerical and administrative and the like, AWAs pay on average nearly 20 per cent less than collectively bargained agreements. 

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: After claiming the Government won't force workers onto individual contracts, Kevin Andrews has been under fire over negotiations in his own department, where about half the public servants are holding out against the Government's preferred individual agreements, with union claims they're being coerced to sign.  

 

Labor's IR Spokesman, Stephen Smith, says it's a sneak preview of the Coalition's new industrial world. 

 

STEPHEN SMITH: Doesn't that reflect what life will be like for the Australian workforce under the Government's proposed industrial relations changes? Minister, wouldn't it have been just as appropriate for the ACTU to shoot the ads from your office? 

 

("hear, hear") 

 

KEVIN ANDREWS: The reality, Mr Speaker, is that all existing employees of the Office of the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations are offered an option of an Australian Workplace Agreement and those who declined such an offer stay on the certified agreement.  

 

Mr Speaker, at law, no existing employee of the Department can be forced to take an Australian Workplace Agreement against their will. 

 

Secondly, Mr Speaker, nobody is sacked for refusing to take an Australian Workplace Agreement. I'm advised that nobody in my department has been sacked, Mr Speaker. Fifty-three per cent of employees currently in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations are on Australian Workplace Agreements. By the rationale of the Member for Perth, the other 47 per cent would be sacked. How ridiculous! How ridiculous! 

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Lisa Newman from the Community and Public Sector Union, representing staff in Mr Andrews' department, says the union has never claimed staff were threatened with the sack if they didn't sign up to AWAs. 

 

LISA NEWMAN: The issue was about choice, and what we do know is that they're saying there's no choice for new employees coming in, and what we also know is that they've tried to deny choice to existing employees and had to back away from that position as a result of concerns that were raised by the union. 

 

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So do you accept the Government's defence that nobody is threatened with the sack? 

 

LISA NEWMAN: Well, you know, look, the choice for new employees coming into the department is you can have any colour you like, as long as it's black. 

 

MARK COLVIN: Lisa Newman from the Community and Public Sector Union with Alexandra Kirk.