NTEU Project on Workplace Reform
We think that a coherent and comprehensive alternative to WorkChoices needs to be in the public domain. WorkChoices is a fundamental and very deep change in legal arrangements and in the power relations between employers and workers. Moreover, this is occurring in a social and economic context of, among other things, increasing casualisation, the use of contractors and ‘quasi-employment relations, increasing inequality in incomes and security and new sets of pressures on women and on the so-called work-life balance. As such, a crucial task is to establish a rationale and logic for alternatives to market individualism
Without being exhaustive, we think that the alternative must include the following;
- Specifying the substantive and procedural rights of workers
- The most appropriate legal framework for employment and industrial regulation
- The economic advantages of a collective and regulated system
- How to link education, civic and industrial issues
- How to ensure gender, indigenous and equity interests are integral to the system
- The most suitable framework for the governance of unions
What we are doing
|
- What Work Choices Changes
Work Choices is the effective and/or final demise of the following elements of the arbitration system
· The central notion that there is a public interest in the terms on which employment contracts are conducted and that the state has an explicit function in specifying and ensuring the public interest.
· An explicit system of relativities
· Common rule (from the state-based systems)
· Minimum wages and conditions on a needs basis rather than ability to pay
· A compulsory mechanism providing for employer recognition of unions
· Ability to make an award setting terms and conditions where the employer (or union) refused to negotiate
· Compulsory dispute resolution
Some useful starting points about Work Choices
Professor Ron McCallum argues the WorkChoices laws are built on a fundamental fiction
Background article on US vs European labour markets
The NTEU Forum on Developing a Worker-Friendly IR System
- The Study Discussion Groups
A set of topic areas, and some initial
issues for each, are listed in the table.
|
Topic |
Matters to be considered |
|
Work and
employment, the economic and social context of work and worker rights, |
What should be
the government/state objectives and role in work and employment What kind of
workforce should we have How should work
and family life be connected? What kind of
control should workers have over work and employment |
|
Equity and
Equality in the industrial system |
How can equity
and equality underpin and be a central objective of the IR system How to
distinguish between setting minima and achieving fairness What are
acceptable differentials within & between industries, regions and
occupations How to provide
for special categories of workers (eg equity groups, apprentices) What are the
mechanisms to ensure equal pay for equal worth |
|
The legal and
institutional framework |
To what extent
should substantive conditions and procedural standards be legislated, set by
tribunal or by bargaining Who should have
rights to collective bargaining – workers, contractors, small businesses,
farmers & what is the interaction with Trade Practices Act What role is
there for the contract of employment How should the
system, wages and conditions and procedural standards be enforced What is the
balance of national and state systems |
|
Workplace and
employment rights |
What should be
the rights and entitlements of workers and prospective workers How to deal with
non-standard/traditional modes and types of employment including contingent
workers and ‘contracting’ What are the
links between work and civic rights How to provide
effective and fair remedies for unfair treatment at work including discipline
and dismissal |
|
The regulatory
framework |
How should
collective bargaining operate at workplace, industry, economy & national
levels Should there be
an obligation to bargain and a set of fair bargaining practices What should be
the principles and process for union recognition – including multi-union
situations What should be
the legal framework for industrial action |
|
The framework
for unions |
What should be the
legal framework for unions, for union governance and registration How to specify
and enforce rights to freedom of association Should union
coverage be regulated |