Archived Industrial News: August 2006

Signing your rights AWAy

Opposition leader Kim Beazley’s recent announcement that a future Labor government would ‘rip up’ the harsh and punitive IR laws introduced earlier this year by the Coalition has generated strong and strident comment from all sides of the debate. The Opposition and the union movement (including the ANF) emphasise the extremely unfair nature of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). The ANF and unions generally oppose AWAs because they entrench inequality of bargaining in the workplace, are used to reduce wages and employment conditions and rather than offering choice are often forced on employees against their will.

Not surprisingly, the Howard Government and the big business lobby condemn Labor’s pledge to abolish AWAs. They claim the removal of AWAs will slash wages, make workplaces less flexible and deny workers ‘freedom of choice’.

In their latest public defence of AWAs both government and business have adopted an uncritical acceptance of dubious economic and social arguments around the benefits of AWAs.

Unfortunately for the Government its own research demonstrates how workers rights are being eroded by AWAs. A recent sample of agreements lodged since the IR laws took affect analysed by the Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) revealed:

Other independent studies of AWAs have repeatedly shown the vast majority lead to a reduction in wages and employment conditions. Even studies commissioned by the government confirm that workers on AWAs on average receive less than half the increases in wages compared to workers covered by collective agreements. For this very reason they were overwhelmingly rejected by workers prior to being forced on them by the new laws.

In addition to the available research we now have endless examples of AWAs being imposed on workers, such as the Spotlight case where employees were forced to trade off conditions worth up to $90 per week for a miserly two cent per hour pay increase. This kind of publicity and the reality of the situation have forced the Prime Minister to retreat from his earlier public relations strategy claiming AWAs would lead to higher wages and increased autonomy for workers. He now claims it is necessary for individual workers to lose out in the interests of the nation and future of the economy. In other words AWAs are only good for you if you don’t have one.

The ANF is aware of increasing cases of nurses, particularly in the aged care sector and private hospitals, being offered AWAs that attempt to reduce their professional standing and employment conditions.

In Victoria alone almost 70 nurses and personal carers have been made redundant or sacked unfairly from private aged care facilities since the introduction of the new IR laws. In other states and territories there has been an increase in attempts by employers to deny ANF field officers access to workplaces to discuss issues with ANF members. At the same time more and more employers, primarily in the aged care and private hospital sectors, are attempting to replace ANF collective agreements with non union agreements and AWAs.

If you are troubled by what appears to be a purely ideological campaign by the Government and big business lobby to undermine workers rights and conditions you are not alone. Collective bargaining played a significant part in driving economic prosperity in this country for nearly 20 years. It no longer seems enough for many voracious employers who now have the active support of the Howard Government.

As a profession all nurses should be rewarded according to their skills, responsibilities and educational qualifications. AWAs represent the antithesis of this and should be rejected.

Nick Blake
ANF Federal Industrial Officer