Page 3113 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014
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war on unions. The Abbott government believe that if they succeed in breaking up unions, if they succeed in limiting their representation powers and if they succeed in tainting this great movement of the people, they will get their way. Needless to say, it is allowing workers to be paid less and to have fewer rights. That is what we see in this Fair Work Amendment Bill, Madam Speaker.
We on this side know that stripping workers of their rights and cutting their pay in the name of addressing productivity are not the answer—as members from this side said earlier. On the contrary, it is in fact an effective avenue by which a class of working poor in Australia will be created. You only have to look at examples in the United States of America.
I am at a loss for words every time I hear those opposite and their federal colleagues asserting that there is equity in bargaining power between an unrepresented worker and his or her employer, particularly during high unemployment periods such as Australia is currently facing under this federal government.
The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, when he was the leader of the opposition, assured all Australians that Work Choices was dead, buried and cremated. Well, not quite. The Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014 contains an individual flexible arrangement, IFA, provision, mentioned earlier, which allows employers and employees to depart from the terms of an award or enterprise agreement provided an employee is “better off’ through the provision of non-monetary benefits. As Ms Berry said, non-monetary benefits do not put food on the table.
Just as with Work Choices, these IFAs open up the possibility for employees to be stripped of their entitlements such as overtime or penalty rates in exchange for working certain negotiated hours known as “preferred hours”. What does that mean? How can the federal government possibly justify such an attack on people who play a critical role in our day-to-day lives—people who work late hours, overnight shifts, weekends and public holidays, as Ms Berry said, often sacrificing much in terms of their quality of life? We are talking about nurses, bar workers, shop attendants, security personnel, carers and waiters, just to name a few. Some of these workers are among the lowest paid in Australia. As other members have said, many people on low rates of pay literally are making critical choices such as deciding to have a meal or not, or purchasing certain medication or not.
Do members opposite need to be reminded that many of these workers, particularly those working in the hospitality industry, are students? These students also have heavy study commitments, of course. Working odd hours and having penalty rates provide them with the flexibility of working less, perhaps, helping them to keep up with their studies but still manage to pay their bills.
Shifting the bargaining power in favour of the employer is only one of the unfair changes in this proposed bill. It also removes protections currently enjoyed by employees under the Fair Work Act’s transfer of business rules in the event an employee moves between associated businesses entities, meaning that their conditions of employment will not be presumed to be subject to a review by Fair Work. These restrictions and removal of employee protections only serve the interests of the employer.
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