BY MELANIE SJOBERG
Seemingly desperate to deflect scrutiny of his telecard escapades, workplace relations minister Peter Reith has launched yet another discussion paper proposing amendments to the Workplace Relations Act. The changes would
place industrial relations matters under the federal government's corporations powers.
Launching the paper, "Breaking the gridlock: toward a simpler national workplace relations system", on October 24, Reith argued that the current industrial relations system is suffering from duplication and over-regulation because it is legislated under the constitution's conciliation and arbitration powers, which allow federal intervention only when there is an industrial dispute across more than one state.
Instead, the paper argues, industrial matters should be placed under the constitution's corporations power. Rather than separate state systems, they should all be handled federally. The ostensible reason for the proposed change is to cover the 800,000 workers presently not covered by any award.
Under the proposed system, federal awards would operate on a common rule basis, with a safety net which would apply to all employees. Under the existing system, a company or an industry has to be listed as a respondent in order for an award to apply to its workers.
The government's real motives are only hinted at in the paper. It claims that the present system is dominated by "third parties" (unions and lawyers) and that employers and employees would be better off working out their own arrangements without union interference.
Workers have every reason to be suspicious. Calls to "simplify" the industrial relations system were the basis for the Workplace Relations Act, which stripped awards to the bone and expanded the scope for individual contracts.
Meanwhile, workers in the manufacturing sector struggling for a common (simple) set of pay and conditions as part of Campaign 2000, or those workers currently battling the Commonwealth Bank to retain a single (simple) collective agreement, have been threatened with punitive action under the act.