www.workinglife.org.au
Issue 16, November 2014
Your work. Your life. Your news & views.
Workers’ voices shut out of G20 Summit • •
Abbott Government openly snubs unions Higher wages left off final leaders’ statement
by MARK PHILLIPS AUSTRALIA’S moment on the world stage has been described as a missed opportunity, with unions lamenting that the G20 Summit in Brisbane failed to deliver a concrete plan for a jobs and wages-led global economic recovery. As the annual summit of world leaders concluded on 16 November, unions were already looking ahead to next year when the baton of G20 presidency would be passed to Turkey as the next chance to convince the 20 richest nations to take a different path. Unions said the G20 had continued to be captive to a corporate agenda of trickle down economics that left the world’s workers out of the picture. The Australian-led G20 did commit to an aspiration of economic growth of 2.1% above the current trajectory, but it was how it would get there that most concerns the union movement. Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said there were gaps in the G20 agenda and the path forward was based on flawed economic modelling that assumed full employment. But with more than 200 million people out of work around the world – 30 million more than at the start of the Global Financial Crisis – that was clearly not the case in the real economy, she said. The Labour 20’s (L20) own modelling had found that a co-ordinated mix of wages and investment policies in the G20 countries could create 33 million new jobs and drive economic growth of almost 6% above current trends. “We have no confidence that on current
‘Missed opportunity’: Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, and ACTU President Ged Kearney, brief journalists at the G20 International Media Centre in Brisbane. Photo: ACTU/Mark Phillips economic modelling the 2% growth target can be achieved,” Ms Burrow said. “With the huge unemployment crisis, and no plans to address demand needed to stimulate the global economy, the G20 will be back next year with higher unemployment and more fractured societies.” Prime Minister Tony Abbott had claimed the summit to be a success, but behind-the-scenes he had been rebuffed
by some of the world’s most powerful leaders, including US President Barack Obama, over his attempt to keep climate change out of the G20 discussions. In his closing press conference, Mr Abbott trumpeted the achievement of an agreed growth target. He said the G20 had delivered “real, practical outcomes” and as a result “people right around the world are going to be better off”. Continued page 4
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We read the papers so you don’t have to WE are proud to announce the launch of a new daily column on the Working Life website. It’s called ‘Clocking On’ and it is a snappy summary of what’s making news in the morning papers and online. Our editorial team is up early each morning to find the articles that you need to know about and summarising them in a way that is easy to read on your phone for the daily commute. ‘Clocking On’ will be delivered fresh every day around 8am, so make sure to bookmark the page so you can stay up to date each morning. Get it fresh each morning at: workinglife.org.au/clock-on
GET IN TOUCH Want to know more or get involved? Contact our newsdesk by email at editor@workinglife.org.au or phone (03) 9664 7266. Or get in touch by Facebook (facebook.com/ThisWorkingLife) or Twitter (twitter/thisworkinglife). Editor: Mark Phillips. Responsibility for election comment is taken by Dave Oliver, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, 365 Queen Street, Melbourne 3000.
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November 2014
Vale Gough Whitlam, 1916-2014
Maintain the rag Patricia ‘Little Pattie’ Amphlett sang on the original recording of the 1972 election anthem ‘It’s Time’ and remained a friend of Gough Whitlam as she moved into union activism later in life. She spoke to Mark Phillips about Whitlam’s legacy.
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ATRICIA Amphlett, the pop singer who was indelibly linked with the ‘It’s Time’ campaign to elect Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister, has urged the labour movement to redouble the fight to protect his reforming legacy. Amphlett, the Federal President of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, performed on both the recording of the ‘It’s Time’ song and at the official launch of Gough Whitlam’s election campaign on 13 November 1972. A state memorial service for Gough Whitlam, who died on 21 October aged 98, was held at the Sydney Town Hall on 5 November. Amphlett, who had a string of pop hits in the late-1960s as Little Pattie, featured in one of the most iconic photos of the Whitlam era, alongside Gough Whitlam in an orange ‘It’s Time’ t-shirt. These days she is as well known for her union activism and leadership as she is for her musical career. “[When he got elected] it was ridiculously wonderful,” she says. “From that day onwards, we thought Australia would change and it did, and it was the beginning of so many wonderful reforms and I’m really upset that so many things have gone backwards now, particularly on the education and health front. We’ve taken for granted for so long the great things of his legacy. “Who wants to be like America where if you’re poor, you can’t get a decent education? “Where if you’re poor and you get sick, the chances are you might die? We cannot let those reforms be destroyed by those who are in power now.” Amphlett, who is also a long-standing member of the ACTU Executive, said the
union movement had a responsibility to protect not only Whitlam’s legacy, but other achievements that are now under threat from hostile Coalition governments at a federal and state level. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do there defending what we’ve brought about, all the good things that the union movement does, has done and always will do,” she says. “I think we’ve got to keep blowing our own trumpet to be quite honest . . . We always have work to do in the union movement and more so now more than
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Vale Gough Whitlam, 1916-2014
ge, urges Little Pattie
‘It’s time: Patricia Amphlett poses with Gough Whitlam shortly before the 1972 poll. Photo: Graeme Fletcher/Getty Images
The story behind that famous photo
ever. Trying to imagine Australia without the union movement, in some areas it could quite possibly become like slave labour, I really believe that.” Amphlett, who was 23 at the time, has vivid memories of recording the ‘It’s Time’ commercial in Sydney in 1972 alongside many of the stars of the era. She said her family, who were solid Labor voters, were “absolutely thrilled” with her involvement. “That was a great day actually. We gave our all. On the day, the passion was there, the excitement of singing for what
we thought would be a great change in Australia – and indeed it was. “I’ve performed that song so many times, at Gough’s request, quite often, at ALP functions. Each time I sing it I’m just as proud to sing it as the first time.” By the time of Whitlam’s election, the young Amphlett, just a few years out of her teens, was a self-described “political animal”, who had taken part in antiVietnam War marches. But her enthusiasm for Whitlam and his agenda was as much driven by her family’s working class background.
ONE of the most famous images of the Whitlam era is of the then-Opposition leader posing with Patricia Amphlett, both of them in an ‘It’s Time’ t-shirt. The photo by Graeme Fletcher has attained iconic status, and is a rare image of Whitlam not dressed in a suit and tie. Amphlett is vague today about the details of the photo shirt, but agrees “it’s a ripper, isn’t it?” “I’ve still got the t-shirt,” she says. “He wasn’t a t-shirt kind of guy, but there were so many things to love about that man. “And one of them was even though he was not of the working class, obviously, he understood and he had compassion and empathy and a level of understanding that many people don’t have at all and never gain that understanding. “He was a man for all people and always inclusive.” Amphlett also has fond memories of the 1972 campaign launch at the Blacktown Town Hall, where she was in the group that sang ‘It’s Time’ before Whitlam delivered his famous “Men and women of Australia” campaign speech. “I was in the second row with the smile that you couldn’t wipe off my face,” she says. “You can buy a scroll version of that speech and I’ve got it framed in my home. I really do look at it from time to time and it resonates today, it’s true today, it pertains to the lives we live now. “He was ahead of his time, you know. It was a beautiful, beautiful speech, even re-reading it today as I do.”
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G20 Summit
Continued from page 1 The L20 said its assessment of the final leaders’ communiqué showed that inequality and inclusive growth were left aside in favour of business interests being put ahead of those of working people. The L20 was concerned that for all the talk at the summit about jobs, that does not necessarily equate to decent work with good wages and conditions. There were some wins: the G20 leaders pledged to increase women’s workforce participation by 25% by 2025 and to encourage more investment in infrastructure through the creation of an “infrastructure hub”. There was also renewed commitment to crack down on corporate tax evasion through profit shifting to tax havens like Luxembourg. The G20 committed together to pour more resources and support for health and relief workers into combatting Ebola in west Africa. And climate change made the final
November 2014 communiqué at the last moment – despite the Abbott Government’s futile attempts to ignore it – following the game-changing deal this month by the United States and China to reduce their carbon emissions by up to 28% by 2025. But unions ended the summit frustrated that they had been unable to communicate their message that the world needs a pay rise directly to the G20 leaders as a group. While the L20 group was able to hold some meetings with individual national leaders including Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel, Ms Burrow said the Abbott Government had locked them out of a genuine dialogue with the G20. “You can’t build an economy on sand,” said the General Secretary of Britain’s Trade Union Congress, Frances O’Grady. “If you’re only listening to hedgefund managers and big business chiefs, then you’re only going to get one side of the story.” Australian unions were embarrassed by Mr Abbott’s parochial opening
address to the Summit, in which he had lashed out over his failure to get a medical visit co-payment and higher university fees through Parliament. Unions were angry also after Treasurer Joe Hockey had delivered a tightly scripted message about the need to cut regulation and support business rather than engage on workers’ issues when he addressed the L20 Summit. “Sadly, the Abbott Government dropped the ball when it had the chance to provide mature leadership to the G20 on climate change and inequality and instead used this forum as a soapbox to advocate domestic policies that are driving down living standards in Australia,” said ACTU President Ged Kearney. Read full coverage from the G20: workinglife.org.au/g20-2
Swan: if we don’t grow together, we grow apart by WAYNE SWAN Former Treasurer
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orld leaders meeting at the G20 Summit considered committing to an additional 2% growth target. In itself that is an honourable aim. But we know that conservative governments like the Abbott Government will want to take the easy road to that 2%. In their narrow view, the fastest route to achieving that target is through cutting wages and conditions. It’s the wrong way to go about achieving growth, but it is the conservative way. So labour unions will be the last hope for millions of workers. You have a critical role in how we reach that 2%. I want to say loudly and proudly that
the union movement has a critical role in our economy. And you also have a critical role in our great Australian Labor Party. Make no mistake; the government will be looking to cut you off at the knees to stop you defending workers’ wages and entitlements. But it’s a battle we must win in an economic arena that has lurched dangerously to the right. Already, conservative voices here are echoing those in the US calling for lower minimum wages and abolition of penalty rates. That’s the wrong road to growth, and it will fail. We are proudly from a country that has done a much better job at matching strong growth with social equity than just about any other developed country over the past century, but particularly in the aftermath of the Great Recession over the last five years of the Rudd/Gillard Government. Ours is a country where the overwhelming majority can gain a good education, valuable skills, experience the dignity of employment, feel that they
have a stake in the character and direction of our national community, and have the resources to provide an even better life for their children. This is a goal we aspire to for all of our global community. In government, over six years, we protected and enhanced this achievement and in particular, in our response to the Great Recession, we were guided by a determination not to repeat the mistakes of the Great Depression, when the economic orthodoxy was for harsh
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November 2014
China FTA stokes job fears by MARK PHILLIPS DON’T try telling Dale Saddington that the new free trade agreement with China will be a boost to Australian jobs. Mr Saddington, 30, a fourth year plastering apprentice, was laid off this month and has no immediate prospects of finding permanent work in a trade that in recent years has seen an influx of workers from China on temporary visas. The timing could not be worse with Mr Saddington and his wife Suzie having just moved into a new house and their first child due to be born. He has been picking up cash-in-hand jobs here and there but expects that to dry up over Christmas-new year.
austerity. There is now, as there was in the Great Depression, an ideological battle taking place in the global community between those who see government as a positive force for wealth creation in a market economy and those who would wish to shrink its role and move towards laissezfaire. We must acknowledge this debate as we go about seeking the community’s endorsement for the structural reforms
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At Work
Now, with the free trade agreement to allow even more Chinese workers into Australia, he is considering a different career with better job prospects. “At a recent job, when we rocked up, the sparkies and other trades were surprised because they were used to seeing Chinese plasterers out there and said it had been a couple of years since they had seen Aussie plasterers on a job,” he says. “I knew it was getting worse, I didn’t realise it was this bad when I lost my job.” Just a little over 24 hours after Prime Minister Tony Abbott signed the deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping on 17 November, the government was forced to defend the agreement against claims it would undermine Australian jobs. Rather than receiving plaudits for new access to agricultural markets or cheaper consumer imports, the public attention has been on the threat the deal’s lower import tariffs cast on Australian manufacturing. And unions are also concerned that clauses in the agreement encouraging increased temporary labour migration from China will cost Australian workers their jobs at a time of high and growing
unemployment. Employment Minister Eric Abetz today spruiked the FTA as “exceptionally good news for Australian workers”. “Why this is hitting a raw nerve at a time of high unemployment?” he said on ABC radio. “Every unemployed worker should see this free trade agreement as a very real opportunity for them, their families, their sons and daughters, to be able to gain employment in circumstances where we now have access to the world’s largest market.” But based on his own experience and observations of the construction and building industry, Mr Saddington says that is rubbish. “This is like my fourth or fifth employer because they just can’t get work, the guys on temporary visas are coming over and undercutting everybody because they can get them half price,” he says. Mr Saddington says he has come across Chinese workers on temporary visas being paid less than half the standard rate of $35 an hour. “How are we supposed to compete with that?”
Sharan Burrow (right) and the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, listen to a speech at the L20 Summit. required to increase the productivity of both workers and capital to secure the 2% growth target by 2018. In the last few months we have seen landmark contributions from three of the most prominent global thinkers and economic policy-makers – [Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund] Christine Lagarde, [US Federal Reserve Bank Chairwoman] Janet Yellen and [the Governor of the Bank of England] Mark Carney. All calling for a more inclusive capitalism. As trade unionists know, if governments retreat and don’t play an active role in securing growth with fairness, then you are the last bastion defending working people against the powerful vested interests that strangle fairness in market economies. Standing for inclusive growth is what the G20 should be all about and that is
why it is important that we work within the framework, to achieve opportunity for all. All of this is a reminder of how important unions are. The last line of defence against inequality, when government policies and private interests seek to push the profit share unreasonably higher at the expense of labour, are trade unions. They are an even more important organisation when governments retreat from legislating fair frameworks for minimum wages and bargaining, and begin to withdraw from a civilised social safety net. We know that when trade union membership declines, inequality increases. Unions are the feet in the street, the champions for fairness, the voice of the powerless, the organisers of labour, the rope that forms the safety net. This is an edited extract of a keynote speech given by Wayne Swan to open the L20 Summit on 13 November.
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November 2014
Inside the CFMEU
In part two of a special series exploring beyond the tabloid headlines to find out what m
Too tough to die: union soldiers on under adversity
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NNE Duggan is a small woman, slight even. But looks can be deceptive, and should the need arise she can be as tough and determined as they come. In May 2002, Duggan, who is the co-ordinator of the Victorian CFMEU’s education and training unit, was threatened with up to six months jail after she refused to co-operate with a demand from the Cole Royal Commission to hand over pages of documents with the names and personal details of every shop steward who had been trained by the union. Duggan declined to hand over the names of union activists for two reasons: she feared they would be targeted and harassed by the royal commission’s investigators to give false or misleading statements that would damage the union; and an even more basic concern that once their names were publicly known as those of union activists, they would be discriminated against by employers. The stand off lasted several weeks before, perhaps aware that jailing a woman would be a bad look for his royal commission, Terence Cole blinked. The union’s then state secretary, Martin Kingham, was later charged but was acquitted by a Magistrate in 2003. “It was pretty full on,” Duggan says now. “With those sorts of things, you don’t want to let anyone down.” Now the union is again in the spotlight from another royal commission, this time headed by former High Court judge Dyson Heydon. It is a stressful time for everyone, even though this time around Duggan has not been called as a witness. “Some days, people get disheartened by the headlines,” she says. “But most of us have the attitude of what doesn’t kill you
only makes you stronger. You would be pretty hard pushed to think it’s anything other than a political exercise.” DUGGAN, 58, is the driving force behind the CFMEU’s phenomenally successful education and training unit. It began in 1993 with just Duggan, an ex-secondary school teacher as its only employee, and in the intervening 21 years more than 55,000 workers have completed training courses run by the unit. Today, it has 22 directly employed staff plus many more part-time trainers, and offers courses to more than 10,000 workers a year on subjects as diverse as asbestos removal, computers, first aid, operating a crane, and reading construction drawings. Courses are free to union members – something the Heydon Royal Commission no doubt frowns upon. The unit receives a small amount of money from governments, but the vast bulk of its funding comes from the building industry redundancy trust, Incolink, and from a training levy of $4.90 a week negotiated with major builders in enterprise agreements. “One of the fundamental reasons for our training is a recognition that knowledge is power, and the empowerment of workers,” says Duggan. “These are the skills that you bargain with – the power of your labour is very much contingent on the skills you’ve got. “It’s a very itinerant workforce, a cyclical industry without a fixed workplace, and job security is tenuous so the more skills you’ve got, the more chance you have of continuing employment.” Intrinsic in much of the training are basic literacy and numeracy skills – an
acknowledgement that many people who work in the construction industry have left secondary school early and have little in the way of formal education. “It’s about their wellbeing and giving them skills they can carry through their lives,” says Duggan. The unit also links up with adult migrant English centres – one of
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November 2014
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Inside the CFMEU
makes the CFMEU tick, Mark Phillips visits the union’s education and training centre. Bottom left: Lex Kimber Below: Anne Duggan, CFMEU Victoria education and training co-ordinator. Gate Bridge, scene of Australia’s worst construction disaster on 15 October 1970, which killed 35 workers. The CFMEU owns several blocks of land in Port Melbourne, which were acquired over a number of years. The general construction/trades centre is in Sabre Drive. In a downstairs training room, half a dozen men are taking part in a working in confined spaces course with trainer Dan Phelan; upstairs, about 10 men are learning how to apply a sling to a
a permanent injury – but still have much to offer by passing on their skills to other workers. “Their backs do break and they can’t do manual labour for their entire working lives, but they have all these skills we don’t want to lose,” she says. “By building up their OHS knowledge and train the trainer knowledge, there’s roles for them beyond physical work.” People like Barry Kearney, the head crane instructor at the high-risk centre,
broken collar bone under the watchful eye of trainer Mark Devereaux. But the real action is across in Wharf Road, at the high-risk training centre. The centre includes a simulated building site, a 38-metre tower crane, which cost the union $1 million, and a range of mobile cranes, forklifts, hoists and other heavy equipment. Duggan’s proudest achievements has This day, there are about a dozen men been to provide construction industry on the site, most of them learning basic training to Afghan refugees to help them scaffolding under the watchful eye of find meaningful employment in Australia. Paul Allwood. A 20-minute drive from the CFMEU Duggan says part of the education offices in Carlton is the busy high-risk unit’s role is to identify potential trainers training centre, a $12 million state-of– men with vast experience in the the art facility on prime land in Port industry who may not physically be able to exert themselves – often as the result of Melbourne, within sight of the West
who has a vast repository of experience to draw on from 35 years in the industry, but chose to take his career in a different direction after seeing a couple of deaths on the job. With his genial personality, Kearney is something of a father figure to younger construction workers. “It’s very pleasing when you get blokes come up to you at the end of the day and say thanks, I really learnt something,” Kearney says. Kearney enjoys a chat, and before long is talking to 27-year-old Lex Kimber, a labourer of five years experience who is keen to earn his scaffolding ticket to go along with his forklift licence. Continued page 10
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November 2014
Opinion
Dear Minister Abetz, you have a problem with your workforce Public servants are sick and tired of being ignored and told they must make more efficiencies, writes Nadine Flood. Now they are ready to take industrial action.
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RIC Abetz has got a problem. A big problem. On 6 November, more than 2000 public servants took to the streets of Canberra to protest against the Abbott Government’s planned cuts to their pay and conditions. They are just a fraction of the 165,000 public sector workers who are furious at the government’s harsh bargaining position. As we go into this bargaining fight it is important to remember where we are starting from in the public service. It is a public service already under pressure. It is true that the previous government did make cuts, did have savings measures, did have efficiency dividends that hit people and put them under pressure. But the Abbott Government has gone so much further. This government has cut 8000 jobs already. They are gutting the Tax Office, slashing CSIRO. They are breaking promise after promise. Apparently this Government wasn’t going to cut the ABC − well that’s not what our members are telling us is happening right now. And that’s not the end of it. 8000 job cuts now, another 8500 job cuts to come and that is without a single one of the jobs they want to go through outsourcing, privatisation and the Commission of Audit. It is just wrong. Public servants are working harder than ever. But that is not enough this government and now they are seeking to cut rights, cut conditions, cut living standards, cut real wages. Nothing is ever enough for this Government. It is no wonder public sector workers feel they are under attack like never before. The Prime Minister weighed into
United in anger: Nadine Flood addresses a public servants rally in Canberra this month. this the other day and, running off Eric Abetz’s script, the only issue he raised was pay. They don’t want to talk about the real issue of the attack on public servants’ rights and conditions. Why? Because it’s pretty hard to justify attacking the rights of working mums in Centrelink and Medicare that mean they can manage their hours, pick the kids up from childcare and manage their lives, their families. That’s a hard thing to defend publicly. They don’t want to talk about rights and conditions because they can’t defend trying to strip the redundancy processes out of public sector agreements that would mean it would make it easier for people to be sacked. And when you think about this government’s agenda that is a right worth holding onto. They have had to talk about superannuation, because we exposed their attack on public sector superannuation which is now resonating so strongly right across the Australian Public Service. So let’s look at what else they are saying. They are saying it’s time for restraint, for wage restraint in the
public service, wage restraint across the economy. It is easy for politicians on base salaries of $195,000 a year to preach restraint. It’s a much tougher deal if are a Centrelink or Customs or Defence worker earning $57,000 a year. When was the last time a politician struggled to pay their rent, their bills, their mortgage? It’s not the real world. It’s harsh, it’s out of touch. To understand where they are coming from, you just have to see what they’ve done to our Australian Defence Force personnel: not only did they get a 1.5% pay offer − a real wage cut − but they lost six days leave and other conditions. Attacking our defence forces as part of waging a war on your own public service workforce is just plain wrong. The ADF deal shows just how whacky Eric Abetz’s alternate IR universe is. Under his definition of productivity, the only thing that counts is cutting people’s conditions and their rights. There is not an economist or IR expert in the country who would sign up to that definition of productivity. Continued page 10
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November 2014
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At Work
Unpaid, exploited and angry: interns get organised by JAMES McVEIGH IN an environment where youth unemployment is close to 20% in some states, it’s not surprising that those who choose a path of an internship to gain experience end up bitter, and often without the professional employment they were seeking at the end. Take the case of Roland, a recent Masters graduate from the University of Melbourne. Roland works three casual jobs to pay his bills, but like many graduates he desires a job in his field. Roland completed an internship as part of his Masters program, and is determined not to take another unpaid internship position just to gain ‘experience’ while also being on Newstart. What’s happening to Roland is a worrying trend for young Australians having completed university and a precursor to being exploited in a tough job market. Many young Australians have either undertaken an internship or met someone who has. What most of these people have in common is that these internships would have been unpaid. As the youth employment rate rises in most states to it’s highest level in 20 years, there are also those who feel they can take advantage of young job seekers, by charging up to $2000 for the experience of being an unpaid intern. Now, an advocacy group for intern rights – Interns Australia – are taking up the fight, championing the right for an intern’s fair pay for productive work and building awareness amongst employers, industry, unions, government, and the community. Interns Australia is a fledgling organisation, but that won’t keep them down. It began when co-founders Adi Prasad and Colleen Chen each founded separate groups in NSW and Victoria, respectively, at the end of 2013. “We both found out about one another’s advocacy groups through social media, and it made sense for us to join together
into a national group,” Ms Chen said. Interns Australia was born in October 2013. Now with growing membership and their own National Internship Survey published in April 2014, the group continues to garnish much media attention for their insight into what is a fast-growing issue for recent graduates and young jobseekers. As the organisation prepared to celebrate its first birthday, it launched an ambitious National Internship Accreditation Scheme to be crowdfunded through the non-profit Chuffed. The accreditation scheme aims to turn the advocacy group into something that could change the current landscape of Australian internships. The scheme’s purpose is to “encourage employers to commit to a culture of fair internships”. As an appraisal process, the employer will earn the right to carry the Interns Australia logo – a stylised light blue elephant – so that those seeking an internship know these employers “prioritise [the] rights of interns.” As there have been few state or federal government initiatives to create a fair environment for interns since last year’s comprehensive report by the office of the Fair Work Ombudsman, the National Internship Accreditation Scheme is hopefully only the first in a long line of
challenging employers’ bad practice when it comes to exploiting young interns in what is a growing hostile environment. Going through an internship does not have to be a bad experience, nor an unpaid one. Young people shouldn’t compete for unpaid internships just for the “necessary experience in the workplace”. It creates hostility between potential coworkers and makes for a bad entry into the workforce for young people. In a climate of growing unemployment, we should be supporting one another. Supporting Interns Australia getting the accreditation scheme off the ground would be a great start.
TAKE ACTION Support Interns Australia to get an accreditation scheme off the ground: www.internsaustralia.org
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November 2014
Continued from page 8
Continued from page 7 “One of the best things about the CFMEU is the actual training,” Kimber says. “They go above and beyond what other guys [training organisations] do. Some of the other guys, you pay thousands of dollars and they give you a ticket in one day, and the guys will say they haven’t learnt anything. But I would say any ticket from the CFMEU is really worth it.” Anne Duggan’s vision for the CFMEU’s education and training unit is far from complete. Her next step is to introduce apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship courses in basic trades like carpentry to fill gaps in skills that employers are not addressing. Space has been set aside in unoccupied warehouse buildings in Port Melbourne. But with the Heydon Royal Commission probing the finances of
talk, we face this decision and we are ready for it. So right now members in DHS are voting on industrial action, members at the Department of Veterans Affairs are starting the process and in coming weeks and months we expect other agencies to get to that point. We will dig in if necessary for what will not be a short, sharp industrial campaign. This is actually about action that tells our community this is what your government is doing. We will lock in and we will do what is required to take those issues on because it is very clear that resolving these We are going to fight. For our members, problems requires the government to we face no choice at this moment but to move and change their policy. It requires take these issues on and we will do that. the government to sit down and look for a In this round of bargaining, it will not sensible approach. be enough to simply vote No to enterprise Settlement is possible but it is not agreements. possible when only one side of the table Our members are going to have to is prepared to do the work and that’s escalate our campaign and put the where we are at right now. pressure on. Public sector workers didn’t choose this Industrial action is not our preference, fight. But we’re in it and we will have it. public servants are actually fairly sensible And we will win it. and reasonable people, we would be prepared to sit down and thrash this out at This is an edited version of a speech bargaining tables. Community and Public Sector Union But, in the face of this draconian National Secretary Nadine Flood gave to position from a government that won’t a rally in Canberra on 6 November.
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Most of us have the attitude of what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.You would be pretty hard pushed to think it’s anything other than a political exercise.
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Productivity is actually about doing a better job, providing better services, looking at how you do the work. All of the things that public sector workers have have been engaged in that have delivered results for the community during a long period of Budget cuts and restraint. And then Minister Abetz comes out and says he’s concerned about wage restraint in the public service because that will save jobs. But if you really care about jobs, then why go ahead with cutting another 8000 of them? The Community and Public Sector Union opened the door to this government on what bargaining needed to do and what a settlement could look like. We have said we will talk but the government is not interested. Minister Abetz has 165,000 employees in bargaining with not a single agreement having been reached, not a single agency able to put something acceptable to workers, facing one of the largest industrial action ballots any union in any industry has ever done at the Department of Human Services, with more to come − and still he refuses to acknowledge there is a problem, he refuses to sit down and meet with the CPSU. That is extraordinary. So what are we going to do?
Stubborn: Employment Minister Eric Abetz
the union, and showing a particular interest in industry training levies, uncertainty creeps into her voice. “We’ve spent so long building this up, and they want to rip it away. It just makes you so angry.” BACK at the CFMEU offices, a group of freshly-arrived Chinese workers are sitting in a training room listening intently as an interpreter translates educator Kimberley Stewart from
English into Mandarin. Like many generations before them, they have come to Australia in search of a better life for themselves and their families. They all have hopes of working in the booming Victorian building industry, but first they have to learn about health and safety. “Who has worked in the building industry?” Stewart asks, and a couple of the class timidly put up their hands. “Who knows what a union does?” Fewer hands are raised this time. Soon, these men will be labouring on building sites around Melbourne, secure in the knowledge that whoever you are, whatever your background, the union has got your back. Because as long as there are unsafe workplaces, exploitative bosses or antiworker governments, there will always be a need for the union. Read a longer version of this story: workinglife.org.au
.org.au
November 2014
How do I know if I’m being paid correctly under my Award? by RIGHTS WATCH
At no time is it optional for an employer to decide whether to pass on an increase in the Award wage rate.
GOT A PROBLEM AT WORK? You’ve come to the right place. Share your workplace issues with our other readers and get free advice from the Australian Unions helpline if you have a problem with your pay, entitlements, health and safety or anything else at work. Phone 1300 4 UNION (1300 486 466).
LEON asks: My employer says she doesn’t have to pay me the amount set down in the Award as when I started working for her the Award said I was paid at a lower rate. She said the amount I was employed under is the correct amount and still applies. Is this true? I’ve been here for three years. Leon, the simple answer to your question is “No”. It most certainly isn’t true. Every year the Fair Work Commission reviews the national minimum wage and pay rates under Awards. Any increase they decide on comes into effect on 1 July of that same year and will be reflected in the wage rates set down in Modern Awards. At no time is any increase decided on by the Commission optional – one which an employer may or may not choose to pay their staff. So where does this leave you? By the sound of it, it means your boss owes you some money. If you’re a member of a union, call them to discuss what’s going on. I’ll assume though that you’re not so here’s what you need to do: find out exactly how much your wages should’ve gone up every financial
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Ask Us
year (this will mean setting aside some time to sit with a calculator as you’ll have some sums to do). If you give the Australian Unions team a call they’ll be able to provide you with links to your old Awards. Once you’ve done your calculations write to your boss outlining how much you’ve been underpaid (include links to the Awards you used to prove you know what you’re talking about). Include in your letter a cut-off date by which you want the money to be paid into your bank account and send it by registered post. This is so you have a record of it being sent and received. Don’t forget to keep a copy for your records. If you receive the money then all well and good. If you don’t though you can take your complaint to the relevant government department. Remember, if you suffer any repercussions for making a complaint to your boss (for example, your shifts are cut or you are dismissed)they have acted unlawfully as there is legislation in place to protect people making a legitimate complaint or enquiry about the wages and conditions. By the sounds of it you might be in line for some extra spending money for the holiday season!
I’m pregnant but I haven’t told my employer yet. When should I? LAUREL asks: I’m pregnant but I haven’t All pregnant employees including casuals are told my boss yet. I’m a bit worried that she entitled to be moved to a safe job if your usual won’t be happy about it. one poses risks to you. A worker who changes to a safe job for the Congratulations Laurel! I can certainly appreciate duration of her pregnancy must still be paid at that telling your boss you’re eventually going to the same rate and receive the same hours and need to take extended time off work is a stressful any other entitlements as in her normal positon. thing to have to face. And in truth it possibly Your hours and roster can also be changed if you does present her with a staffing challenge she’d and your boss agree on different ones. rather not have to deal with. So speak to your doctor about what is best But that’s neither here nor there, it’s illegal for your well-being – if he or she feels you can to discriminate against anyone (be they casual continue to work but not in your usual position or permanent) on the grounds of pregnancy. If then they should provide you with a certificate she sacks you or cuts your hours without your stating what you can and can’t do which you agreement she has acted unlawfully and face should show your employer. penalties. It’s important though that you take a Worst case scenario, if there isn’t any safe deep breath and let her know. work available you can take “No safe job leave”. You don’t mention the type of work you do You should receive pay for this if you’re entitled but if it involves things such as heavy lifting or to unpaid parental leave (unfortunately though if exposure to chemicals you need to protect your you’re not entitled to unpaid parental leave you health and that of your baby. wouldn’t get any wages for this time away).