Federal Election Results Heralds An Assault on Women’s Working Conditions
15 November 2004
Coalition Policies Aimed at Removing Worker's Rights
By Suzanne Hammond, Federal Women’s Industrial Officer
On several occasions the Howard Government has attempted to introduce various pieces of legislation that would have removed the rights and entitlements of workers and their unions. Now with control of the Senate the Howard Government has unfettered power to adopt policies that Labor, the Democrats, and Independents all believed to be unfair and unnecessary in work relations.
The return of the Howard Coalition Government, now with a majority in the Senate, heralds a new era in Industrial Relations in Australia. The Liberal National Coalition Government have long held policies aimed at removing worker's rights by denying many workers access to unfair dismissal legislation, by weakening the award system, by downgrading the Industrial Relations Commission and making collective workplace relations more difficult for workers and their unions.
Refusal to pass Radical Proposals In the past, long desired policies of the Government have been tempered by the Senates' refusal to pass their radical proposals. In 1996 the Howard Government's Workplace Relations Act was watered down in the Senate and finally passed only after safeguards were included. The Industrial Relations Commission maintained an important role in setting fair minimum wages, in the vetting of agreements and the maintenance of workers entitlements.
On several occasions the Howard Government has attempted to introduce various pieces of legislation that would have removed the rights and entitlements of workers and their unions. Now with control of the Senate the Howard Government has unfettered power to adopt policies that Labor, the Democrats, and Independents all believed to be unfair and unnecessary in work relations.
Bad for WomenLike previous proposals the Government's agenda will be bad for women. The Government has promised to immediately introduce legislation previously rejected in the Senate that exempts small business from unfair dismissals laws. Many women work in small businesses and now they will have their rights to take unfair dismissals cases taken away from them. Another outcome will be that some workers have rights and others don't.
Award System to be DowngradedThe Howard Government intends to further downgrade the award system. The Workplace Relations Act restricted awards to twenty allowable matters thereby removing many workers entitlements from awards. The Government intends to reduce allowable matters even further to mere minimum standards such as an hourly rate of pay, sick leave, holiday leave and unpaid maternity leave.
The Government also intends to restrict the power of the Commission to set a fair minimum wage by directing the Commission to consider an employer's capacity to pay in the Living Wage Case. The Government has repeatedly opposed Living Wage adjustments proposed by the ACTU and argued for smaller increases.As working women are more reliant on the award system to set their pay and conditions any reduction in the award system and the role of the Commission, the independent umpire, in setting wages and vetting agreements will severely disadvantage women.
Increase in Casual WorkforceThe Howard Government has presided over a huge increase in the casual workforce. Much of the growth in women's employment has been in casual, low paid and insecure employment. These women are denied the rights and entitlements that other workers have.
The Government proposes to further de-regulate hours conditions in awards. This will force more women into the casual employee category. The sorry situation is that many working women are faced with not having sick leave or holiday leave or carer's leave.
States' Protection to be By-passedThe Federal Government also proposes to move towards a unitary system of industrial relations. Previously this was attempted by the Government in order to remove unfair dismissals and terminations of employment from State jurisdictions.
The Federal Government desires a watered down Federal industrial relations system with reduced awards and worker entitlements without the protections that are currently found in the State systems. Clearly, this will remove many rights from women who are covered by State awards and agreements.
Howard Fails to Support Maternity LeaveThe Howard Government has also failed to support the ACTU Work and Family Test Case which hopes to establish a right to return to part-time work after maternity leave.
AWAs silent on Women's IssuesA major concern to women workers is the Governments agenda to push women workers into individual contracts, Australian Workplace Agreements. Women do poorly in Australian Workplace Agreements and many Agreements are silent on issues that are of concern to women such as paid maternity leave.
Many AWAs do not include pay increases over the life of the agreement and thereby hold wages down. Studies of the impact of AWAs indicate that workers have less of a say in working conditions under this form of arrangement.
Wider Gender GapRecent studies of the wage gender gap in Western Australia, where many workers were forced into individual contracts, indicate a wider gender wages gap than other states in Australia.Individual contracts are bad for women!
The Howard Government proposals will also make it more difficult for unions to organize and represent workers. Unions have played an important role in governing workplace practices, overseeing health and safety requirements and in ensuring that workers are paid correctly. Unions played an important role in highlighting the exploitation of clothing outworkers. Restrictions on the right to enter workplaces will mean that these functions will be severely restricted. This will result in many women being unable to expose acts of exploitation and to resolve poor working arrangements.
Women Still VulnerableWomen are still paid less than men, are in less secure forms of employment, are more likely to be low income earners and are denied many rights and conditions of employment.
The Howard Government's agenda to further de-regulate working arrangements by taking away employment protections, by downgrading the power of the Industrial Relations Commission in setting fair and reasonable standards, by removing workers rights to bargain collectively and by forcing workers onto individual contracts will impact badly upon women workers - workers who are the most vulnerable and who can least afford it.
We Must Not go BackwardsWe must not lose what we have fought for and achieved. Women must work together in our union and with community organizations and we must remain organized, active and political.
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