Rights at Work

Workplace Authority Director Barbara Bennett promises to clear the backlog of 121,324 of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) in five-to-six months.

November 2005, WorkChoices legislation was rammed through Parliament. Barely a week in the House; just three weeks for Senate review.

Now, suddenly, former Work Place Relations Minister Hockey proclaims
that WorkChoices "went too deep; it was a mistake," even though it was introduced with "the best intentions."

Greens lead Senate candidate Larissa Waters joined building workers on a Brisbane building site this morning and pledged to abolish all of the government's WorkChoices laws and the controversial Australian Building and Construction Commission.

John Howard's promise that no-one will "be in any way adversely affected by" changes Industrial Relations legislation if he is re-elected, already made once before and broken once before, is scrutinised.

Mark Wooden, leading Australian economist, clarified the role of AWAs beyond any shadow of a doubt. Wooden affirmed that employers enthusiastically embraced AWAs "because they could legally reduce pay and conditions." [Fairness test killing AWAs, PM warned,The Australian, 12 November]

In his deposition to the Subcommittee on Immigration of the U.S. House of Representatives, delivered on May 24, 2007, Vernon Briggs demonstrated that for more than a century, until the late 1980s, organized labour either directly initiated or strongly supported every legislative effort to restrict immigration or "enforce its policy provisions."

As of 6 September, merely 10% of AWAs lodged were vetted for fairness (about 12,700 of 123,000). After four months and (supposedly) 600 additional inspectors, there's a backlog of about 110,000 AWAs to vet, with about new 30,000 AWAs submitted monthly. Some assert it will take 10 months to work-off this backlog.

Across Australia and indeed, the World, the nursing system is in crisis. Around the Globe, there remains a chronic shortage of nurses. This shortage is caused by many factors including cost cutting measures, lack of educational opportunities in universities and collages, diminished opportunity for advancement and the low pay rates of nurses compared to other professions.

On top of the above, the Australian nursing workforce is currently experiencing an attack of unprecedented proportions from the Federal Government in the form of "Workchoices". ...