Workchoices fairness test not working - Zuvele Leschen
As the Workplace Authority’s own report reveals, the government’s ‘fairness test’ for Australian Workplace Agreements is not working.
It has been estimated that it will take 10 months for the Authority to check the agreements lodged with them so far. As 15% of agreements checked are shown to be unlawful, this means that over 7000 people will continue to work under illegal conditions for nearly a year.
Unless the Government puts more resources into checking agreements, this problem will escalate, with 30 000 agreements being lodged each month. On current figures, 2000 of these agreements will be unlawful – but again, the problems won’t be identified or fixed for nearly a year.
Once upon a time, the relevant union, on hearing that there was a breach of the award, would have fixed the problem within days – at no cost to the taxpayer.
The delays in investigating AWAs is bad enough, but it gets worse.
The case of the trolley collectors was raised in May. Workers in Albury and Wodonga were sacked overnight and replaced by others from Melbourne. A spokesman for the employer stated at the time that the new workers were cheaper. The Offiice of Workplace Services later revealed it was investigating claims that the original workers were underpaid.
So it would appear from this that both the past and present employees are being exploited, yet it appears that neither is any closer to having their problems resolved.
The ‘fairness test’ seems to fail some basic tests of fairness itself.
Regards
Zuvele Leschen
It has been estimated that it will take 10 months for the Authority to check the agreements lodged with them so far. As 15% of agreements checked are shown to be unlawful, this means that over 7000 people will continue to work under illegal conditions for nearly a year.
Unless the Government puts more resources into checking agreements, this problem will escalate, with 30 000 agreements being lodged each month. On current figures, 2000 of these agreements will be unlawful – but again, the problems won’t be identified or fixed for nearly a year.
Once upon a time, the relevant union, on hearing that there was a breach of the award, would have fixed the problem within days – at no cost to the taxpayer.
The delays in investigating AWAs is bad enough, but it gets worse.
The case of the trolley collectors was raised in May. Workers in Albury and Wodonga were sacked overnight and replaced by others from Melbourne. A spokesman for the employer stated at the time that the new workers were cheaper. The Offiice of Workplace Services later revealed it was investigating claims that the original workers were underpaid.
So it would appear from this that both the past and present employees are being exploited, yet it appears that neither is any closer to having their problems resolved.
The ‘fairness test’ seems to fail some basic tests of fairness itself.
Regards
Zuvele Leschen
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posted by Greg Naylor at
5:27 PM
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