HANSARD EXTRACT
|
Adjournment: Workplace Relations |
| 1 December 2005 |
Mr HAYES
(Werriwa) (12.51 p.m.)—The
workplace relations bills are about to be returned to the House of
Representatives, with the Senate having tinkered at the margins. I
see that Senator Joyce is claiming that he has saved Christmas. I
guess the workers of Australia will be forgiven for thinking he
actually does believe in Santa Claus. I think it is worth while to
pause and reflect on what it is the Howard government is about to
do. I will not go into great detail but just indicate what it is
that we are about to embark on.
Obviously there has been some tinkering at the
margins on the 38-hour week to ensure that there is some semblance
of legitimacy over what was intended to occur, which was the
averaging of 38 hours over a 12-monthly period. A more specific
aspect is the ability for employers now to be able to establish
their own
greenfield site agreements. They are agreements with nobody. That is
setting up agreements before there is even one employee on a site,
and that agreement will set the terms and conditions for all
subsequent workers that are engaged. That is a very novel approach
to workplace relations.
On the matter of duress, just to make sure that
people understand that they cannot be forced on to individual
contracts—or at least that is what the government would like us to
think—and just so that that can be given some authority, the
government now wants to write into its legislation that duress will
not apply when entering into AWAs. So the fact that an employer
wants you to sign up to an AWA and forces you effectively—threatens
you, coerces you—to do it will not be regarded as duress under this
act.
There will be no scrutiny of what will be in
these Australian workplace agreements other than in relation to
prohibited content, and that content is yet to be determined by this
minister. Good faith bargaining has been removed. Therefore, it is
up to the employer to decide whether he wants to have collective
bargaining or, alternatively, whether he will enforce individual
contracts. It is interesting how that has now been taken and
reported throughout the electorates. In my electorate, for instance,
a number of papers actually refer to comments that have been made by
government members in that regard. I would like to refer to the
comment made by—
A division having been called in the House of
Representatives—
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