SA Unions warn MPs to back WorkCover win

Article from: GREG KELTON, STATE EDITOR
October 19, 2008 09:30pm

JUBILANT unions will push for changes to workers' benefits after their
win on WorkCover at the ALP's state conference.

They have also warned they expect Labor MPs to support the changes
because they are now party policy.

The weekend conference backed union attempts to change ALP policy
on the issue of workers' compensation despite opposition from the
Government.

As a result, the party's platform now commits the Government to talking
to unions and resolving a raft of issues before December next year.
These include reducing employer WorkCover levies until the scheme's
unfunded liabilities are addressed.

This year, the Government and unions became embroiled in a bitter row
over reducing workers' benefits in a bid to reduce a looming financial
crisis for WorkCover. The changes were rammed through Parliament
despite strong opposition from unions and independent MPs in the
Upper House. It also provoked behind-the-scenes unrest among MPs
from the Left who opposed the changes.

SA Unions secretary Janet Giles said the conference decision was "a
significant victory for vulnerable workers".
"It is now the party's policy that worker protections must be reinstated
in law and all MPs are bound by party policy," she said.
"We have maintained from the very beginning improvements to
WorkCover could only be achieved through structural change, not
through penalising the very workers it is meant to support."

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith has signalled
he will court unions – the Liberal Party's traditional enemy – in the
lead-up to the next state election. He has written to 24 unions seeking
regular meetings to "engage with, and listen to, the union movement".
Mr Hamilton-Smith told The Advertiser he wanted to take the Liberal
Party to all stakeholders in the community. "The days of the Liberal
Party representing the big end of town at the expense of others are
over," he said. Ms Giles said the union executive would accept his invitation.
"We speak to many organisations and political groups about our
objectives," she said. "We have a very clear agenda and set of
objectives and we will talk to him about them."