New awards 'beyond a joke'

By Sabra Lane for PM

Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has previously guaranteed workers
would not be disadvantaged. (AAP: Dean Lewins)

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission has published its latest batch
of new awards covering 39 industries and occupations.

Earlier this week the commission warned that it could not meet the Government's
request that neither workers nor bosses would be worse off due to the process.

The commission has released a new batch of award covering 39 industries and
occupations and some unions already say the ruling will hurt their membership.

Linda White from the Australian Services Union was shocked by the new award
covering those in the airline industry, such as ground and retail staff.
"It is beyond belief and we are extremely concerned," she said.

"It is not a joke, that's for sure. In the airline industry, we've seen existing
federal awards slashed so dramatically that it's hard to believe that it's true."
The award modernisation process is the last function of the Australian Industrial
Relations Commission; when this job is finished it, will cease to exist.

The Federal Government has asked the Commission to review more than 2,500
state and federal awards, and whittle them down to just 130.

The Government asked the commission to modernise awards without
disadvantaging workers or bosses.

Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard previously guaranteed workers
would not be disadvantaged.

But on Thursday, Mr Rudd stopped short of a guarantee, saying the aim was
just an objective.

The language changed following a warning from the commission on Wednesday
that it was an impossible request to meet.

The commission repeated the warning on Friday, and Ms White says that is no
wonder.

"We've seen wages at the top end reduced by $300 a week, at lower ends
between $50 and $60 a week," she said.

"We've seen long-held allowances that take into account the shift work that
people at airports perform gone.

"It's as though a typo has been there but it's beyond a joke. Things that have
been long held conditions in the industry with the stroke of a pen are gone."
And she says the rulings states nothing about travel agents.

"As far as I can see, as far as the Australian Industrial Relations Commission is
concerned, the travel industry has disappeared into the ether and that is just
wholly unacceptable," she said.

Ms White does not blame the Federal Government for the ruling.
"The commission bears the sole responsibility for this," she said.
"They have fallen hook, line and sinker for the employers' submissions in
relation to how the industry operates and I can say when the day of reckoning,
if this modern award continues, the day of reckoning will see people lose from
their bottom line a range of award conditions and a range of rates of pay.
"It is no laughing matter. And the commission, clearly in my view, has
misunderstood what their job is."

Legal action
Ms White says the Australian Services Union is considering legal action.
So is the Australian Workers Union, says spokesman Paul Howes.
"We'll be talking with our lawyers over the next day or so," he said.
He says most of his members have managed to maintain their current pay
and conditions.

But Mr Howes says there are notable exceptions. He says workers in
cemeteries, the seafood processing and off shore oil industries are worse off.
"So casual workers in the offshore oil and gas industry normally get 225 per
cent of the normal rate of pay," he said.

"After the commission's decision today they'll only get 125 per cent of the
normal rate of pay which represents between a 50 and 75 per cent drop in
pay for casual workers in the offshore oil and gas industry.

"Now that upsets almost two decades of industrial standard practice in the
offshore oil and gas industry and I can't understand how the commission
could accept any arguments that any oil company at the moment is unable to
pay the existing rates of pay that have existed for many, many years."

And Mr Howes says if it cannot be resolved he cannot rule out industrial action.
"I'm sure that my members aren't going to accept that, and if we don't have
drastic action to ensure that the status quo prevails then we can't guarantee
industrial peace in that industry."

'Guarantee pay order'
A spokeswoman for Ms Gillard says workers who are disadvantaged by the
process can apply to Fair Work Australia for a "guarantee pay order" to
ensure they are not worse off.

The opposition's workplace relations spokesman Michael Keenan says it is
not a good start at all.

"If the Government's saying that you can take legal action to remedy the
situation if you're disadvantaged by these modern awards then I don't that's
a great start for the new systems that's supposed to come into effect from the
first of January next year," he said.

"The fact that 'yes you will be disadvantaged but you actually can take legal
action to prevent that', that's an incredibly complicated and clumsy way, that
might be right for some unions to go and do that, but what about an individual?
"I don't think that workers who are facing this decrease in their entitlements
are going to be particularly pleased about that or see the fact that they can
take legal action as being much solace."

Key peak union and employer groups were unwilling to talk this afternoon
about today's revamped awards saying they needed more time to consider the
findings.