The lack of industry policy and "leave it to the market" approach from the Federal Government has been glaringly apparent in the past month. Thousands of workers are losing jobs, families are losing their income and other businesses down the line are suffering as a result of this hands-off approach.

The companies involved are sometimes high profile like Ansett, or small companies like iPLEX. ETU members are affected at sites such as Ansett, South Pacific Tyres, Austrim Textiles, Siemens and iPLEX.

In some of these cases, employees are losing not only their jobs but holiday pay, long service leave and redundancy entitlements. All the Federal government does is to stumble about in the dark hoping that "the market" will create new jobs.

The Abbott and Costello team are now up to version 7 of their plan to secure worker entitlements. The only time when workers got their full entitlements in one of these "entitlement meltdown situations" was at National Textiles when the Prime Minister's brother was managing director at that company.

Abbott and Costello's proposal does not guarantee workers what they are owed, and the lack of industry policy only guarantees future job losses.

Members at Ansett are concerned about the Federal government queue-jumping ahead of employees in any fire-sale of assets.

The Transport Minister, John Anderson, who described the airline as a carcase (presumably to be picked over by his vulture mates), is apparently claiming that the Federal government should have the first preference when it comes to the sale of any assets.

Given that the government is taking a "hands off" attitude to financial scrutiny of businesses, members are right in asking why the government is demanding that it be paid out ahead of the employees.

Announcements are expected to be made shortly about the future purchasers.

3.
Security of Payment Legislation

The ETU is continuing to lobby the Victorian State Government to introduce a bill that would guarantee payments to our members who are sub-contractors.

All too often we see contractors ripped off by builders and clients who fail to honour their commitments. This often means that contractors who have paid out many thousands of dollars in materials and labour lose the entire amount because builders and/or clients go broke or don't pay. Some of these people have a track record of doing this to contractors time and time again.

State Secretary Dean Mighell last week met with the Deputy Premier John Thwaites to discuss the proposed legalisation. The Union is confident that the government will introduce a security of payment bill into parliament soon.

Currently Victoria is the only state in Australia without some form of "Security of Payment" legislation. The Union looks forward to the introduction of this legislation.

Click here for the Security of Payment discussion paper (in PDF format - 46kb)

Link to NSW legislation @ http://www.cpsc.nsw.gov.au/sop/

4.
ACTU Shorter Hours Case

The ETU has recently featured in the ACTU Shorter Hours case that has commenced in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. The ETU approach to working hours is cited as a rare example of a progressive arrangement.

The research paper presented to the commission is called the "Fifty Families Report". The paper has caused considerable interest from the media.

ETU shop steward Ivan Balta was featured in the media recently. He spoke about his experience when the overtime cap, combined with Productivity Leisure Days, came into existence as a result of EBA 4 and the 36-hour dispute in construction.

"The ETU has achieved reasonable hours on the back of reasonable pay, so the interviewees were happy to accept the cap. Furthermore, the union is able to ensure adherence to the cap on hours through active membership involvement and education, although there was some initial resistance from some. They also talk about attitudinal change amongst employees." (Fifty Families Report)

The ETU shorter hours story highlights the effects of a good campaign strategy together with a strongly-unionized workforce. It contrasts markedly with some industries where employees struggle to even be paid for overtime.

Further information on the case can be sourced from the ACTU site

Highlights from the ACTU paper can also be found on the ETU site here. (67kb PDF)

5.
Crown Casino "Contracts In" Gaming Technicians

Gaming machines at Crown Casino until recently were maintained by employees of Aristocrat who are members of the ETU.

The company had gained some notoriety in recent times for refusing to supply safety boots for employees. When the members demanded boots be supplied, the company decided to only issue 5 pairs, suggesting that these were to be shared amongst the twenty employees. Outraged at the suggestion that only those actually on shift would get to wear "the boots", the employees called the Union who quickly sorted the matter out.

The ETU commenced negotiations with Aristocrat about a replacement EBA. Members were concerned primarily about wages, shift arrangements and classifications.

Sometime into the negotiations, Aristocrat threatened to walk away from the contract to maintain the gaming equipment. Members were unfazed by these threats given the company's general attitude to the employees.

Aristocrat decided not to renew the contract and other contractors were sought to maintain the casino's equipment. Eventually Crown decided to take over the maintenance themselves and the employees were "contracted in" to the company.

A new agreement has been certified and employees in the future will be part of the general Casino maintenance agreement negotiations.

6.
2002 RDO Calendar

Members working under the National Electrical and Communications Award can now get a copy of the 2002 RDO calendar from Union offices in Geelong, Melbourne or Morwell. Copies can also be obtained from your organiser.

The card features all the 2002 public/picnic holidays, school holidays, 38 hour RDOs, Productivity Leisure Days and 36 hour days off.

The Christmas New Year shut down in the construction industry will be from December 21 to January 13 (January 14 on 36 hour sites)

The RDO calendar is also available here

7.
12-hour Shift Guidelines

Members working in the manufacturing industry are finding that employers are requesting them to enter 12-hour shift agreements.

The Metal award has some flexibility in this regard although it stipulates the ACTU OH&S 12-hour shift guidelines need to be adhered to.

These guidelines examine the health and safety hazards associated with shift work and extended working hours, and recommend measures for their assessment and control. They do not aim to provide detailed scientific or medical evidence of the effects of shift work and extended working hours.

The underlying premise of the guidelines is that all shift work and extended working hours involve some hazards which, as with other health and safety hazards, should be eliminated or reduced wherever possible.

The guidelines have recently been amended and copies can be downloaded from the web here.

8.
Contracting EBA Pay Rise

Members working under the contracting / labour hire industry EBA should have received a wage increase as of October 1. This takes the level 5 Electrician (E-Class) rate to $865.00 per week or $22.76 per hour.

This rate is paid to electricians working under the current contracting EBAs. If members are not receiving these wages then they should contact their organiser.

9.
Long Hot Summer on the Way

Negotiations with the power distribution companies and their contractors are on in earnest. These companies include Citipower, Agility, Powercor and TXU.

Organiser Darren Riley reports that all the EBAs in the industry expire at the end of this year. Logs of claim have been developed across the board for both distribution companies and contractors. There are five power retailers, six tree-clearing contractors and 70 general contractors affected by this round of enterprise agreements. The claims in the agreements, which include improvement in wages and superannuation, have an aggregate value of 8% per year.

Darren says that the most important elements in these agreements are employment security and contractor clauses. He hopes the new agreements will be in place by the end of the year, "otherwise it will be a long hot summer".