ACTU resumes IR fight with $12m war chest

    by: Troy Bramston
    From: The Australian
    August 16, 2013


THE ACTU has signalled a new election campaign battlefront, urging the major parties to commit to reforming the Fair Work system and backing this up with a multi-million-dollar "air and ground" campaign bolstered by social media.

ACTU president Ged Kearney and secretary Dave Oliver told The Australian in a joint interview that Labor's workplace agenda was unfinished, and a Coalition government would threaten workers' wages, employment security and workplace rights.      

"Tony Abbott is planning to shift the industrial relations pendulum back to employers because at the heart of his industrial relations policy is individual contracts, like they had under Work Choices," Mr Oliver said.      

"The Fair Work Act is a big improvement compared to where we were with Work Choices. It has been working quite well. But there is some scope for improvement."

Mr Oliver wants Labor to commit to expanding the right of workers to access arbitration to resolve protracted disputes, increase minimum wages and subject awards to ongoing review.


Mr Oliver said Labor should commit to "enforcement mechanisms in law" to guarantee the right of workers to request flexible work arrangements when returning from maternity leave.

"We've got a provision in law that says an employer can not unreasonably refuse a request for someone returning from maternity leave to have flexible hours," he said. "But if an employer refuses the request, there is no remedy. So we're keen to see something in law to provide a process to keep employers to account."

Aided by a $2 levy on two million union members over three years, the ACTU has amassed an electoral war chest valued at more than $12 million, which will be used to intensify its on-the-ground campaign in 38 key seats. Before the 2007 election, unions spent about $30m on their Your Rights at Work campaign.

Complementing the ACTU's targeted seat campaign will be a series of television advertisements, which started this week. The main ad focuses on workplace relations, arguing the Coalition would cut wages and conditions, and threaten unfair dismissal laws. The ad is framed with the question: "Why trust Tony Abbott?"

Individual unions are also ramping up newspaper, radio and television advertising, focused on specific issues. For example, education unions are urging support for Labor's school reforms and public-sector unions are warning against cuts to services and jobs.

Several unions are directly funding Labor and supporting individual candidates with resources. Education unions are supporting Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie and Melbourne Greens MP Adam Bandt.      

The ACTU, however, does not endorse parties or candidates. "We don't go out and tell people how to vote," Mr Oliver said. "What we do is highlight the issues we believe are in the interests of workers."

Ms Kearney conceded the ACTU agenda aligns most with Labor's. "The Greens are still very much a third party," she said. "They can't form a government. That's the reality."

The Coalition has committed to making only minimal changes to laws within the Fair Work structure and has flagged a review of workplace laws by the Productivity Commission in its first term. Ms Kearney urged it to release the terms of reference for this review.

The ACTU leaders also called for a new co-operative approach with business, seeking to capture the spirit of the Hawke-Keating government's Accords, but rejected the suggestion that workers should moderate wage increases in return for a social wage -- the basis of the original Accords.

"Wage increases have been very moderate," Ms Kearney said. "They have kept up with CPI (inflation). Wages are not the issue." Instead, Ms Kearney said, employers need to look at reducing profits and investing in productivity drivers such as skills and infrastructure.

Mr Oliver, however, opened the door to establishing a new system of sector-specific bargaining processes that could lead to new industry-wide agreements.

Well we know from past experience, that the coalition can not be trusted on industrial relations.