Protesting workers warned they face fines   

     October 7, 2018
     The Australian

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker has warned that unions and workers face investigation for taking part in ACTU-backed ­rallies across the country, potentially exposing them to fines if the regulator pursues them for ­organising or engaging in ­allegedly unprotected industrial action.

As ACTU secretary Sally McManus urged workers to “put on the biggest show they have ever seen”, Ms Parker told employers they were obliged to deduct a minimum four hours’ wages from workers’ pay for unprotected ­action even if they spent less time away from work to attend a rally.

Unions will kick off a month of protests with a rally in Perth on October 18, but the biggest day of disruption is likely to be on Oct­ober 23 when workers hold rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Gladstone, Cairns, Rockhampton and Townsville.


Employers have urged Ms Parker to take a stand after union leaders promised up to 150,000 workers would attend the “largest ever” union rally in Melbourne, shutting city construction projects and the city’s waterfront for at least several hours. Referring to the October 23 rallies, Ms Parker said she wanted to remind ­employees, employers and unions of their obligations under the Fair Work Act.

“As a part of the FWO’s functions under the Fair Work Act, the FWO will monitor and investigate potential noncompliance with the commonwealth workplace laws, including allegations of people engaging in or organising unprotected industrial action,’’ she said through a spokeswoman.

“Please be aware that if an ­employee fails to attend the workplace or stops work without authorisation from their employer, this conduct may be unprotected industrial action in contravention of the Fair Work Act.

“Any person ’knowingly involved’ in a contravention of the Fair Work Act is also taken to have contravened that provision.

“Where an employee has engaged in unprotected industrial action, the employer is required under the Fair Work Act to deduct a minimum of four hours’ wages from the employee, even if the ­industrial action was less than four hours.”

The Coalition last year increased the maximum civil penalty in relation to unprotected industrial action to $12,600 for an individual and $63,000 for a corporation.

Ms McManus said Australia had a long history of democratic protest that had brought about beneficial change in the community.

“If you have a situation where working people or anyone can no longer protest because they’re threatened with their jobs and they’re threatened with fines, it means that we are not a fair democracy,’’ she said.

Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer slammed the protest rallies yesterday, saying “Australians do not want a ­return to the workplace conflict of last century”.

“The road-clogging, productivity sapping, economy-­damaging rallies in October will be a small insight to what will happen across Australia on a rolling basis under a Shorten government,’’ Ms O’Dwyer said.

“If Sally McManus, the ACTU, and Labor led by Bill Shorten were serious about increasing prosperity for all Australians, they would promote co-operation and collaboration between business and employees, not chaos and conflict.”

The ACTU has funded new television and radio advertisements featuring a woman claiming that companies were making “huge profits” while refusing to grant pay rises to workers that kept pace with the cost of living.

“Things are really out of balance,’’ she says in the ad. “We’re all getting ripped off. Let’s stand ­together and get things changed.”

The radio advertisements urge workers to attend the rallies that will also be held in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie on October 24; Adelaide on October 25; Newcastle on October 30 and Brisbane and Canberra on November 20.

Ms McManus said the national paid advertising campaign and ­rallies were necessary because Scott Morrison was “deaf to the concerns” of workers.

“Our campaign is designed to make him listen,’’ he said. “There has been times in the history of our country where Australian unions have had to be the ones that stand up and say change needs to ­happen.

“This is one of those moments. So when women didn’t have equal pay, when we didn’t have superannuation, when we didn’t have Medicare, we did the same thing and we’re doing the same now.”

The Prime Minister said Ms McManus was “the person who said that she didn’t think necessarily the laws applied to the union movement”.

“So Bill Shorten’s problem is he is going to be the complete puppet of a union movement that thinks it’s OK to not have to follow the law,’’ he said. “We shouldn’t let the law-breakers become the lawmakers under Bill Shorten.”

Business Council of Australia president Jennifer Westacott said changing the workplace laws to allow for sector-wide bargaining as proposed by the ACTU “would only empower the big unions at the expense of workers”.

What happened to the grubby libtards when they shut down parliament and walked off the job?

Unions will kick off a month of protests with a rally in Perth on October 18, but the biggest day of disruption is likely to be on Oct­ober 23 when workers hold rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Gladstone, Cairns, Rockhampton and Townsville.  Good on the unions.        

Gee Whiz the Polly Waffle VIRUS is helping the union propaganda parrot BlackDay squawk the FAKE NEWS about the already dead unions wanting to sign up members and then throw them out of work as they attack the companies that employ them with their sabotage and extortion.

The moribund irrelevant unions are already dead in the water.

Yippee! The Village Idiot Gecko Troll VIRUS strikes again with his silly neurotic childish attention seeking rot.

Make the unions pay tax.


greggerypeccary wrote on Oct 10^th, 2018 at 9:21am:

juliar wrote on Oct 10^th, 2018 at 9:36am:


https://www.unionswa.com.au/change_the_rules_perth_national

Lib supporters would love to deny democracy to others except themselves.