The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Employers want to undermine workers' basic rights > Comments

Employers want to undermine workers' basic rights : Comments

By Jeff Lawrence, published 16/9/2009

It is becoming clear that many employers don’t want a modern award system - they want no awards at all.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. All
Workers basic rights were trampled underfoot by Work choices, and the Australian people narrowly defeated them, but the legislation made to introduce them could again be legislated by a new Liberal Government, unless the basic underlying system is fixed. What succeeded was Kevin Rudd’s attack on the rusted on Christian Vote that the Liberals had taken for granted, arguing that Workchoices was unfair, and unjust. It was the alliance of Rudd with a large number of Christian ministers, urging fair work laws, that shook the Liberal hold on power.

There were laws making Workchoices illegal in place all the time. These were in the Criminal Code Act 1995 ( Cth) and S 268:10 and 268:12 Criminal Code ban slavery and legislate to make it an offence to not apply the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both of these sections were in place the whole time of Workchoices, but the Labor lawyers had missed them, and Mick Keelty was very diligent in not enforcing them.

Both of these pieces of legislation say it is a crime against humanity, to launch a widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population, and that was what Workchoices was. Had the Criminal Code provisions been enforced a jury would have had to decide for Workchoices or annulled the legislation, because it relied on draconian fines, of up to $100,000 to be imposed summarily. The Federal Court was to be used for this purpose. The workers on the Mandurah Railway in WA were actually charged. It was very intimidating.

These two pieces of legislation must be enforced by Commissioner Negus, if Workchoices is to be permanently killed. All Judges and Magistrates in Australia need a visit from a member of the Australian Federal Police with a copy of the Criminal Code Act 1995 ( Cth) in his hand, and a smile on his face. Part of their job is to educate first and prosecute the slow learners. The legislation makes enforceable the right to jury trial in all cases whatsoever. If you haven’t got a copy of the Criminal Code Act 1995 get one
Posted by Peter the Believer, Saturday, 19 September 2009 9:11:41 AM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I go to church with a barrister. His work mostly involves prosecuting drug couriers lucky enough to be caught in Australia. He says they are mostly fairly desperate for money, and often are users of drugs, so a term in rehab does not do them any great harm. He was, though a law professional unaware of the ramifications of S 268:10 and 268:12 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 ( Cth).

Perhaps I am a bit thick, but I have been tracking this legislation since it was enacted by Paul Keating’s government in 1995. To my barrister friend I pointed out that the States have mounted a widespread and systematic attack upon the civilian populations of Australia, using Judges and Magistrates. These two sections restore, by the paramount and superior power of the Parliament of the Commonwealth the Rule of Law in Australia. It was enacted with a time delay of five years so the States could get used to it. That was extended by a year, but in 2001, was made law.

What it does is ban enslavement in S 268:10 and make it a crime not to apply the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 268:12, as crimes against humanity. To make us slaves the States had to give Judges and Magistrates the power to take us without jury trial, and imprison us. The State since 1900 has been creeping the bar up, on what constitutes an indictable offence, and gave Judges power to imprison, without reference to a jury. In 1900, the bar was three months, and then only for crimes not involving property. All civil and criminal matters were tried by a jury as of right.

Myopic lawyers drafting Workchoices, failed to see they were unconstitutional. An attempt to challenge them in the High Court failed, with two strong dissenters. With better argument it would not have failed. A basic understanding of the law, by our legislators is essential, and serious enforcement by the Australian Federal Police will ensure the law is fair to everyone. The States must be better educated on Constitutional law
Posted by Peter the Believer, Saturday, 19 September 2009 9:44:43 AM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
*Logically there has to be incentives for business. We have lost that old "a little bit for me, a little bit for him" value system.*

Pelican, that really depends on the company and management. Fact is,
a great company is only great, if it has a great team of employees.
You don't retain them by screwing them, wages being just one part
of the equation.

At the end of the day however, every cent paid has to come out of
the pockets of the customer and in a more competitive market,
some employees do if fact overrate their value to the company.

The thing is, it is in the unions interest to keep maintaining
the "them and us" warfare approach, for it gives them a reason
for existing. Do not forget, union membership had dropped to
all time low levels, clearly people thought they did not need a
union to negotiate for them.

So the image of a "war against employers", is maintained by some
unions, if it is justified or not.

The thing is, if you have a stubborn and inflexible labour supply,
doing business becomes that much tougher and a whole lot of
would be entrepreneurs simply won't bother, or go offshore.

Australia's answer, rather then create new and globally competitive
industries, as exist in Japan, Korea, Europe, USA etc, all high
wage countries, is to flog off more Australian real estate
to foreigners. It keeps the shillings coming in, but its hardly
a solution.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/chinese-buyers-fuel-topend-property-boom-20090918-fvga.html

.
Posted by Yabby, Saturday, 19 September 2009 1:28:54 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Workers basic rights were trampled underfoot by Work choices

So Peter, did many people actually get screwed by WC, or, was it the fact that peoples basic rights, as you put it, were degraded but not acctually used against them by employers?

I for one don't know one single person in my industry (retail) that was screwed by employers during the WC ira.

As I have said on many occasions, I have never under paid anyone, nor would I. In fact, if the award wage was to fall I would not reduce my existing staffs wages, new ones perhaps. At least until they proved themselves.

I still think the majority of 'anti WC people' were not effected by WC, rather, they just can't help but get involved in someone elses problems. Commonly know as 'control freaks'.
Posted by rehctub, Saturday, 19 September 2009 6:33:33 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Good Question Rehctub. I don’t think good employers ever screw their workers, because they realize there is a partnership between them that depends for the continued survival of the business on mutual goodwill. However, in some of the very large businesses there is no real goodwill, it’s just a job and workers are a commodity, to be used and disposed of when the business climate deteriorates. The fear felt by some employees is almost palpable.

There were 100 workers on the Perth –Mandurah Railway construction who went on strike over a safety issue, and were severely threatened by the Federal Government under the Work Choices legislation. It provided for $100,000 each in fines for striking as they did, and as you know lots of ordinary working people don’t carry around $100,000 in their back pocket. It was designed to instill terror into the hearts of workers, everywhere.

If you haven’t read Michael Crichton’s book State of Fear, you should, to understand that creating a state of fear, is one of the weapons used by governments everywhere to impose their will upon the people. The Poms used the threat of transportation, firstly to America and after they were booted out of there, to Australia, to put the fear of God into the hearts of the Irish Catholics. The English Catholics, after they broke with Rome in 1533, under Henry VIII rightly feared Rome, and used transportation to create slaves of the Irish, in order to resist reintegration with Rome. Cromwell resorted to outright murder, and in the eleven years of the republic, between 1649 and 1660 murdered a third of the Irish population. He also destroyed the Catholic Churches and estates everywhere, so a very large state of fear was generated.

What stopped the state of fear was the strict requirement of the English law that separation of the power to judge and the power to execute judgment was observed. This was only extended to English Protestants, and not to Roman Catholics, and only under the Protestant Kings, and the turmoil Cromwell exploited resulted from a departure from these principles
Posted by Peter the Believer, Sunday, 20 September 2009 11:52:02 AM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Peter the clown

Yeah having 2% unemployment are horrifying

Having record wages, even through Work choices are treating people as slaves are horrifying too, If Work choices are horrifying, why had averages of working Australian fallen since workchoice was abolished

Yeah there are some people who will abuse the system. But overall it is an employer and employee relationship/ You need to give both employer and employee incentive to employ each other, to not allow small employer to sack staff (if the work is not there) will push small business under. Which is bad for employers and bad for employee
Posted by dovif2, Monday, 21 September 2009 8:40:11 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy