From the ABC

Darrell Lea offering undercut AWAs, Labor says

The Federal Opposition has produced an Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) being offered by chocolate maker Darrell Lea that cuts the pay of casual workers.

Labor promises to get rid of AWAs, but the Federal Government says they provide flexibility and boost productivity.

Opposition industrial relations spokeswoman Julia Gillard says the Darrell Lea agreement proves the Government is wrong to say that AWAs are fair.

"A cut in pay and a five-year pay freeze, and they're getting no benefits," she said.

"They've got Saturday penalty rates gone, Sunday penalty rates gone, public holiday penalty rates gone, they've got sick leave gone and they haven't got one cent extra in their hourly rate of pay."

The Office of Workplace Services is investigating the process the company has used to introduce the agreements, but Ms Gillard says the AWA contents are legal.

"This is the truth of [Prime Minister] Mr [John] Howard's industrial relations system: no choice, a cut in pay, a cut in conditions and at the end of all of that, you don't see any benefits for five years," she said.

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey refused to answer questions about the case in Parliament, and instead attacked the Opposition's pledge to scrap workplace agreements.

"If it's okay for Greg Combet to trade away penalty rates, why isn't it okay for individuals to negotiate their own employment outcome?" he said.

"The Labor Party doesn't like that, the Labor Party never likes to take into account the interests of the workers, because it's just a party for the union bosses."

Labor says Darrell Lea has offered the AWAs to 150 casual workers.

 

Yes Gus, we get more like bushit’s bashed & broken little amerika every day ….

Circuit City Stores Inc., the second-largest US electronics retailer after Best Buy Co., fired 3,400 of its highest-paid hourly workers and will hire replacements willing to work for less.

The company said its eliminating jobs that paid ``well above'' market rates. Those who were fired can apply for the lower pay, company spokesman Bill Cimino said today. He declined to give the wages of the fired workers or the new hires.

Circuit City, based in Richmond, Virginia, also hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to study a sale of its 900 Canadian stores.

Circuit City pays about $10 to $11 an hour, on average, said Rick Weinhart, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets Corp. in New York. Entry level pay probably is close to $8 for inexperienced workers, he said.

Chief Executive Officer Philip Schoonover was paid $8.52 million in fiscal 2006, including a salary of $975,000. Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson received $3.85 million, including a $1.17 million salary.’

Circuit City To Fire 3,400 - Hire Less Costly Workers

ya just gotta luuv that aspirational prosperity …..

From the New York Times

U.S. to Set New Duties on Goods From China

By REUTERS
Published: March 30, 2007

Filed at 4:58 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it was slapping anti-subsidy duties on imports of glossy paper from China, turning to a new weapon to oppose what it says are unfair Chinese trade practices.

Anger over the U.S. trade deficit with China, which hit a record $233 billion last year, has spurred demands for a tougher response to Chinese government subsidies, which many U.S. lawmakers believe fuel that country's exports.

To do that required the Commerce Department to reverse -- so far just for China -- a policy that originated during the Cold War against applying countervailing duties on subsidized goods from ``non-market'' economies.

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So That's the way FTAs work? When your boots are full, you just throw a tantrum... What chance Australia?... Okay, I know... Got too much coal to flog to even contemplate not buying more than we sell, can we?... 

From the SMH

Business got $20m for IR support

Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent
April 12, 2007

KEY industry, business and employer organisations have received more than $20 million in Federal Government funding to educate their members about the industrial relations laws.

The assistance has bolstered sentiment within the Government that these groups, most of which lobbied for the laws, should fight for them at this year's election by running advertisements supporting Work Choices.

Figures compiled by the Herald show that about 40 groups received $20.7 million from the Government to assist their members in understanding the laws and implementing them. Another $4 million has been earmarked but not yet handed out.

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Gus: Another extraordinary "feed the pigs" trough-gesture from Rattus Porkii so he can save his bacon...

Unions got a kick up the backside...? 

Frim the ABC

IR commission ordered to end Tristar probe

The Federal Court in Sydney has found the New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission does not have the power to investigate a dispute at the car parts manufacturer Tristar.

Tristar workers say they are being kept on at the company plant at Marrickville, in Sydney's inner west, only until protection of their redundancy payments expires.

The court has ordered the commission stop its inquiry into the dispute and that the state Industrial Relations Minister pay Tristar's costs.

Martin Schutz from the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU) says the judgment is disappointing.

"The state commission of inquiry has effectively been told it shouldn't proceed, of course that's got an implication for the Tristar workers because that was a possible vehicle to highlight the issues and to identify exactly what the company was doing to them," he said.

"That avenue is no longer available to us."

 

Howard in denial over 'family-unfriendly' AWA stats ….

The Federal Government is refusing to accept leaked statistics which show that 75% of AWAs do not contain family-friendly work provisions.

The statistics, compiled by the Office of Employment Advocate (OEA) were leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald this week. They show that only 25% of the AWAs had family-friendly clauses.

The other 75% were silent on such issues such as flexible working hours and job-sharing arrangements designed to make it easier for parents to balance their work and family responsibilities.

The data also shows that 45% of AWAs exclude all protected award conditions, up from 16% in figures released last May - after which the Government banned the release of further statistics by the OEA.

The data reveals that 76% of the AWAs abolished shift loadings, 68% abolished penalty rates, 59% abolished annual leave loading, 70% abolished incentive payments and bonuses, 57% abolished allowances for expenses, skills or specific task disabilities, 52% abolished overtime leave, 53% abolished public holiday pay and 30% abolished rest breaks.

A third of the AWAs registered over a six month period provided no pay rise for the life of the contract - some for up to five years.

The leaked information show staff of the Office of the Employment Advocate believe 27.8% of the agreements examined might have broken the law by undercutting one of the legislated minimum employment entitlements.

But the prime rattus is having none of it.

'I have no way of knowing whether those figures are correct, they didn't come out through the agency head,' he squeaked. 'But I do know this, that even if they were correct they would only tell one side of the story because it's long been the case that people might give up their penalty rates, and this happened before WorkChoices, and they get something else in return. And unless you know the full picture you can't make a judgement.'

However Opposition IR spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, said the leaked statistics show the situation is 'going from bad to worse'.

'It is taking conditions off workers and Labor won't stand for it,' she said. 'We will be abolishing these Australian Workplace Agreements and in its place have an IR system that is fair and flexible.'

meanwhile, as Gus has previously reported, chocolate egg maker, Darrell Lea, brought new meaning to Easter ….

Darrell Lea employees who refuse to sign AWAs that cut their wages and conditions are being stripped of their weekend shifts, their union has claimed.

And the Office of Workplace Services (OWS) has put out a statement on the Darrell Lea matter, saying it 'takes seriously any allegation of duress in the workplace'.

'For six months Darrell Lea has been recruiting casuals and insisting they sign AWAs,' Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA) Victorian State Secretary Michael Donovan said. 'Now they have turned to their existing casual staff and asked them to sign an AWA or they lose weekend shifts altogether.'

Last week Labor's IR spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, released details of the AWAs, saying the current Sunday penalty rate of pay was being reduced from the award rate of $31.29 per hour to a flat weekday rate of $20.02. Casual loadings are also being reduced from 25% to 20%.

She said the public holiday penalty rate is lowered from $38.80 per hour to the flat $20.02 per hour, and the weekly laundry allowance of $5.85 per garment is cut to zero.

Casuals also lose all rights to sick leave, and the minimum period of work is reduced to one hour per shift.

'There is no increase in the hourly rate of pay to compensate for the loss of all these conditions and there is also no entitlement to a pay increase over the five-year life of the AWA,' Gillard said.

Donovan said it was 'ironical that Darrell Lea was taking money off its employees at Easter - the time it will be making its biggest profits - this is a disgrace'.

In a statement on the Darrell Lea matter, OWS Director, Nicholas Wilson, said his organisation has a wide range of powers to investigate on behalf of individual workers, 'including claims of an employer applying duress or coercion to an employee during workplace agreement negotiations'.

'In investigating such claims, OWS can look at the agreement-making process itself and can consider particular aspects of the agreement,' Wilson said.

Darrell Lea Chief Executive, John Tolmie, denied there had been an edict from head office over the AWAs, and said it was not the company's intention to freeze wages for five years.

He said more than 400 staff had signed the agreements, offered to new staff joining the company's 84 stores after September last year. He said there was an explicit policy from head office that there'll be no coercion.

Tomlie said the company intended to have all its casuals on AWAs, given competitive pressures and the company's huge seasonal casual pool over Christmas and Easter. 'As we understand it, from our research, just about every other retailer out there has got some form or other of AWAs in play,' he said.

An AIRC (Australian Industrial Relations Commission) decision allowing the retailer, Priceline, to sack a worker & then hire another more cheaply for the same job will give employers free rein to cut their wages bills, the ACTU says.

The Commission ruled that under the WorkChoices laws, Priceline could legally sack a worker on $100,000 a year for 'operational reasons' & then replace him with someone on $75,000.

ACTU Secretary, Greg Combet, said workers can now be sacked & replaced with cheaper labour.

And Democrats Leader, Senator Lyn Allison, said today: 'What sort of crazy legal system have they imposed where you can contract to employ workers on one wage & then legally sack them for being on that very wage?

'The days of master-slave employment are back,' she said.

The AIRC found retailer Priceline was within its rights to dismiss a worker because of the company's financial difficulties. The man's $100,000 a year job was then readvertised & filled by a new worker earning just $75,000.

The prime rattus is said to be “seeking advice” about this ruling but said businesses have always been able to sack workers for operational reasons.

'The operational reasons have never been intended, either under this legislation or under previous legislation, as a device to simply get rid of somebody on a higher salary & employ somebody on a lower salary - that is not of itself in my view an operational reason,' asserted the serial porkie purveyor & recovering lawyer, rattus.

But Combet said the decision gives employers a free rein to cut their wages bills.

'Boiled down & taking the legalese out of it, what it means for employees is that they can be sacked by their employer for basically any reason,' he said. 'But this one in particular has given the green light to being sacked & replaced by someone who is cheaper.

'What this decision opens up is an opportunity for companies, whether they are in trouble or not, to simply sack people & replace them with cheaper labour.'

Senator Allison said the decision also gave the green light to 'sack staff for purely vindictive or frivolous reasons dressed up as financial decision-making'.

'People invest so much of themselves in their jobs. This trashes the rights of decent Australians & can ruin lives & families. It is time to get rid of this heartless government'.

On a more positive note, we can all take a minute to savour the sweet taste of victory today, with Darrell Lea announcing that it has abandoned its push to introduce AWA individual contracts.

The retailer had planned to put casual staff on AWAs that could cost them up to $100 a week, slashing weekend & holiday pay as well as other conditions.

More than 6,500 Rights at Work supporters took the time to lobby Darrell Lea CEO John Tolmie last month. Our hard work has paid off: following public outcry, Darrell Lea changed its mind.

Mr Tolmie had said that he felt competitive pressure to use John Howard's laws to cut pay & conditions. But Rights at Work supporters argued in favour of treating workers decently & we won.

Julia Gillard has hailed a "new era of fair work" after the Government's industrial relations changes passed the Senate following a deal with Family First Senator Steve Fielding today.

The deal means that until 2011, a small business will be defined as having fewer than 15 full-time staff, or the equivalent. After that, it will only apply to those businesses with fewer than 15 in total.

The passage of the new laws was welcomed by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who called it a "historic day" for Australia.

"We have buried WorkChoices," she said.

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