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General

Australian Workplace Agreements

Penalties and allowances axed

Government says new IR laws axe wages

A senior Government official has confirmed that penalty rates, shift allowances and annual leave loading for employees have been abolished in a majority of new individual contracts (AWAs) registered under the Howard Government's new IR laws - leaving employees thousands of dollars worse off than they would be under an award, says the ACTU.

Commenting on the admission by the Head of the Fed Govt's Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) Peter McIlwain before a Senate Estimates Committee, ACTU Policy Co-ordinator George Wright said today:

"Despite a $55 million advertising campaign by the Howard Government promising to protect award conditions, a senior Government official has now admitted that every AWA workplace agreement lodged under the new IR laws has dropped at least one protected award condition.

Working families are struggling to keep their heads above water and with steep rises in petrol and other basic household costs the last thing that need is a pay cut under the Howard Government's new IR laws," said Mr Wright.

As Head of the Office of the Employment Advocate Mr McIlwain is responsible for scrutinizing the content of workplace agreements. He has told a Senate Estimates Committee:

Annual leave loading has been erased in 64 per cent of Australian Workplace Agreements lodged under the new laws

Penalty rates have disappeared in 63 per cent

Shift allowances have been removed in 52 per cent of agreements

16 per cent of agreements have dropped all award conditions - replacing them with just the Government's five minimum conditions

40 per cent of the agreements have dropped gazetted public holidays

31 per cent of agreements modified overtime loading, with 29 per cent changing rest breaks and 27 per cent altering public holiday payments

More than one in five new workplace agreements (22%) contains no pay increases over the life of the agreement.

Mr Wright said: "Already we are seeing large numbers of hard working Australians suffering a cut in their take home pay and the loss of important working conditions. Penalty rates, shift allowances, leave loading, rest breaks and public holidays are all getting the chop as employers use the new IR laws to axe award entitlements."

In a separate admission to the Senate Estimates Committee today (30 May), the Government's Employment Advocate Peter McIlwain confirmed that any leave to attend union-provided training is prohibited in workplace agreements under the Government's new industrial laws.

"Leave to attend training, provided by a trade union, however described, is prohibited as per the regulations," Mr McIlwain is reported as saying in Estimates today.

Mr Wright said, "Unions are worried that the Government's ban on union training could lead to an increase in accidents and deaths in the mining and other industries."

Thirty-eight Beaconsfield miners, including members of the rescue team attending a reception at Parliament House, yesterday called on the Government to remove the ban on union health and safety training. (Beaconsfield Declaration - available at http://www.actu.asn.au/work_rights/news/1148885806_11421.html )

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