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Subsite 2
Union fights anti-worker legislation
The Community and Public Sector Union, has made a strong submission to the Senate Committee looking at the latest batch of anti-worker and anti-union amendments.
The CPSU SPSF Group submission deals with the three Bills on:
"Genuine Bargaining":
"Secret Ballots for Protected Action" and
"Prohibition of Compulsory Union Fees".
The "Genuine Bargaining Bill" is not about genuine bargaining at all. It is in fact an attempt to stamp out pattern bargaining by unions.
We say it would:
- * be inequitable by stopping unions from engaging in pattern bargaining while leaving employers free to do so; and
- * make it extremely difficult for unions to effectively represent their members, exposing those workers in the weakest market position to greater exploitation;
and
- * contravene relevant International Labour Organisation Conventions and place Australia further in breach of its international obligations.
The Secret Ballots for Protected Action Bill would:
- * introduce complicated requirements for holding ballots before workers or their unions could take protected action; and
- * impose those requirements on unions when there are no equivalent requirements for employers (eg, having to hold general meetings of shareholders).
The "Prohibition of Compulsory Union Fees" Bill is not about prohibiting compulsory unionism at all. It is really about prohibiting bargaining agents' fees for negotiating certified agreements. We ask why the Government is pushing it just now, when the Courts are in the process of
determining whether bargaining agents' fees can be included in Federal agreements.
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