The International Labour Movement has now focused it's attention on plans by the Tasmanian Government to pass laws through their Parliament (House of Assembly next week) that override wage increases negotiated through collective bargaining and formalized through Awards and Agreements registered in the Tasmanian Industrial Commission. International Trade Union Council Secretary and a former President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Sharan Burrow has written to the Tasmanian Government expressing concern that the laws give the employers complete control over the workforce – something Australians have never accepted and are unlikely ever to accept. Taking away fundamental rights, as these pernicious laws will do, violates Australia’s obligations under ILO Conventions 87 and 98 which guarantee workers the right to seek fair pay and conditions through union organizing and collective bargaining. The Bill will also certainly harm public sector productivity, and is likely to drain talent from the Tasmanian public sector to the private sector, or even interstate, weakening public sector effectiveness at a time when Tasmania most needs it, she writes.