Article from todays "Australian".
R laws exposed: unions
Brad Norington
April 04, 2006
UNIONS have launched a new assault on the Howard Government's workplace changes after a lawyer from one of the firms that drafted them admitted protected conditions for workers were really "smoke and mirrors".
Anthony Longland, a partner with Freehills, advised employers to watch for competitors who abolished penalty rates and allowances and eased restrictions on working hours.
"They might be able to get a significant advantage over you in terms of labour costs," he told a Sydney legal conference.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet said the comments - reported by online news service Workplace Express - confirmed union claims that workers would not be protected from cuts in pay and conditions under the new industrial laws.
"This is exactly what the ACTU has been saying from the outset," Mr Combet said. "We've been accused of running a scare campaign, accused of trying to elevate unnecessary fears about these laws.
"But here we have a partner of the firm who helped write the laws saying exactly what we have been putting - that the so-called protections under these laws are just smoke and mirrors."
Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews rejected Mr Longland's claim that protected conditions in the laws were "smoke and mirrors".
A spokesman for Mr Andrews said all employment contracts under the Howard Government's Work Choices laws had to be reached by agreement.
Asked about conditions for people seeking new jobs, he said: "They have to be agreed by two parties, so it can't be unilateral."
The spokesman said the Government's position was clear: conditions such as penalty rates or meal breaks had to be specifically removed from agreements or else they would apply.
"The default position is the award, and this has been repeatedly stated," he said.
Under the Government's laws, which began operation last week, five minimum conditions must apply in agreements - a minimum wage, annual leave, sick leave, parental leave and an averaged 38-hour week.
Mr Longland was reported as saying protected conditions for workers were really "smoke and mirrors". They were "protected but not protected" because the safety measures could be forgone if they were overridden.
He declined to comment yesterday, referring queries to Freehills' head of workplace law, Russell Allen.
He said Mr Longland was using a metaphor to explain that workers' conditions were protected except when workers negotiated an agreement.
Freehills was one of seven legal firms that sent lawyers to Canberra to assist the Government in writing 687 pages of legislation last year. One senior Freehills associate was seconded to Canberra for six months.
Mr Combet said Freehills had kept a "to-do list" so it could help the Government close off a range of protections in the laws. It was now telling employers how to use the laws, he said.
"Mr Longland from Freehills is advising firms that unless they get in quick and cut out the penalty rates of their own employees under the new Work Choices laws, then someone else might get in ahead of them."
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The 730 Report last night suggested that CC hanging out for a redundancy package at QF would be better off waiting for hell to freeze over.
Howards new anti employee laws make the whole concept of redundancies, "redundant".
Staff it seems can now be sacked for "operational reasons" with no payout entitlements regardless of years of service.
The brave new world under jack boot Johnny...........which is of course EXACTLY what the Australian voter wants.............