they can't change your redundancy entitlements with current laws in place...
I'm playing devil's advocate here...
What if a max redundancy payout of 40 weeks is passed into legislation? The company has no choice but to implement it into all EBAs.
The next election can be held some time between 6 Aug & 7 Jan 2016, as early as two-and-a-half years from now, barring a double dissolution election, for which there are several potential triggers like abolishing the mining tax, so it could theoretically happen even sooner.
Single term Federal governments are extremely rare in the last 60 years and to topple this Govt it would need a stronger Opposition than this one, which had one of the biggest swings in history against it at the last election. And given the current talent pool in the Labor Opposition, playing with what's left of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd "C" team, they couldn't run a chook raffle or fight their way out of a wet paper bag. I reckon the Govt can afford to lose some skin in the next election and the agenda will be brutal for the labour movement.
I expect that the next EA negotiation is going to be tortuous given the company's position on wage freezes. As tortuous as EBAVIII perhaps? Will the Coalition tip their hand to some leading corporates with IR issues about their second term IR agenda? Will QF use delaying tactics in the hope of legislative change? Will the ALAEA be forced to play a short game to get a deal stitched up and accept lower conditions to avoid the threat of even worse?
The Coalition Govt have stated a "no surprises" first three years - but in their first 6 months we've already seen a couple: the attempt to wind back financial advice laws and weaken the Racial Discrimination Act. How many more surprises will there be, especially with the Coalition's announced focus on culling "unnecessary" legislation?
Abbott has ruled out a GST increase and IR change
in the first term, but he is sitting back and letting others do the advocating for him to convince the public of the need for both - both within the party and outside it. And what is happening at Holden, Qantas, SPC, Toyota etc - ie the constant talk of "higher labour rates and overly geneous T&Cs" - is playing right into his hands.
For those wanting "just another couple of years", they should be thinking a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush... I would be having a good long hard think about taking the money while it is there. If as is likely there is a wage freeze then the redundancy payout does not significantly increase outside of super. If the max redundancy payout of 40 weeks comes to pass, then those currently sitting on or close to the max redundancy may be working for worse than nothing over the next couple of years. What is the potential loss of half your ETP worth to you? And by going now you may just save the job of someone who REALLY REALLY needs to stay afloat for the sake of his young family.
Just my two bobs worth...