Compensation ACT

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Foxtel is exploiting contractors and shirking fair work responsibilities

The workers who install home services for pay TV operator Foxtel should have secure jobs and fair pay and conditions in line with Australian workplace standards.

The ACTU is backing a new campaign for secure jobs for pay TV installers, which is launched by the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union today.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said Foxtel was exploiting its pay TV installers, employing them as individual contractors through a labour hire company, which had recently begun cutting their pay and enforcing fines for taking sick days.

“These workers are victims of the epidemic of insecure employment practices across Australia, which is now affecting 40% of the workforce” Ms Kearney said.

“They are employed as individual sub-contractors, which should allow them the benefits of operating their own small business. But Foxtel does not allow them to work for anyone else and the workers have to be available seven days a week, whether it is busy or not.

“Even worse, the installers invest tens of thousands in equipment to be able to work for Foxtel, but they receive no job security. Many tell us they have not taken a holiday in years, as they can’t afford the time off or fear they won’t be given more work.

“They don’t know if they’ll be working the next day until late afternoon, or how many jobs they will get. This approach is an unfair shift of risk from business to workers and leads to enormous financial insecurity for families.

“Insecure work suits employers because it allows them to shift costs onto workers, and it is spreading into sectors that were once seen as havens for permanent and secure jobs.

“Ten per cent of the Australian workforce – more than a million people – are now contractors, and many of them are vulnerable to exactly the same exploitation. They are treated like employees, but have none of the protections or entitlements that genuine employees receive.

“Foxtel is a respected Australian brand, which should take responsibility for installers’ work conditions rather than hiding behind the cover of downstream contractors, hired through contracting firms Downer and BSA.”

Ms Kearney said Foxtel installers also missed out on many workplace entitlements and conditions – including the right to take protected industrial action and be represented by a union in collective bargaining – because they are hired as individual sub-contractors rather than employees.

Foxtel installers, supported by the CEPU telecommunications union, are making a submission to the Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work, chaired by former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe. For more information, go to securejobs.org.au
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Four years to the day Australian workers voted out WorkChoices, Liberals still want it back

On the fourth anniversary of the rejection of the Howard Government’s WorkChoices at the 2007 election, the Liberal Party has confirmed it is clinging to its ambition to return to those dark days.

In a speech last night, John Howard’s former right hand man and now Senator Arthur Sinodinos confirmed WorkChoices was a policy the Liberals still believed in.

Senator Sinodinos used his maiden speech to Parliament, on the eve of the anniversary of the Labor Party’s defeat of the Howard Government, to give what he described as a ‘brief memorial service’ to WorkChoices – the very laws that destroyed the rights of millions of working Australians, said ACTU President Ged Kearney said.

“It is time Tony Abbott came clean about the Liberals’ industrial relations policy,” Ms Kearney said.

“His continual silence is deceitful because there are plenty of his Liberal Party colleagues who are cheering for a return to WorkChoices.”

In his maiden speech last night, Senator Sinodinos agreed with statements from Tony Abbott that WorkChoices did not fail because it was bad policy, but rather because: “The truth is we failed to prepare the ground for such a major reform..."

“The Liberal party are saying they truly believe there was nothing wrong with cutting unfair dismissal, nothing wrong with individual contracts that cut pay and conditions, nothing wrong with minimum wages going backwards. And they don’t believe in a fair go.

“Mr Abbott and the Liberal Party refuse to listen to working Australians; they ignore the groundswell of support for workplace rights, for job security and for fair pay and conditions, in favour of standing up for their mates at the top end of town.

“They cannot be given another chance at Government because it is clear they will only use it to once again destroy the rights of working people.”

“Mr Abbott can be silent for as long as he likes but his Liberal MPs are doing the talking for him and they are confirming that he will overturn the hard-fought rights of working Australians.

“It is time he had the decency to admit to the Australian people just what he would do if in Government. It is time he told Australians why he believes they do not deserve what is really needed in future industrial relations reforms – that is better futures through secure jobs.”
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Unions condemn employer militancy, pledge to improve and strengthen workers’ rights

Unions have today resolved to vigorously defend workers’ rights against a new wave of employer militancy that is threatening the livelihoods of working Australians.

A meeting of unions in Melbourne today has condemned the antagonistic and counter-productive behaviour of Australian employers emboldened by the Qantas dispute, and pledged to strengthen protections for workers’ rights against being railroaded by aggressive tactics by business.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the peak body’s Executive had today resolved to seek improvements to the Fair Work Act, including allowing workers better rights to bargain for job security and strengthening access to arbitration in an even-handed manner.

“A new pattern of industrial militancy by employers has emerged following the reckless and disproportionate action of Qantas management to ground its entire fleet and threaten to lock out its workforce last month,” Ms Kearney said.

“This deliberate escalation needlessly disrupted the plans of tens of thousands of passengers and caused enormous damage to the national economy and to Qantas’ reputation. It is of serious concern that Alan Joyce and Qantas management claim to have had other major employers endorse this action.

“It is clear employers have been emboldened by Qantas’ action, in particular Liberal State Governments, including the Baillieu Government in Victoria, which prepared a secret strategy to provoke an escalation of the dispute with the state’s nurses. None of this is in the spirit of bargaining in good faith, as envisaged by the Fair Work Act.

“Productive and co-operative industrial relations are not achieved by declaring war on a company’s workforce and customers. Workers should be able to seek secure jobs and better pay and conditions without threats of lock-outs, big fines or punitive legal action, the use of strike-breakers or thugs to physically disrupt peaceful picket lines, or by other similar tactics.

“Harmonious and productive industrial relations are achieved through genuine negotiation and engagement with workers and their unions, not by making them the enemy. Responsible business and political leaders should disown such tactics as counterproductive in the workplace and contrary to the national interest.”

The ACTU Executive today resolved to pursue explicit reforms in the ALP platform at next month’s national conference to improve the ability of workers to negotiate for secure jobs, and to strengthen the rights of workers to have access to arbitration to settle disputes.

“Secure jobs matter to all workers. With 40% of the workforce in casual, contract or labour hire employment, unions are determined to campaign in workplaces and communities for a better future for these workers.

“We will take this campaign to next week’s ALP Conference and beyond,” Ms Kearney said.
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Baiada must stop the legal threats and listen to workers’ concerns about secure jobs

The management of Baiada Poultry must acknowledge low-paid employees’ concerns about insecure work and participate in negotiations for secure jobs, a safer workplace and decent pay and conditions, say unions.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the stalemate at Baiada’s chicken processing plant at Laverton in Melbourne’s west would only be resolved when management put a genuine offer to the workforce, who are taking collective action for an agreement which would include the rights for all workers at the plant to have secure jobs.

“It has not been easy for these workers to take this action but they are determined to improve the conditions of all workers and stop the erosion of secure jobs through casuals, labour hire, and cash-in-hand contractors,” said Ms Kearney, who will address a community rally at the Baiada plant this afternoon.

“They want a workplace where rights are respected, with decent pay and conditions, and better health and safety.

“It is time Baiada put aside its legal threats, told its high-paid lawyers to back off, and acknowledged these workers have genuine concerns that should be heard.

“Poultry processing is dangerous and unpleasant work, and these employees are paid minimum wages for their contribution towards the Baiada group’s annual turnover of well in excess of a $1 billion.

“All workers have the right to a secure job for a better future, and Baiada workers are taking action for those rights.”
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ACTU & ACCI call for freedom of association in Fiji

The Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Chamber of Commerce have combined to call on the government of Fiji to take immediate steps to restore workplace rights in the country, to respect international labour standards governing union and employer rights, and to comply with recommendations of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation and its tripartite Committee on Freedom of Association, which were adopted overnight in Geneva.

Both the ACTU and ACCI have been increasingly concerned at the arbitrary detention, arrest and harassment of senior trade union figures in Fiji for exercising civil and labour rights which are norms of behaviour in Australia, and recognised internationally.

Our alarm has been deepened in recent weeks with the arrest of Fiji’s national trade union President and General-Secretary, the latter even while the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association was deliberating on the case.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the unions and ACCI shared the ILO’s concern with the reports of assault, harassment and intimidation of trade union leaders and their families.

“This is in direct violation of Fiji’s international obligations. The ILO has now called on a number of occasions for the interim regime to bring its law into line with Fiji’s international obligations,” Ms Kearney said. “We have repeatedly expressed our serious concerns with the latest decree that the freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively.

“We will continue to call for a change in Fiji that brings about respect for worker’s and trade union rights. The finding of the ILO is a strong reminder to the interim regime that the world is watching and will not tolerate such actions.”

In reporting on case number 2723 (Fiji) ACCI’s Peter Anderson, who is also global employer spokesperson on the CFA, told the ILO Governing Body overnight:

“This case brings to full attention alarming and regrettable developments in this Pacific Island country. The Committee not only draws to the attention of the Governing Body this extremely serious state of affairs, but also recommends that the Fiji government accept a direct contacts mission to inquire into and press the case for application of basic international law embodied in Conventions 87 and 98. Our appeal, as representatives of the world’s employers, is to join with the international community and condemn these flagrant breaches, which taint the good name and reputation of this beautiful country in the region and within the global community.”

“History tells us that the worst abuses of fundamental rights occur when authorities close in on themselves and their people. The Committee urges the government to engage with the international community on these issues and provide immediate recompense to the trade union leaders subject to arbitrary arrest, detention, harassment and intimidation.”

A copy of the ILO CFA’s report can be found at: www.ilo.org

Media contacts
Rebecca Tucker (ACTU) 0408 031 269;
David Turnbull (ACCI) 0419 272 802
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