Nothing if you are made redundant
An ALP government insisting there be no redundancy entitlements for millions of working families! This is another outrage.
The Rudd government’s vigorous hard-line to keep WorkChoices to appease employer interests is denying any redundancy pay to workers who work for businesses under 15.
With this severe capitalist financial crisis, these are the precarious workers already suffering the fear of redundancies and facing insecurity and then poverty as unemployment increases.
Redundancy is when the employer decides that work is not to be done by anyone. Unions argued years ago for minimum award provisions before the AIRC . The 2004 National Redundancy case– gave nothing under one year’s service, 1 year and less than 2 years is 4 weeks’ pay up to 9 years less than 10 years 16 weeks’ pay and over 10 years 12 weeks– not much really.
Outrageously, WorkChoices abolished these minimums and many workers lost the safety net for severance pay (unless they were in a strong union who was able to negotiate a redundancy agreement.)
DPM Gillard ruled out severance pay for employees in small business made redundant through no fault of their own to be protected in the proposed National Employment Standards.
But the DPM also wants the award minimums for small business not to have redundancy pay.
This is despite the umpire’s ruling that as a general proposition employees of small business ought not to be discriminated against and the losses suffered and no wage income facing unemployment is the same as those for employers in larger businesses.
The evidence is that small business has the capacity to pay.
These principles were accepted by SA Industrial Commission where I argued some 20 years ago the principle of looking after the redundant employee was paramount over management prerogative to make e.g employees with 20 year’s service redundant with no notice and no compensation.
The award minimum is not really sufficient.
Working families ought to have to have time to adjust to redundancies with a national minimum notice of three months.
It is no fault of the employee, so compensation in recognition of past service, to cope with unemployment and ease the transition, with a minimum of one months pay for each year of service is reasonable. This is looking after the long-serving employee who has put so much into the business. it is the minimum in China.
This is what a Rudd government ought to be guaranteeing in this economic crisis.
But unless we protest it will not change.
The capitalist press hailed victory for small business.
Powerful business associations welcomed in the coming recession the ‘freedom’ of employers of business fewer than 15 to make workers redundant with nothing.
The ACTU ‘strongly supports the inclusion in all modern awards of a redundancy standard which includes small business redundancy entitlements. The standard will play a critical role in maintaining the existing entitlements of many employees to redundancy pay and in restoring a degree of fairness and equity to the federal award safety net.’
YRAW rally Canberra against Howard's WorkChoices
DPM Gillard had her Department to predict redundancies and cost for small business of $58.8 million…but this is the amount redundant employees deserve in order to survive!
Redundant employees spend their payout in order to live, stimulating the economy.
If Rudd is so concerned with this small cost to business, and in terms of his ‘fair go ‘ rather than nothing to employees, why not a National Redundancy scheme out of the surplus. Billions to prop up banks, but not to help employees!
The political risk for Rudd is many of these working families in this redundancy instance voted for Labor but now cannot rely on PM Rudd to keep his core promise to repeal WorkChoices.
Furthemore, as argued in this blog, without an emergency Commonwealth injection to the State’s Public Housing schemes for emergency shelter of a billion dollars, then these redundant families in 2009-2010 will face homelessness.
