On Wednesday, June 3 2009 Unions at the ACTU Congress called on Gillard to abolish the ABCC. Ark Tribe, a South Australian construction worker, faces six months jail after being charged with allegedly refusing to attend an interrogation by the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
The Australian union movement stands behind Ark and urges the Rudd Labor Government to abolish the ABCC. The ACTU Congress unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Government to abolish the ABCC and the unjust laws that underpin it. The ABCC, set up by the Howard Government to destroy the rights of Australia’s construction workers, has the power to compel people to attend interrogations, to force those people to answer questions – with no right to silence – and can impose prison sentences on workers who refuse. The union’s at the ACTU Congress delivered a statement of concern to Gillard. It calls on the Rudd Labor Government to abolish the ABCC and ensure all Australians have access to the same rights at work.
Under the Federal Government’s IR laws that underpin the ABCC, the country’s 900,000 construction workers can be fined up to $22,000 for stopping work and face up to six months jail for refusing to attend or answer questions at secret interrogations. “The Rudd Labor Government – by failing to abolish the ABCC – has failed to restore the rights of all workers and we call on Julia Gillard, as the Minister for Workplace Relations, to stand up for the rights of construction workers,†Mr Noonan said.
“It is a shameful reflection on this Labor Government that an ordinary construction worker now faces the possibility of six months imprisonment because the Government has not removed the most extreme laws left behind by John Howard,†Mr Noonan said. “The onus is now on the Rudd Labor Government to scrap the ABCC and ensure construction workers enjoy the same rights at work as every other working Australian.†The union movement has refused to accept a re-badged version of the ABCC under the Federal Government’s new industrial umpire, Fair Work Australia in 2010. For more information please contact Dave Noonan on 0418 508 762 or Tim Fitzsimmons on 0423 375 522.
Rights on site campaigns to abolish the ABCC
No comments yet.