Unions will seek a $26 a week pay rise for Australia’s lowest paid workers in 2012, whose wages have fallen well behind average income earners over the past decade and are not keeping pace with the cost of living.

The ACTU will today lodge its submission to Fair Work Australia’s annual wage review to increase the award wage for the lowest paid workers to $615.30 per week.

This would mean a 68c/hour increase from $15.51 per hour to $16.19 per hour. For other award-reliant workers above the benchmark tradesperson’s rate, unions will seek a 3.8% pay increase.

ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said it was time for an increase that stopped the gap between low-paid workers and other workers from growing further.

“The 1.4 million workers on award wages – one in six workers – can barely meet the cost of living let alone live comfortably in an economy that is the envy of the developed world,” Mr Lawrence said.

“It is grossly unfair that minimum wages have fallen further and further behind average wages. The purchasing power of minimum wages is now also below the level it was in 2005.

“The wage increases awarded in 2010 and 2011 have stopped minimum wage workers from falling further behind. It’s time to make up the ground that was lost under WorkChoices.”

Mr Lawrence said that while the National Minimum Wage had more or less kept pace with overall wages growth in the early 2000s, low-paid workers had lost ground under Work Choices.

Since mid-2005, overall wages have risen by 27.5%, while the NMW has gone up by 21.7%. The benchmark tradesperson’s award rate has risen by only 18.7% over the same period.

Mr Lawrence said that if the National Minimum Wage had kept pace with overall wages growth since 2005, it would now be $617.50 per week. Instead it’s just $589.30 per week.

Mr Lawrence said unions were seeking a $26 a week increase in the National Minimum Wage and in other award minimum wages up to the benchmark tradesperson’s rate, equal to a 4.4% increase. Unions are seeking a 3.8% increase for other award workers.

“Minimum wage workers are the backbone of the economy. They are the people who clean our schools and shopping centres, serve us in hotels, who take care of our elderly and our children. These are people we cannot live without, yet their value is not reflected in their pay packets. We must ensure they are not forgotten.

“An extra $26 a week is modest and affordable, but will make a difference to the lives of minimum wage workers and their families. Over the past year they have shouldered large price rises for fruit and vegetables, fuel, electricity, water, and education and childcare.

“This is money they will spend on food, clothes, fuel and other necessities in the main streets of every Australian suburb and town.”

Contact Details
Rebecca Tucker
Ph: 0408 031 269

About 100 unionists packed the Unions NSW Atrium on May 14 to discuss the right to strike campaign, at a fringe event of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress that began the same day.

Titled “Advance Australia Fair? Australian jobs and the right to strike”, the forum was sponsored by the Victorian Trades Hall Council. VTHC secretary Brian Boyd said it had not generally sponsored or organised ACTU fringe events, but this campaign warranted it.

The VTHC launched the Right to Strike campaign after it was first raised at the December 2010 Union and Community Summer School.

The forum was opened by Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon, who said that in NSW “there is no right to strike … and with Barry O’Farrell’s new laws, there is no right for unions to even affiliate to a political party of their choice any longer in NSW”.

Victorian Electrical Trades Union secretary Dean Mighell discussed what was happening to jobs of his members while their ability to take industrial action was restricted. “Jobs are being offshored to Mexico, where capital can get cheaper labour costs … Free trade is cut-throat.” He said the current mining boom was concerning: “We need to think beyond the quarry.”

ACTU president Ged Kearney discussed the union movement’s campaign around insecure work, and said the right to strike is a fundamental right.

Len Cooper, Victorian secretary of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union said: “We live in a country that is described as democratic – yet the basics of international labour laws are excluding both federal and state law.

“This is not a small issue – this affects 11 million workers. This is about the right to strike, the right to picket, the right to take solidarity action.”

Cooper said that in the capitalist crisis, many militant unionists were being sacked or seeing their jobs outsourced or offshored.

We need to defend the right to strike. And the right to strike will only be won by striking,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

Chris White, former secretary of the South Australian Trades and Labour Council and a union activist for 30 years, told the meeting that all penal powers needed to be repealed, including “all restrictions in Fair Work Australia that were adopted word-for-word from Work Choices”.

“The right to strike should not mean having to go to a commission, giving three days notice so that employers get forewarning to make contingencies to undermine workers’ industrial action. It should just be about a meeting of workers making a decision collectively.”

White also called for the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission completely, not just in name.

White said the importance of striking should not be limited to economic interests: “Unions should be able to take solidarity strikes. In the past, when Indonesia was committing genocide in East Timor, we used to be able to strike to support the people of East Timor.”

He also said the question of workers’ control and self-management needs to be on the agenda. “Workers can control our own economy without capitalists.”

In discussion, South Coast Labour Council secretary Arthur Rorris spoke strongly in favour of the campaign, saying it shouldn’t be a fringe event, and “the right to strike is the main game. Capital can strike, and we should be able to as well. If you don’t have the right to withdraw labour, you are a slave.”

Geelong Trades Hall Secretary Tim Gooden said the campaign needed to spread. He said unions should not be allowed to be picked off, but build a fighting alliance together to push the right to strike.

Gooden said the experience of unions in the Clarrie OShea case in 1969 showed that the battle to free O’Shea, who was jailed for striking, was not a short one, but a campaign built over years.

Susan Price, branch secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union at the University of NSW, said attendees should sign on to a joint statement in support of the right to strike campaign that was initiated in NSW. Many rank-and-file and union leaders had pledged support.

Initial NSW signatories to the statement include veteran trade unionist Fred Moore; assistant national secretary of the MUA Warren Smith, deputy branch secretary of the MUA in Sydney Paul Keating, NSW state secretary of the CFMEU Brian Parker, University of NSW branch secretary of the NTEU Susan Price, Sydney University branch secretary of the NTEU Michael Thomson, and state councillor of NSW Teachers Federation John Gauci.

The ACTU Congress voted on a 釘etter Bargaining Policy・ that included “restoring an effective right to strike”. This policy notes that the International Labour Organisation has described Fair Work Australia’s regulation of industrial action as 兎xcessive・ and calls for industrial action to be available without a secret ballot. The policy also calls for bosses to have to give three days notice for lockouts and not be able to use replacement labour during industrial action. It also demands an end to the outlawing of pattern bargaining, and for an end to workers or their unions facing coercive or punitive court orders from industrial action, unless Fair Work Australia has ordered an end to the industrial action.

[To sign the right to strike statement or for more information, contact Susan Price on 0400 320 602 or pricesusan9@gmail.com.]
From GLW
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51070

The campaign is called Better Jobs 4 Better Chicken and you can follow it here

http://www.betterjobsbetterchicken.org.au

Australian unions have been central to the advancement of progressive economic and social policy in the past.

Unions have fought for, and secured, vital elements of the social wage, like pensions, superannuation, Medicare, and income for the unemployed.

Australian unions have always had a vision for a fair and prosperous Australia that starts with rights at work, and looks outward beyond the workplace. Congress recognises the challenges and opportunities that Australia faces over the coming decades and commits to the development a new union agenda for the future of the economy.

 While the Australian economy has outperformed most other advanced economies since the global financial crisis (with low public sector debt, a low unemployment rate and solid real growth in average wages) the benefits of prosperity have not been shared broadly enough.

 Key areas of the economy are under pressure – the multi-speed economy is real. Some sectors, particularly trade-exposed industries such as manufacturing, finance, and tourism, are struggling with the dramatic and sustained appreciation in the exchange rate.

Jobs have been lost and more are under threat. Australia needs a comprehensive plan for sustaining employment and economic development beyond the mining boom.

 Secure jobs are becoming rarer, with precarious work on the rise. Income, job and working time insecurity have profound negative implications for workers, their families, and their communities.

 Inequality has risen, putting at risk the long-standing norm that Australian should remain a relatively egalitarian place.

 A form of corporate inequality has developed. A greater share of corporate profits are being taken by a handful of the largest companies while many smaller enterprises struggle. An enormous share of national wealth is being captured by a handful of mega-rich individuals who also seek to dominate policy making and public debate.

 Public services are under threat, with the rise of a radical ‘small government’ ideology threatening the health, education, and other vital community services that Australians take for granted.

 There has been a decade long under-investment in infrastructure and skills, leaving Australia under-equipped to grow and compete in the Asian Century.

Unions seek a strong Australia that is fair and prosperous, with secure employment for all who want it, social assistance for all who need it, and truly equal opportunities for all.

Unions seek dialogue with political parties, civil society, and business leaders on this agenda.

Consistent with the policies adopted at the Congress the ACTU will urgently convene experts from across Australian unions to develop a plan to make sure workers and their families, no matter where they live or work, benefit from a prosperous economy. The union agenda for the Australian economy will be centred on the following issues.

 Jobs & Employment: Ensuring that Government policy does everything possible to create and sustain good jobs;

 Productivity: The human and physical capital necessary to secure sustainable productivity growth that lifts real wages and workers’ living standards;

 Public Services: Securing adequate and sustainable revenue to provide high-quality public services; and a response to the ideological attacks on public services.

 Macroeconomic Policy: The appropriate framework for managing macroeconomic policy, (including the inflation target, fiscal rules, and exchange rate policy) and the possible role for policies such as the creation of a sovereign wealth fund.

 The Mining Boom: The best ways to ensure that the benefits of the current mining boom are used to benefit all Australians, including future generations of Australians;

 Inequality: Rising inequality, especially inequality of earned income, and the need for intergenerational equity;

 Personal Tax & Transfers: An equitable personal tax that will help promote social inclusion and jobs and a welfare system that does not create or entrench poverty; and

 The Social Wage: Ensuring that the components of Australia’s social wage keep pace with the evolving needs of the needs of the community;

 Corporate Tax: A corporate tax system that promotes productive investment, infrastructure development and employment, and ensures that taxes fall most heavily on sectors and companies extracting economic rents.

This ACTU Congress declares its full support for the 4,000 mineworkers who have been attempting to negotiate a new Enterprise Agreement at BHP’s seven Central Queensland coal mines for over 18-months now.

We note that the while the CFMEU, AMWU and the ETU have been negotiating in good faith BHP has refused to do so, a point made clear by its chief of global coal operations Marcus Randolph who declared in an email to staff leaked to the media that the company’s demands were “not negotiable now, next month or next year”.

This is not in the spirit of good faith bargaining.

We fully support the mineworkers in their campaign to protect their rights at work and defend vital safety, workplace and other conditions such as rosters and accommodation that would damage families and hurt mining communities if BHP has its way.

We condemn BHP’s pursuit of safety deregulation that would transfer vital safety roles from qualified workers on the job to management. We note that this was the key factor that led to the recent Pike River Disaster in New Zealand in which 29 coal miners perished. We further note that the last three big coal mine disasters in Australia all occurred at BHP mines.

We condemn BHP’s insistence on clinging to
WorkChoices provisions imposed on BHP coal mineworkers in the last EA reached in the Howard era in 2007, particularly the provision that stripped contract and labour hire workers of equal pay and conditions and have allowed them to become a source of cheap labour to undermine permanent employees.

We note that this dispute has occurred in a period when BHP has made the greatest profit in the history of Australia – $23 Billion and find it repugnant that at a time when the company has never had more it has never done less.

We call on BHP to start listening to its workforce and respect their right to bargain.
We declare the full support of the ACTU for the BHP mineworkers.

In the event that the company continues to refuse to negotiate in good faith and inflicts further harm on its workers, their families, mining communities and investors in its coal operations, we will mobilise support throughout the trade union movement in Australia and internationally.

This promise is underpinned by the fundamental commitment of Australian Unions to improving the position of the lowest paid while continuing to provide career paths to all workers which recognise their skill, responsibility and the conditions under which their work is performed.

Under successive systems, the same process has been used to set minimum wages and to adjust the rates applying in skills based classification structures.

Congress notes with regret that this has not only failed to produce fair minimum wages, but also compressed relativities, resulting in a fall in the value of real wages for workers with trade and higher qualifications. At the same time, bargaining has failed to lift the real wages of significant numbers of Australian workers. In the absence of a changed approach, this situation will continue.

Accordingly, Congress resolves that the ACTU & affiliates undertake a process to review current arrangements and determine a future strategy in relation to the Annual Wage Review by Fair Work Australia, the setting of Award rates of pay more generally and wage increases available from bargaining. The strategy will have three objectives:
a) To increase the real wages of Australian workers;
b) To restore skills based relativities; and
c) To ensure that Australian workers capture a fair share of productivity gains.
This process will consider all relevant factors, including the needs of the lowest paid, traditional relativities, living standards, market rates of pay, appropriate productivity measures for various sectors, traditional undervaluation of some forms of work and the need to continue to promote effective union collective bargaining.
This proposal will be developed through a specialist committee (including appropriate external expert assistance) to be selected by the meeting of the Executive in July. A full report and recommendations will be provided to the November 2012 Executive meeting.
Moved: Louise Tarrant Seconded: Tim Ayres

This 85 page report is well worth reading and studying, but more importantly campaigning with unions for the implementation of its recommendations too detailed to record here but covers major changes to our Fair Work Act for secure work orders.

The resolution is:
Secure Jobs. Better Future
Preamble

Despite strong and sustained economic growth, recent decades have seen a worrying and dramatic rise of insecure work in Australia.

Today, only about 60% of workers are in full-time or part-time ongoing employment; the rest – some 4 million workers – are engaged as casuals, on short-term contracts, in labour hire, or as independent contractors.

Insecure work leaves a large section of the workforce not sharing in our national economic prosperity. They have inferior rights, entitlements and job security to their counterparts in ongoing employment.

It makes it tough for working families to plan for their future when they cannot rely on regular incomes, but have rising household costs and are shouldering more and more household debt.

The rise of insecure work in Australia is the result of a business model that shifts the risks from the employer to the employee.

Australian unions do not believe a strong, prosperous economy must come at the expense of quality jobs, of respect for workers’ rights, and of workers exercising some control over their working lives.

Resolution
Congress welcomes the report of the Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work in Australia and thanks the Inquiry panel for their work.

The report we have heard today demonstrates that this issue is not confined to the margins of the Australian labour market. Insecure work can affect any worker – blue collar, white collar, private sector, public sector. It affects younger and older workers and, disproportionately, women, indigenous workers and workers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

It affects the high skilled as well as the low skilled.
But there is no reason why we should accept that a modern economy must drive insecurity at work.
Congress commits to a properly resourced Secure Jobs. Better Future campaign.

Congress recommends that the report be properly considered with appropriate recommendations incorporated into a detailed campaign plan to be submitted for approval at the next meeting of ACTU Executive.

The campaign will work actively to diminish the incidence of insecure work in the Australian labour market and will be aimed at actively and effectively involving the ACTU, Trades and Labour Councils, National and State unions and community partners.

The campaign will be multi-layered and will involve workplace, industrial, political, and community strategies to tackle the issue. It will include a clear framework for legislative changes and will outline a high profile communications strategy.

We believe reliable workers should have jobs they and their families can rely on with:

 Fair and predictable pay and hours of work;

 A say about how, where, and when they work, and to be consulted about change;

 Access to important conditions like annual leave, paid sick leave, overtime, penalty rates and long service leave;

 Protection from unfair dismissal;

 Quality skills and training and career opportunities; and

 A healthy and safe work environment.
To achieve these aims, Congress determines, as part of the Secure Jobs. Better Future campaign, to pursue an industrial and legislative agenda that includes:

 Improved regulation of the labour market that provides all workers with a universal set of protections and entitlements;

 Reducing and removing the ability of employers to shift economic risk onto their workforce;

 Measures to provide better protections to workers employed indirectly through labour hire and agency arrangements, and eliminate disguised employment arrangements like sham contracting; and

 Measures that empower workers in insecure work to build a working life based on dignity, respect and fair recognition of their work.

On today’s ACTU opening, with about 1,000 delegates from every industry and occupation in Australia the ACTU and unions having 2 million unionists, began in a most professional public presentation of policies and speeches, a strong reality of unity amongst the unions and left and right factions in consensus.

After a wonderful dance aboriginal welcome and stirring rendition with all delegates singing Solidarity Forever For the Union Makes Us Strong, Jeff Lawrence gave his farewell speech and tributes to him and Ged Kearney her opening address

http://www.actucongress.org.au/site/congressmedia/speeches-and-opinion/1610-opening-address-by-actu-president-ged-kearney

and indeed all the draft and eventually final policies can be accessed at
http://www.actucongress.org.au/site/

Incoming Secretary Dave Oliver, who already you see is a strong media performer and who promises to lead campaigns to achieve ACTU policies, gave his union life story. He pushed and achieved an improved campaign fund http://www.actucongress.org.au/site/attachments/resolutions/motions/Campaign_Fund_draft_resolution.pdf

Appropriately the first ACTU policy is to campaign for stronger delegates’ rights. Over 150,000 worker elected union representatives on the job are the backbone and key to worker power and success. It is about time that the ALP government does give basic legislative protection and lawful rigths for union shop stewards and delegates in a Charter of Delegates Rights (download it from the site)…we will see.The new web is www.delegatesonline.org
Union leaders showcased the challenges of organising with speeches explaining how the CPSU organised with it’s delegates leading successful bargaining campaign against the Commonwealth government. The NUW explained working to unionise chicken factory workers and winning difficult strikes with community pickets – see on this blog reports of the Baida dispute – and a campaign ‘I give a pluck’ and
www.betterjobsbetterchicken.org.au for poultry workers.

The AWU showcased how they tackled the giant corporate Rio Tinto well known for its aggressive anti-unionism in organising Tasmanian Bell Bay aluminium workers who were being paid $20,000 less than those workers doing the same work. The TCFUA explained their sucessful national campaign to get the Gillard government and the Parliament to pass strong laws for outworkers getting paid $5 an hour to sew in their homes to be now nationally in law employees and entitled to minimum award wages and conditions and with some 20 of these outworkers on stage themselves now as unionists explaining their sucessful campaign to try to end sweatshops, now not alone. See photos here
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150125244352492.301460.834557491&type=1

United Voice had delegates as early childhood educators explaining their Big Steps campaign to try to lift the low wages to reflect the professionalism of early childhood educators and if this does not happen then more and more of these workers will leave the sector to get higher wages elsewhere. See http://bigsteps.org.au/

After lunch Congress welcomed and praised PM Gillard who praised unions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2kqWBM3QwQ&feature=youtu.be

The better bargaining policy was presented and endorsed that includes pushing for amendments to the Fair Work Act for the right to strike.

This includes linking the Secure Jobs campaign to the right to strike.

Some of the details are:

“Choice of content in Agreements
5. Congress stands by its 2006 policy that the matters to be included in a collective agreement should be for the parties to agree subject to agreements meeting a genuine no disadvantage test. Congress notes that the Constitutional basis of the Fair Work Act provides no justification for the retention of the “matters pertaining to the employment relationship” test.

6. Recognising the challenges of a global economy and workers’ interests in secure work and a clean energy future, workers must be free to pursue claims in relation to matters relating to their job security and the impact the work performed under their agreement may have on the environment, including claims that may impose conditions relating to performance of work by persons other than the employees to whom the agreement applies.

7. The ACTU accordingly calls for the “permitted matters” restriction to be replaced in favour of a general requirement the enterprise agreements contain “terms regulating relations between employers, workers and their representatives and their social, economic or employment interests”.

…bargaining representatives should be free to agree on workplace consultation, representation and unfair dismissal protocols between workers, unions and the employer that best suit their respective needs.

In this context: a) The statutory entry rights for permit holders and the statutory unfair dismissal procedure should be considered minimum standards to be built upon in bargaining and the legislation should not restrict this. b) The model consultation and dispute resolution terms provided in legislation must at a minimum also require meaningful consultation and disclosure of relevant information concerning proposed changes to job descriptions, proposed outsourcing or proposed changes to the legal or operational structure of an employer’s business before a final decision and associated third party commitments have been made.

Choice of parties to Agreements
11. Consistent with the principle that parties should be free to determine the level at which they bargain, bargaining for multiple employer agreements should involve the same rights, processes and conciliation from Fair Work Australia as apply to single employer agreements …
12. Unions and employers should be free to agree to extend an agreement from another enterprise in the same industry to apply to them where FWA is satisfied this is not contrary to the public interest, or to reach agreements in terms that apply to a particular class of work performed for the benefit of a particular business, irrespective of the chain of supply, labour hire or other contracting and employment arrangements that are utilised by that business. …

16. Individual Flexibility Arrangements should be optional rather than mandatory and be stand-alone arrangements that do not purport to modify entitlements that exist outside of the collective agreement to which they relate. …

21. To ensure equal access to collective bargaining for all workers, Competition and Consumer legislation should be amended to permit unrestricted union representation for independent contractors. More broadly, workers should be entitled to representation by their union in all Courts and Tribunals that exercise jurisdiction in work related matters.

22. To assist in bargaining and implementation of agreements, the minimum statutory framework for right of entry must a) Place a positive obligation on employers and occupiers of premises to notify their workforce when union officials will be on site and where they will be located. A standard notice should be provided in the Regulations for this purpose which informs workers that they have a right to participate in those discussions. b) Require the employer/occupier to provide a private room for discussions. c) Forbid observation or monitoring of discussions, including observation or monitoring of the attendance and departure of participants in those discussions.

Fair, simple and democratic rules for industrial action
Restoring an effective right to strike

23. Congress notes that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has described the Fair Work Act’s processes for regulating access to protected industrial action as `excessive’.

24. Legally protected industrial action should be available to workers seeking a collective agreement, without the necessity for a secret ballot.

25. Unions will not take industrial action unless it is democratically endorsed in accordance with their internal processes. However, unions should have optional access to secret ballots supervised by Fair Work Australia or the Australian Electoral Commission free of charge should they so choose, in accordance with a brief timetable and voting method that is appropriate to the particular size, circumstances and wishes of the workers concerned.

26. Irrespective of whether unions utilise internal processes or choose to avail themselves of ballot processes administered by Fair Work Australia or the Australian Electoral Commission, there should be no role for employers other than a positive obligation of non-interference.

27. Once protected industrial action is duly authorised, the Act should make it clear that it continues to be authorised and available to all union members irrespective of changes in the size or composition of the workforce seeking to be covered by an agreement.

28. While recognising that the only protected industrial action that employers are permitted to take is a lockout, Congress notes that workers are unduly prejudiced by snap lockouts and as such employers should be required to give 3 clear working days written notice of an intention to lock out their workforce.
29.

In line with ILO recommendation 188, international best practice and previous Congress policy, employers should not be permitted to engage replacement labour during periods of protected industrial action.

Giving the umpire choice
30. The right to take protected industrial action should not be subject to administrative interference other than in the exceptional circumstances of: a) Threats to life, personal safety or health, or the welfare, of the population or part of it; or b) Significant damage to the Australian economy or an important part of it.

31. In those exceptional circumstances the object of the legislation should be to give Fair Work Australia a discretion to do what is necessary to obviate the identified risk with minimum interference to the union’s capacity to organise its activities and the workers’ right to strike, and allow the bargaining process to continue unless there is no reasonable prospect of agreement being reached.

For example, where Fair Work Australia finds that the exceptional circumstances arise substantially from particular employer response action or particular employee response action, and is satisfied that action is disproportionate, Fair Work Australia may choose to suspend or terminate the particular protected action that is giving rise to those exceptional circumstances, while allowing the bargaining and other protected action to continue. In a different case FWA might be satisfied it should terminate all protected action and order a post industrial action negotiation period to precede arbitration of a workplace determination.

32. Fair Work Australia should not be compelled to cancel a union’s industrial campaign as a reward to a significant employer threatening to hold the nation’s economy to ransom, however it should be empowered to order such employer action to cease.

33. Similarly, and to complement the breadth of bargaining endorsed in this policy, engaging in pattern bargaining should not diminish the right to take protected industrial action.

34. In line with the principle of accountable discretion underlying this policy, there should be no power to a Minister to terminate protected action.

35. Orders to stop or prevent unprotected industrial action must be the domain of Fair Work Australia in the first instance and Fair Work Australia must have discretion as to whether it issues those orders.

36. No worker or union should be subject to coercive or punitive orders from a Court as a consequence of unprotected industrial action, irrespective of whether an agreement applies to their work or has passed its nominal expiry date, unless Fair Work Australia has first ordered that the industrial action stop, not occur or not be organised.
Good faith, fair play and better access to arbitration

A genuine voice for all workers
37. Loopholes that permit employers to coerce workers to stop or cease exercising their rights to take protected action must be closed. In particular, employers should be forbidden from evicting workers from employer sponsored accommodation or taking any other action that would directly affect their living arrangements, and should be bound to make proportional payments for work performed in the event of protected action constituted by partial work bans.

38. In any bargaining process, workers have a right to be represented and that right should not be defeated by practical barriers or a voting cohort that does not represent the workers who will ultimately be bound by the agreement. Accordingly:

a) For any proposed agreement, where the workforce to be covered by the agreement comprises one third or more of short or long term visa workers, the employer must (as a condition for Fair Work Australia approving the agreement) facilitate an opportunity for the workers to meet and confer with a representative from a union eligible to represent those workers (and any foreign language interpreter if required) within 14 days of the notification time for the agreement. b) In circumstances where the number or identity of the workforce changes significantly within 1 year after an agreement is approved, the workers upon demonstrating majority support should be able to bring forward the nominal expiry date of the existing agreement.

Resolving deadlocks
39. The good faith bargaining requirements provide important rights and obligations however there is a need to develop more effective remedies to combat surface bargaining. With this in mind, Congress endorses the following four pronged reform to the Fair Work Act: a) It should be a good faith bargaining requirement that employers facilitate meetings of workers (and any union representative the workers invite) in paid time within 14 days of the notification time for any proposed
agreement, to discuss bargaining claims. As with other good faith bargaining requirements, this would operate when there is agreement to bargain or a majority support determination in place.

b) It should be a good faith bargaining requirement to refrain from submitting an enterprise agreement to a vote until the bargaining representatives are agreed on that course or bargaining is at an impasse. As with other good faith bargaining requirements, this would operate when there is agreement to bargain or a majority support determination in place.

c) Non-compliance with the good faith bargaining requirements must be a basis to object to the approval of enterprise agreements by Fair Work Australia. Where such an objection is proven, the result should be a decision to not approve agreement which is complemented by a suitable bargaining order to progress good faith bargaining.

d) There should be access to “first bargaining workplace determinations” for groups of workers that include classes of workers in an enterprise who have not been previously covered by a collective agreement made under the Fair Work Act, or previously covered by a workplace determination. It would complement, rather than be a substitute for, access to arbitration as a consequence of a serious breach declaration.

40. Access to first bargaining workplace determinations would not require resort to any protected industrial action, and would not interfere with rights to take protected industrial action unless/until arbitration had commenced. Access to first bargaining workplace determinations would require as prerequisites:

a) A majority support determination that recorded that the proposed agreement included classes of workers in an enterprise who have not been previously covered by a collective agreement made under the Fair Work Act, or previously covered by a workplace determination; and

b) A failure to make the proposed agreement (or an agreement with a scope including any of the classes workers identified in the majority support determination) within 90 days from the date of that majority support determination issuing; and

c) A failure to make the proposed agreement (or an agreement with a scope including any of the classes workers identified in the majority support determination) following 30 days of compulsory conciliation presided over by Fair Work Australia; and

d) Satisfaction by Fair Work Australia that bargaining representatives will be unlikely to succeed in concluding the terms of an enterprise agreement that will be approved by the workers in the immediate future.

41. Arbitration for first bargaining workplace determinations would involve the resolution of disputed claims. First Bargaining workplace determinations would record the agreed terms and the arbitrated resolution of disputed claims and have a nominal expiry date of no longer than four years. Before making a First Bargaining Workplace Determination, Fair Work Australia must be satisfied that it
would leave the workers better off overall as compared to the modern award (or award based transitional instrument), and any equal remuneration order or take home pay order, and any over award entitlements customarily enjoyed by those workers.
Playing to our strengths

42. While actively campaigning in support of our reform agenda, Congress commits to continuing to ensure the benefits currently available through bargaining under the Fair Work Act are realised for the greatest number of Australian workers.
Inclusion of claims, consistent with other Congress decisions, for improved hours of work, increased job security, improved conditions for casuals and other workers with precarious employment, better work and family balance, delegates’ rights, greater superannuation entitlements, protection and portability of employee entitlements and paid training leave.”
(see final version soon to be posted on the website).

“Unions have a responsibility to represent, grow and organise the next generation of workers and union members. Unions need to actively focus on growth, organising and education strategies for young workers.

Investigate offering fee structures based on hours worked, classification of work or a “no work means no fee” policy to enable young workers to take out union membership;

Appoint a Youth Contact Officer in each branch who is responsible for encouraging activism amongst young members.

…offering legal support and advice;

Having policies around allowing young workers to join when they call for support if they are in a non-unionised workplace and have not previously been asked to join a union.

Young workers often frequently change jobs and industries. Affiliates are encouraged to develop specific strategies to encourage the retention of young workers within the union movement.

Consider young workers in communication strategies to ensure that young people can relate to their message; improved uses of modern technology, i.e. social media and SMS, to better update members on Union activities; and

…education should focus on the essential role that unions play in both the workplace and in society, the importance of workplace rights, and should educate young people on how collective action can lead to positive change and better lives. …working with teachers and education representatives to ensure that students are educated on the role and importance of unions; and organize in Universities, youth community organisations, National Youth Week.

….educate young people on their industrial rights, safety and positively promote the roles unions play.

Unions need to engage in leadership development of our young union officials, with union Summer, Organising Works;

…for career development, training and mentoring within the movement.

…young people are more likely to be injured at work and are often unfamiliar with workplace hazards, safety procedures and their rights.

Regulators enforcing the current laws to ensure employers are meeting their obligations to workers young workers for education and training and providing a safe, hazard free workplace;

The education of young workers about health and safety issues in their own policies and encourage the involvement of young workers in their own health and safety committees and programs;

The investigation into the adequacy of the current health and safety legislation and its enforcement with particular focus on bullying and harassment and protecting workers from bullying and harassment and the associated injuries…

…Include young people specifically in union campaigns, and EBA campaigns and negotiations, to promote ongoing involvement and skill development.”

As this blog has advocated that in empowering workers at work planning for the unions’ last resort means of advancing claims with effective industrial action does not feature in the Youth policy, but does so in the Better Bargaining policy.

Go for the full draft policy http://www.actucongress.org.au/site/