darinsullivan.blogspot.com: #ACTU calls for more dispute strike power | The Australian

THE union movement has launched a rearguard action against employers, pushing for a host of changes to the federal workplace laws that would strengthen their ability to strike and force employers to bargain over more workplace issues.

The ACTU will today release its submission to the Fair Work Act along with new research it says shows its proposals are in tune with a majority of voters while the employer campaign to wind back aspects of the legislation is "dramatically out of touch with public sentiment".
The ACTU submission calls for the easing of limitations on the right to strike, saying restrictions on industrial action in support of legitimate bargaining claims can not be justified.
It criticises the ban on strike action in support of "pattern claims", saying a key aspiration of workers and unions is to secure equal pay for equal work within a single industry or occupations.
Unions want to increase the number of matters that can be included in enterprise agreements, criticising the fact that parties can make an enforceable deal only about matters that "pertain" to the employment relationship.

"This quaint term has unfortunately been interpreted by the courts (many decades ago) to exclude workers' interests in ensuring that the employer does not outsource their jobs to contractors or labour hire workers; does not send their jobs overseas; continues to invest in Australia; and is a responsible corporate citizen," it says. "There is no justification for this restriction."
Unions want the government to drop the requirement that individual flexibility clauses in workplace agreements be mandatory and, in the wake of the Qantas dispute, to require employers to give three days' notice of an employee lockout.
ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said further changes to workplace laws should improve job security, rights and protections for people in insecure work, "not hand more power to employers". The ACTU survey of more than 2000 people found that 57 per cent believed that any new workplace laws should aim to give employees more reliable work, while 14 per cent said new laws were needed to give businesses greater flexibility in how they employed people.
Among Liberal voters, twice as many -- 49 to 24 per cent -- were in favour of laws to help workers.
"There is no public mood to hand over increased power to employers but, more importantly, there is no credible evidence or rationale in the way the Fair Work Act is operating to justify this either," Mr Lawrence said.
He said "employers and their fellow travellers in the Liberal Party need to stop living in the past".