Australian Unions Resist Government's Labour Reforms

Australian trade union leaders are fine tuning a National Union Fightback Campaign against the conservative coalition government of Prime Minister John Howard’s radical reforms. Such industrial relations reforms would further weaken collective bargaining. Howard’s reforms, expected to be rushed into law after conservatives take control of the Australian Parliament’s Senate next month, will destroy the power of the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to set minimum wage, job classification structures and minimum statutory employment conditions.

It will abolish the IRC’s ability to judge cases of unfair dismissal of workers in businesses employing less than 100, or two-thirds of all Australian workers. If enacted, approval of enterprise bargaining agreements will pass from the IRC to an agency that now regulates the Howard creation of individual contracts between employees and employers. The draconian reforms will also strip the country’s states from employment regulation in favour of a centralized federal system. Trade unions have the support of Australian state governments in resisting the Howard plan.