National Day of Action

Newcastle's National Day of Action

I attended with other Greens (including Jane Smith, Greens candidate for Charlestown) the National day of Action in Newcastle at Energy Australia stadium today with more than 6,000 other people concerned about the Howard Government's Workchoices legislation.

We saw the telecast from Melbourne and heard from local speakers, including Mal Peters, a construction worker from Western Australia.

We were told that Mal had lost his job simply for speaking out publicly about the Government's building industry and work laws, used to serve 107 rail project workers with summonses for federal prosecution, with potential fines of up to $28,600.

The telecast included other cases of workers sacked under the Howard legislation.

Though the High Court has ruled 5-2 in favour of the constitutional validity of Howard government’s WorkChoices regime, the NSW government has the legal ability to stand up to the Howard government and draft legislation that fireproofs NSW workers from WorkChoices.

The Greens’ industrial relations legal adviser, barrister David Shoebridge, has provided advice that shows the NSW government can go further to protect all public sector workers. Mr Shoebridge also advises that the basic conditions of all employees who’s employers seek to tender for NSW government contracts can also be protected by state legislation.

Greens NSW upper house MP Lee Rhiannon has introduced a private members’ bill – Protecting NSW Workers from WorkChoices Bill 2006 – that if passed would comprehensively protect NSW public sector workers and many private sector workers from WorkChoices, even in light of the High Court’s ruling.

“The Greens’ bill changes the employment status of workers of state owned corporations and local government workers. These workers would no longer by employees of a corporation, but of a natural person in the form of the CEO or General Manager. If passed this would shield these thousands of workers from the damaging impact of WorkChoices.

“The Bill also creates a separate legislative requirement that tenderers of NSW government services pay employees and provide working conditions at rates that are no less than comparable to workers on state awards.

“If Premier Iemma had a real commitment to shielding NSW workers from WorkChoices he could enact legislation modelled on the Greens’ bill today.

“The Greens are committed to doing everything we can to combat the adverse effects of WorkChoices and we will use this private members bill to campaign, with workers and unions, in the lead up to March 2007,” Ms Rhiannon said.