150 Gosford Council members enjoyed a Your Rights at Work barbecue put on at Erina Depot by the USU on Tuesday 17 July. Steve Hughes, USU Manager Northern got the formal part of the barbecue underway by congratulating Gosford Council on their recent decision to allow the establishment of a USU Workplace Organising Committee (WOC).
The WOC is made up of USU delegates and contacts and will meet during work time to discuss workplace issues and develop USU responses.
Get Active! Steve encouraged members to speak up and get active at their workplace, as well as in the Your Rights at Work campaign because it’s not only current working conditions which are being eroded, it’s the working conditions of future generations - your children and grandchildren.
Belinda Neal, the ALP’s candidate for Robertson in the upcoming Federal election and Brendan O’Connor, Chair of the ALP’s Federal Parliamentary taskforce on Industrial relations also addressed the gathering and spoke strongly of Labor’s commitment to overturning the WorkChoices legislation, and in particular that AWAs would be abolished.
Larissa Stephens, a 21 year old who used to be employed by a Hunter Valley mining company described her experience under WorkChoices, an experience which shows how easy it is for a bad employer to use the Federal Coalition government’s extreme IR changes to make an employee’s life difficult.
2 weeks into her employment, Larissa was told by her manager to sign an AWA. Some of the provisions of the AWA included:
• A requirement for Larissa to give 12 hours notice of sick leave. If she didn’t provide that notice, she’d be fined $200. • A requirement for Larissa to re-pay any costs associated with training and safety equipment (eg hard hats etc) • A requirement to provide 7 days notice of her resignation, even though Larissa was employed as a casual, on 12 hour roster, and her employer only had to give ˝ hour notice to terminate her employment. If Larissa did not give this notice, all of her entitlements would be withheld. • A confidentiality clause. If Larissa did speak with anyone about the provisions in the AWA, she would be sacked.
Larissa refused to sign the AWA, and she doesn’t work at the mine anymore. Larissa’s experience is a damning example of how a rogue employer can use the Federal Coalition government’s “WorkChoices” legislation to attack the conditions and pay of workers and their families.
