Industrial Relations
The Australian Democrats support an industrial relations system that provides for the
orderly regulation of employment practices in a way that maximises and balances productivity,
jobs growth, and job security while ensuring fair and just pay, conditions, and treatment.
The Democrats are committed to your right to:
- maximum weekly hours
- entitlement to a stable income
- meaningful entitlement to overtime payment
- access to modern work and family practices
- job security
- collective bargaining
- entitlement to penalty rates for working public holidays.
Principles
The Australian Democrats will pursue the practice of these principles within Victoria and nationally:
- A strong, independent, and principled arbitration body. This body must protect the interests
of the low paid workers in a weak bargaining position (e.g. women, young people, migrants, and
casual workers) and settle industrial disputes, particularly where the outcome would otherwise
be unfair.
- A comprehensive, up-to-date, simplified, and useable award system. Awards must include all
of the important conditions for workers as well as operating as a useful employment reference
for employers.
- Support for enterprise bargaining between employees, their union, and employers in workplaces
where both parties want to bargain and have adequate skills and representation to make bargaining
work. However, there must be access to arbitration if agreement cannot be reached and the
outcome would otherwise by unfair.
- Support for a safety net for employees who are unable to protect their interests through
enterprise bargaining (e.g. through National Wage Cases, awards, and arbitration).
- Support for a non-discriminatory skills based wages system that does not discriminate
against youth.
- Support government oversight to ensure equal remuneration for work of equal value as a means
of closing the male/female wage gap.
- Ensuring that public sector workers have access to arbitration as an alternative to
industrial disputes and the making of paid rates awards where agreement cannot be reached with the
State government on wages and conditions.
- Support for reasonable hours, and measures that prevent employees working consistently long
or unreasonable hours, except in emergency situations.
- New institutional arrangements to protect the interests of employees not represented by
unions.
- Ensuring that no worker is dismissed unfairly. Following a reasonable probationary period subsequent to
employment, workers must be given several warnings with fair reason before dismissal.
Work and Family
The Australian Democrats recognise the growing pressure felt by the 60% of workers who have
family responsibilities, and the need for flexible work places that are friendlier to families.
Australia needs to improve the security and conditions of part-time work and to assist working
families on the birth of children.
Parents should have more choice about whether they enter the paid workforce, or assume
full-time parenting responsibilities. State and Federal governments must recognise the economic
value of work performed in the home (estimated as the equivalent of $261 billion in 1997 or
48% of our gross domestic product), and the enormous burden of what many working mothers call
the "second shift"—the average of 44 hours a week of work in the home they perform on
top of their paid employment.
The Australian Democrats propose:
- A paid parental leave scheme. This will extend the provision of paid parental leave
through a basic contribution from government funds and negotiated "top up" contributions from
employers, so that all Australian parents in paid work receive at least a minimum payment for 12 weeks
when a couple have a child.
- A review of the impact of awards and agreements on the balance of work and family
responsibilities particularly in relation to the flexibility of working hours.
- Enterprise bargaining and changes to hours of work on workers with family responsibilities, and ensuring
that any abuse of hours by employers are promptly dealt with.
- An information campaign (including access to counselling services) to encourage both parents
to share home care duties.
- Improved childcare support, including tax concessions for the construction and provision of
work-based childcare or childcare places in other facilities
Youth Wages
Youth wages are one of the worst examples of age-based discrimination. The Australian
Democrats remain steadfastly opposed to an arbitrary discriminatory approach to wage fixing,
and have argued strongly against both Labor and the Coalition for those over 18 years having
a skills-based system substituted for age-based wages.
"Youth" has an absurdly wide definition under current Australian federal and state youth
wages law. Employees who are 18-22 years can be paid junior rates in many industries—notwithstanding
the facts that at these ages they can vote, have a family, and join the armed forces to fight
for their country.
This situation is often used to exploit young people as a cheap work force for menial "McJob"
labour, and is in breach of the Universal Declaration Human Rights that Australia signed
in 1948 which declares that "Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to equal pay for
equal work."
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