The ACTU calls for workplace rights to be strengthened for women and millions of Australians in casual and insecure work in its submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry into workplace relations.
Australian Unions also call for the minimum wage and penalty rates to be protected as well as greater rights for workers to bargain collectively, including labour hire and temporary workers.
Australia’s workplace system is based on fairness, equality, protection of the vulnerable and rewards for hard work.
This is a system Australians have demonstrated they want and support.
Instead of trying to destroy these foundations as the employer lobby is calling for and as the Coalition Government tried to do with WorkChoices – the Productivity Commission should build on these fundamental principles to ensure workers’ rights are protected and that there is a role for policy intervention to ensure all Australians are paid fairly for their efforts.
In our submission to the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Framework, Australian Unions call for action to:
The ACTU urges the Productivity Commission to consider the following points when reviewing employer submissions to the inquiry into workplace relations:
ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said, “Australia’s workplace system is based on fairness, equality, protection of the vulnerable and rewards for hard work – the system works and has the support of the Australian community.
“Women make up more than half of our workforce and there are millions of Australians in casual or insecure work – they deserve the decency of a secure job and equal rights at work.
“The minimum wage and penalty rates must be protected for Australia to avoid developing a US-style underclass of working poor.
“Unions are calling on the Productivity Commission to use this inquiry to improve workplace rights for Australian workers and reject extreme attempts by the employer lobby to dismantle the system in order to cut wages and rights at work.
“Australian workers know the Coalition Government called this inquiry into workplace rights in an effort to cut penalty rates, abolish the minimum wage, bring back unfair individual contracts and swing even more power to the employers.”