- Target:
- Australian Federal and State Government
- Region:
- Australia
Today I would like to start a campaign to propose some changes to the way the Australians work and live. Over the years in the automotive trade I have seen workplace laws change for the worse and not everyone may be aware of just how they have changed and how these new laws affect us all. These new laws are always biased leaning in favour of employers and don’t seem to take into account the sacrifices made by workers.
Workers sacrifice a great deal of their youth in service of business for a wage and now days it is apparent that the word “salary” has somehow been snuck in to our system and accepted without challenge and this seems a gross miss-justice in this day and age. A salary is different to a wage. A salary is a fixed amount of pay for work including overtime without penalty rates. A wage is your base wage for a 38 hour week excluding overtime. Any overtime after this initial 38 hours is paid for with penalty rates. There appears to be a lean towards an American style unregulated system where employers have all the power and employees can either take it or leave it.
As a citizen of this country by accepting these changes without challenge it feels as though we have sold out our ideals of fairness and simple justice for all without what appears any fight at all. As a nation of workers and someone who is a worker these changes I find unacceptable. How can we base our lives on a system which is constantly changing for the worse with little or no regard to workers plight and sit back and let it happen. It is time for change and in particular to adopt our own national system of workplace regulations that are fair to workers and not just employers.
Its time to draft a bill of rights for the workplace that protect the fundamental underpinning ideals this country stands for. We as a nation cannot continue manipulating people’s lives in this country as it bests suits minorities and big business. There needs to be some equity and fairness in this system and fundamental minimum rights we can all fall back on. These rights are not just something to suit workers but something we as a nation can pass onto a new generation. A generation that can be protected from the greed of a minority. After all, this is people’s lives we are dealing with.
I propose the following rights. These current rights are also listed by the N.E.S. The National Employment Standards which apply to all employees in the private sector. On the following page I have listed the current National Employment Standards as taken from the Industrial relations laws. The bold red text contains changes I propose.
1. Maximum weekly hours of work – 38 hours per week, plus reasonable additional hours.
(Plus reasonable additional hours means any employer can stipulate any hours they wish on a job and be as unreasonable as they wish. A 38 hour week means a 38 hour week and any additional hours should not be compulsory or a prerequisite to land a certain job and paid for using all the required penalty rates that apply. A salary undermines this model by allowing a employer to pay a fixed amount for services above the 38 hour working week. Most companies use this tactic to force people to work all sorts of unreasonable hours without pay in the form of overtime etc and salary in Australia should be outlawed. There is nothing reasonable about working hours above 38 hours a week by force and not being paid penalty rates or being able to land a job because you refuse to work under these conditions.)
2. Request for flexible working arrangements – allows parents or carers of a child under school age or of a child under 18 with a disability to request a change in working arrangements to assist with the child’s care.
3 – Temp work can only be for a period lasting no more than 3 months no longer than standard trial period. When this period is expired the employee must be made permanent or dismissed.
4. Parental leave and related entitlements – up to 12 months unpaid leave for every employee, plus a right to request an additional 12 months unpaid leave plus other forms of maternity, paternity and adoption related leave.
5. Annual leave – 4 weeks of paid leave per year, plus an additional week for certain shift workers.(As it stands right now employers can force employees to take annual leave at a moment’s notice regardless of how much leave has accumulated leaving an employee with no leave accrued severely restricting how an employee might get to spend their leave. Further to this there is no requirement for employers to put workers leave into trust accounts and employers use this accrued leave to help balance the budget at employee’s expense. Worse still when a company goes bust employees leave is also affected in the process where long serving employees can lose everything despite many years of loyal service. I propose legislation be introduced that require employers contribute employees leave entitlements into a trust fund to preserve and protect leave entitlements for all. If done properly the trust fund can be a interest bearing account which could also help pay for the loadings of the leave through interest earned and can be a win for both workers and employers through relevant tax breaks. Unless a company or business closes for a certain period, no employee should be forced to take leave without their consent. Any company going into receivership or broke must not affect employee’s accrued leave in trust. If an employee dies then the accrued leave must be provided to next of kin unless will specified otherwise in legal will. There is no cap on accrued leave. Taking of more than 3 months leave constitutes leaving the company)
6. Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave – 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave, two days unpaid carer’s leave as required and two days compassionate leave (unpaid for casuals) are required.
7. Community service leave – unpaid leave for voluntary emergency activities and leave for jury service with an entitlement to be paid for up to 10 days for jury service.
8. Long service leave – an entitlement to accrue long service leave. (similarly to my proposal requiring employers contribute to a leave trust fund, I would also seek to require contributions of long service leave into the same trust fund. In the event of an employee’s death any accrued long service leave must be returned to the next of kin unless there is a will stipulating otherwise. No cap on accrued leave exists. )
9. Public holidays – a paid day off on the 8 national public holidays plus any state or local public holidays. (Public Holidays must be protected In this charter. Working on public holidays must be optional and not forced and when chosen all penalty rates apply. The cancellation of paid public holidays and picnic days is strictly prohibited)
10. Notice of termination and redundancy pay – up to 4 weeks notice of termination (5 weeks if the employee is over 45 and has at least 2 years of continuous service) and up to 16 weeks redundancy pay, both based on length of service. (Redundancy pay should also be put into trust and protected like annual leave accruements by law)
11. Provision of a Fair Work Information Statement – employers must provide this statement to all new employees. (This statement must not contravene the following bill of rights)
12. Employment contracts, individual or collective must not in any way shape or form undermine or attempt to subvert any of the Australian workers charter of rights.
13. Freedom of association and right to legal representation is a must. (No person who applies for work, works for or has a dispute with an employer over rights is allowed to be dismissed for seeking their rights contained in this bill. Further any attempts by companies or business to intimidate or force an employee to work contrary to this bill should be a criminal offence. This is a severe humanitarian issue that affects entire families)
14. Shiftwork – Rotating shifts must be outlawed. Humans have a great deal of trouble adjusting to working odd hours on a rotating basis. We require sleep on regular time frame and deprivation of sleep by interrupting the rem sleep cycle leads to fatigue and death. Rotating shifts should be outlawed. Either day or night shifts need to be implemented. There is nothing fair about everyone sharing In a rotating shift and the employment of night or day shift should be on a first in the best person for the job being allocated.
15. Nepotism needs to be stamped out in all indust0ries whether they be in government sector or private. The best person for the job must be chosen in all instances according to length of service and abilities. This should also be adopted for promotions.
16. It is illegal to hire workers from other countries through agencies or directly as a source of cheap labour. This is a direct contravention of this bill of worker’s rights. Any worker who sacrifices their life and in most manual labour jobs their health and well being in service of a company or business deserves the same rights enjoyed by every Australian.
17. Discrimination on all levels is illegal – A persons religion, workers comp history, sexuality, sex or political affiliations are not grounds for dismissal. A person’s ability to perform the job are the only criteria acceptable for dismissal. Proof of incompetence is required before dismissal.
18. Further technical training - The upgrading of technical skills are to be paid for by employers or the employee compensated by increased wages to offset the cost of the course if the employee pays for the study.
19. if certain licences are required to carry out a job, it is the employers responsibility to pay for any fees associated with the licencing unless an agreement is reached with the employee and compensation with increased wages is required.
20. There is no cap on accrued leave.
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The Support an Australian Workers' Bill of Rights petition to Australian Federal and State Government was written by Nick pidoulas and is in the category Employment at GoPetition.