Freedom of contract
The Canberra Times’s Ian Sharpe knows what the Coalition means by “choice”.
For the latest news about the Howard Government's attacks on workers' rights, read my IR posts.
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Rob,
Not a comment as such, but I’ve got a guest post ready to go, “hot off the press”, and can’t find your email addy. Please email it to me at pauljwatson AT hotmail.com , and I’ll forward you the post.
Interesting to see Mark Olson on the news sticking up for his new Liberal Buddies re the Beat up over Public Servants being allowed to attend the Day Of Action without their pay being docked.
I’ll bet the nurses aren’t happy with him now :-)
What I’ve referred to since my law school days as “the euphemism of choice”; the choice you have when you aren’t having a choice, might be another way to put it.
Surely choice would be “choose between an AWA or the Award”, not “choose between the job or an AWA”…
Well the government say that it is choose between an AWA and the award; ie: you can choose not to sign the AWA and remain on the Award.
But if the employer does’t want to apply the award, and is determined to offer AWAs, well I think the technical term is that you’re up shit creek without a paddle.
Yes, the choice is between an AWA or the sack.
I was interested to see one of the ACTU ads on the subject. Only saw the one because I’ve been busy. The woman on the phone with her two kids watching her from the couch as her boss announces to her she has to work a shift right now or lose her job. But I haven’t got child care, she says. Bang. sacked. I was interested in the fact she called the guy on the other end of the phone “sir”. I thought it was strange in an australian context. We usually call our bosses by their first names these days, particularly at a level where they’d be ringing up to arrange shifts. It didn’t ring true at all. BUT… if things did go back to a more “master and servant” arrangement of individual contracts, perhaps they’d introduce it.
Just a funny choice of words, I thought. Taste of things to come?
Lick that boot!!!
An Excellent Summary on the perils of Howard’s “IR Reforms”.
This should be compulsoary reading by ALL workers.
Plus the West are hypocrites about whinging about the WA Govt using Taxpayers money to fight these reforms – and then accepting payment to run those same ads they say are propoganda.
Hi Rob, just letting you know your website is banned in China. You haven’t been talking about the Falun Gong or Freeing Tibet lately, have you? :P