Kim Beazley, ACT Labor Senator Kate Lundy, Member for Fraser Bob McMullan and Member for Canberra Annette Ellis today met with Canberra cleaners regarding their concerns about being pushed off the ACT cleaning award and onto AWAs.
With the assistance of the LHMU, the cleaners know all their options and they want a collective agreement that offers all existing employees a fair wage and job security.
Labor believes that employees ought to have the right to bargain collectively with their employer.
“Collective bargaining achieves higher productivity and wage outcomes than individual contracts. It helps bring balance to the relationship between employees and their employers”, Mr. Beazley said today.
Collective bargaining is also a simple and efficient way for employers to negotiate the terms of employment.
As these local cleaners have found out first hand, a major problem under John Howard’s extreme industrial relations laws is that an employer can unilaterally deny their employees a right to choose collective bargaining, even where an overwhelming majority of employees want to do so.
Following the meeting, Mr. McMullan asked a question of the Prime Minister in Question Time relating to the cleaners being forced to accept AWAs. In his response, John Howard made it clear that under Workchoices, employees have no choices. “It is the right of an employer to decide how to manage his business”, Mr. Howard said.
Contact: Rachel Allen – 0418 488 295 (Lundy) Margaret Watt – 0438 271 749 (McMullan)
