New South Wales O'Farrell government hits out at workers

Vanguard June 2011 p. 12

Elected only last March, it has taken the O’Farrell Coalition Government a mere nine weeks to unleash a Work Choices 2.0 tsunami to begin to viciously tear in to the working people of N.S.W.

The first wave is an onslaught on the wages and conditions of public sector employees.

The second is to seize the superannuation reserves of these workers and use them to realise rash promises and projects announced during the election campaign such as roads and the North-West transport link.

Changes to industrial laws

A bill to seize control of the decent rules of how front line public service workers like police, fire fighters, nurses and teachers are to be remunerated and what conditions they will attract in their employment passed from the coalition-swamped lower house to the upper house on Tuesday night 24 May 2011.

The bill is intended to strip the N.S.W. Industrial Relations Commission of its powers to act as an impartial umpire and to have the government determine the wages and salaries of public servants along with their conditions of employment.

Over 400,000 workers in the state will be kicked in the guts by these measures should they be passed by the N.S.W. upper house. Make no mistake, the spectre of Work Choices walks tall in N.S.W.

Aided and abetted by the N.S.W. Business Council, O’Farrell is involved in an exercise intended to "end the 70s time warp…no longer will the tax payers of N.S.W. be a soft touch for union bosses" says Chamber CE Stephen Cartwright.

The bastard section of the proposed legislation requires the IRC when making or varying an award or order to give effect to any policy on conditions of employment of a public sector employee. Any aspect that is declared by regulation to be government policy is required to be given effect to by the IRC.

What the O’Farrell legislation attempts to do is to cap the annual pay rises of public servants at 2.5% - less than the annual rate of inflation.

This means that over time, these providers of essential services will see their real incomes drastically and living standards eroded while big business and politicians keep well ahead of the game.

Industrial Commission sidelined

In addition, the proposed law denies the N.S.W. IRC any say on these matters.

The legislation establishes a parliamentary regulation moving these powers solely to the government.

It gives O’Farrell the power to attack and reduce annual leave, long service leave, maternity leave and to increase the working week of public service employees along with discretionary powers over other working conditions.

The secretary of Unions N.S.W., Mark Lennon, said if the laws were passed in their current form, the government would have a blank cheque to determine workplace rights and conditions for its own employees.

Opposition leader John Robertson warned that the proposal was worse than the Howard government’s Work Choices legislation.

The proposed legislation is supposedly part of the O’Farrell government’s attempts to crack down on spiralling wage claims which will aim to force public sector workers and unions to either increase productivity (a big ask for an under- resourced nurse, teacher or police officer) or else identify "savings" (aka, trade off hard-won conditions) if they are pursuing wage increases exceeding O’Farrell’s magic 2.5% (as police in N.S.W. are currently doing).

Workers are already squeezed

We need to recognise that already wages in Australia are rising at very slow rates thanks to industrial legislation at federal, state and territory levels.

In fact, in the private sector, wages rose by 0.9% in the first quarter of 2011 and 3.9% from a year earlier!

Not only that, but public sector wages rose at a slower rate (0.8% and 3.6%).

So, where are the "spiralling wage claims" of which O’Farrell and his Business Chamber sycophants protest?

Unless the decent working people of N.S.W. get behind the campaign to defeat this legislation, they soon will find similar treatment being meted out to them as will working people all over Australia. Work Choices 2.0 rides high in the saddle.

Already police in N.S.W. have begun to lobby upper house parliamentarians – good luck getting the Shooters and Fishers Party onside. The Police association said the bill amounted to a pay cut for police and could lead to officers moving interstate, while savings requirements could also see cuts to actual police numbers.

Nurses interviewed on Channel 9’s evening news in Sydney said that they had no conditions to trade off and could not increase productivity as they were already overstretched in an understaffed and under-resourced sector.

They said that if real wages fell, they may as well resign, move across to the private sector or seek alternative and better-paid employment outside of nursing.

Gearing up for a fight

Unions N.S.W. is developing a campaign plan to destroy the legislation. Already, police are considering a march on parliament. "If they think the solar scheme is a big issue, wait until they see police in full action" said Scott Weber of the police association.

Be certain. This measure is a rehearsal for what will be delivered to all working people across Australia unless it is defeated now in N.S.W.

Working people of Australia: Unite to support your comrades in N.S.W.

Defeat this callous legislation now!