Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) – At present individual contracts must provide comparable pay and conditions to the union-negotiated agreements. However under the Howard reforms AWAs will be set against only four minimum employment conditions set by legislation and government-appointed Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. Employers will therefore not have to provide equal pay rates, annual leave, parental/carers leave or maximum ordinary hours of work received by colleagues employed on an Enterprise Agreement.

Notice Of Termination – Notice of termination will be removed from awards. Many awards covering journalists provide a notice of termination of up to 16 weeks, providing some security in case of dismissal. Employees, under the changes, will be left out in the cold. Under the guise of award simplification, Howard is also proposing to remove jury service, long service leave and superannuation from awards.

Reducing The Minimum Wage – Employees who receive their annual pay rise from Safety Net Adjustments conducted by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), including most commercial radio and regional TV, will be disadvantaged under the changes. The government-appointed Australian Fair Pay Commission will ‘set and periodically adjust' minimum wages. Both ‘periodically' and ‘adjust' are ambiguous terms when talking about an employees wage increase.

Certification of Agreements – Howard has proposed that the Office of the Employment Advocate (OEA) take over from the AIRC in the certification of all collective agreements. The OEA was established to facilitate the making of AWAs, nemesis of the collective agreement. It will have the power to scrupulously check agreements for provisions they consider outside the “employer relationship” - excluding numerous working conditions written into current agreements.

Unfair Dismissal and Redundancy Payment – Businesses that employ up to 100 employees will be exempt from unfair dismissal laws. This will include many radio stations, regional newspapers, public relations and books. Also small businesses without an Enterprise Agreement in place will be exempt from paying redundancy payments.

Limiting Union Presence – Howard has committed to pursue stalled legislative measures that will limit the union's presence in the workplace – both physically and metaphorically. Those include: tougher laws relating to industrial action, including secret ballots for strike action; right of entry laws; and laws that discourage pattern bargaining.

The only thing standing between employers taking advantage of these changes is if we work together to oppose them. Talk to your colleagues and get them to join the Alliance now.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has launched a nation-wide campaign against the proposed changes. Visit http://www.actu.asn.au/work_rights for more information.

If you do not agree with these changes please vote in The Age poll today at http://theage.com.au/polls/form.html

A copy of the Government Press Release on IR Reforms.

A copy of the Prime Minister's Speech is available at http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Prime-Ministers-speech/2005/05/26/1116950798666.html