News Release

WORKERS PROTEST NEW IR LAWS

27 March 2006

The Federal Government's harsh new work laws will take effect today amidst protests by workers across the country.

In Adelaide, a breakfast protest will be staged outside the office of federal Senator, Nick Minchin at 36 Grenfell Street, Kent Town from 8.00 am.  It will feature a barbecue breakfast cooked by meatworkers involved in a dispute at Naracoorte.

SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles says the protest is the start of a long term campaign to overturn the changes and get rid of the Howard government.

"The new laws are a boon to big business but will hurt working families", she says.

"From today, bosses will be allowed to unfairly sack workers, undercut wages through individual contracts, abolish penalty rates, overtime and leave provisions, and get rid of redundancy pay."

"We will be keeping an eagle eye on employers, because of real concerns that the less scrupulous bosses have been waiting in anticipation of the new laws to begin sacking people."

"For many people, unions will be the only protection they have.  Union membership in this state has been rising as awareness grows about the new laws, and we expect that will continue as their impact kicks in," Ms Giles says.

"And we are worried there is worse to come, with Senator Minchin telling the conservative HR Nicholls Society that although these changes are publicly unpalatable they are just the start."

"We appreciate Senator Minchin's honesty - it is probably the first honest statement to emerge from a Liberal Minister in the past decade - but we deplore the intention."

"Our protest will illustrate the awful potential of these new laws, with meatworkers from Naracoorte's Teys Brothers Abattoir explaining how individual contracts and a dispute over public holidays allowed them to be replaced by cheap labour - and how that could now happen to almost anyone."

"The introduction of these laws is not the end; just the opposite - it is the beginning.  We will make the Howard government feel the deep betrayal it has inflicted on working families by targeting its weak points.  In South Australia, that is the three key Liberal marginal seats of Kingston, Makin and Wakefield."

"Australians believe in fairness and honesty.  The Howard Government has abandoned those ideals, and will pay the price," Ms Giles says.