NINEMSN and AAP http://news.ninemsn.com.au/01_national/story_1983.asp Workplace reforms under fire AAP -- The federal government's workplace relations reforms have been undermined by an OECD report which found tighter regulation ensured more stable jobs, a union said Saturday. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) said the report backed a more centralised regime as opposed to the deregulation undertaken by Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith. AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron said the report found that tight regulation also reduced labour market turnover and the number of unemployed people. "This report is a damning indictment on the Howard/Reith government's industrial agenda which seeks to destroy workers' rights, restrict workers' access to unfair dismissal laws and impose junior rates on young skilled workers," Mr Cameron said in a statement. "The report justifies the AMWU's position that it will never capitulate to Reith's low skill, low wages industrial relations system as it is not in the interest of workers, the community or the economy," he said. Mr Reith's first wave of industrial relations reforms were aimed at taking industrial issues back to the workplace to be sorted out between employers and employees, not third parties like unions and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission. He is due to introduce his second wave of reforms into parliament next week, including compulsory secret union ballots on proposed industrial action and a curbed role for the AIRC. Mr Cameron said the report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also backed unionised workplaces as taking more initiatives to improve productivity performance. "It confirms the reality in Australia that unionised workshops contribute to two thirds of all manufacturing employment, 70 per cent of research and development and 75 per cent of new productive developments," he said. "In fact, 75 per cent of all manufacturing exports come from union shops." ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
