Australian Financial Review http://www.afr.com.au/news/20000414/A3338-2000Apr13.html Friday, April 14, 2000 Outsourcing blow for Government By Katharine Murphy The Federal Court has dealt a body blow to Canberra's radical $4 billion outsourcing agenda, ruling that workers should retain public sector wages and conditions when their jobs are transferred to the private sector. Justice Marcus Einfeld ruled that workers formerly employed by the Commonwealth Employment Service should have been covered by public sector awards when their jobs were shifted to the Government's privatised Employment National. The ruling opens the floodgates on outsourcing projects across all levels of government, with the Community and Public Sector Union preparing to target the massive contracting-out programs attached to Telstra and the Department of Defence. The CPSU's national secretary, Ms Wendy Caird, yesterday foreshadowed further aggressive action, warning the union would "vigorously pursue" any other relevant cases through the courts. Justice Einfeld's decision, which builds on a number of anti-outsourcing decisions handed down by the Federal Court, also follows revelations this week of government plans to widen contracting-out to areas previously categorised as core public services. The CPSU ran the case under the Workplace Relations Act's transmission of business provisions following the overnment's decision to abolish the CES and replace it with a new jobs provider, Employment National. The court was asked to decide whether or not the workers should keep their old pay and conditions after the move. The Government and Employment National argued they should not, because they were performing different work in a different marketplace. The Government also argued that public service awards should only operate in the public sector and therefore bind only workers employed directly under the Public Service Act - not outsourced employees. But Justice Einfeld rejected the claims and branded the line of argument "misconceived". He also criticised the complex defence advanced by Employment National and the Government, saying what was "essentially a question of fact should not be dressed up as a question of law". Welcoming the decision, Ms Caird said the Government had failed in its efforts to stop public service awards following outsourced jobs. A spokesman for the Minister for Workplace Relations, Mr Peter Reith, said the Government had "under active review the manner in which [the transmission provisions] are being applied by the courts and will be assessing over the coming months the impact of the recent decision". This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. ************************************************************************* 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
