BY MELANIE SJOBERG
More people die in work-related accidents than on roads each year in this country. According to the construction workers' union, as many as 30% of employers underpay their insurance premiums.
In June, New South Wales was rocked by hundreds of unionists blockading the NSW Parliament for a day, in an angry outburst at the Carr Labor government's threat to push through harsh amendments to workers' compensation legislation.
Premier Bob Carr and industrial relations minister John Della Bosca showed complete contempt for workers by crossing that picket line. Carr endorsed the use of police horses to break the picket and then offered a derisive victory salute.
The blockade had followed mass meetings held around the state that overwhelmingly condemned the undermining of basic worker's rights. Those strong decisive acts of solidarity forced the government to back down on its agenda and return to the negotiation table with the unions.
Months later, on November 29, the proposed bill passed through parliament with barely a whimper — but the laws covering injured workers do not look any better.
Workers injured on the job can expect a lousy $280 per week if they are single and up to $420 for someone with a partner and two children.
Workers' concerns about the non-scientific methods proposed for judging "stress" and other psychological injuries have not been alleviated. This leaves people in areas such as teaching and people-based work especially vulnerable.
The proposed laws open the door for assessment panels answerable to the government that will replace independent decision-making by judges.
The NSW Labor Council has stated that the bill does not measure up to the government's own criteria of "not leaving injured workers worse off".
The Labor Council has pointed out that the amendments still restrict the right to sue a negligent employer, but the threshold level of common law disability has been reduced from 20% to 15%. This still leaves many injured workers without the legal entitlement to sue a negligent employer because they are "only a little bit injured".
Labor Council secretary John Robertson welcomed the government's concessions but indicated that union officials would continue to negotiate with ALP backbenchers.
A week before the bill was tabled the NSW Labor Council threatened to "renew the industrial and political campaign that culminated in the blockade of parliament".
The first stage of that "dynamic" campaign was a full-page advertisement in Sydney's Daily Telegraph, accompanied by leafleting at railway stations. Unionists were urged to check out the website.
That was the end of the campaign.
The Labor Council has pissed away an enormous opportunity to defeat this bill — the anger among workers and their willingness to commit gives us a clue about how strong a serious campaign could have been.
That determination had been expressed through the blockade of Parliament House and large turnouts at the statewide meetings. It was displayed when hundreds of construction workers and firefighters took to the streets in protest. The anger was also funneled through the federal election, when NSW Labor received a drubbing, in part surely because of Carr's record on workers' compensation and other issues.
The bill has passed into reality — but now all the Labor Council offers us a promise to "monitor the effects".
While the next layer of Labor Council officials are queuing to follow Michael Costa from the Labor Council to a frontbench ministry position, injured workers will be "monitored".
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, December 5, 2001.
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