Sue Bolton
Victoria's South West Trades and Labour Council is organising a community rally in Warrnambool on August 6 against PM John Howard's plans to take the axe to workers' rights. SWTLC assistant secretary Margaret Brabender told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly: "We can only stop the [IR law] changes if the whole community opposes these changes."
Brabender has a personal interest in opposing the Howard government's proposed new industrial relations laws. She and her family have already experienced the hardships imposed by unfair dismissal. "Fourteen years ago, my husband was sacked after he supported a fellow worker who was being harassed by the boss. As the boss was also a member of an employer organisation, he made sure that my husband would not be employed anywhere else. We had to put our house on the market. During that time there were no school camps, no school photos, no new clothes, and no big birthday or Christmas presents for the kids.
"This was clearly an unfair dismissal and my husband was awarded enough money to pay our bills, purchase another house and lead a normal life again. But my children had missed out on so many things that other kids of their age were doing. At one stage, I had to decide which one wouldn't receive speech therapy because there wasn't enough money.
"Our experience lasted almost two years but under Howard's new laws, this will be the experience that lasts a lifetime. There will be no payout and no chance to resume your job or start a new life, especially in rural areas where employers know each other.
"Being unfairly dismissed means that you haven't done anything wrong, so changing work habits won't keep you your job. Under Howard's new laws, workers will live in fear of the boss getting out on the wrong side of the bed and sacking you. It happened to my family and it can happen to anyone."
Brabender said that "people shouldn't be lulled into believing that their workplace is exempt from the removal of unfair dismissal laws because more than 100 are employed there. The reality is that most workplaces have subcontracted their work or divided their business into separate companies which employ less than 100 people. Workers need to understand that under the new laws it can and will happen to them."
The SWTLC has recently handled cases where people had been sacked by managers who thought that the proposed new legislative changes had already become law.
In one case, a 15-year-old worker who had eaten some biscuits from the tea room table that didn't belong to him was sacked. In another case, a young woman who left the premises on her unpaid lunch break was sacked.
Under the proposed laws "employers don't need to give a reason for why they're sacking you", said Brabender, "but we know that there will be sackings when workers refuse to work longer hours for less money".
"Under the new laws it will not be unlawful to fire an employee who rejects sexual advances", said Brabender. "The message from the Howard government is that if an employee speaks out about an employer sexually harassing them, they have the right to sack them. If an employee speaks out about being underpaid, they can be sacked."
The Warrnambool rally will be held at noon on August 6 at the Temperance Hall, Koroit Street. It will be followed by a barbecue at Swan Reserve (the old rail yards) at 1pm. For more information, phone (03) 5523 3337.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, August 3, 2005.
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