"Last week, the brave new world of WorkChoices unfolded before Senate estimates hearings with the evidence of Peter McIlwain, the Employment Advocate. McIlwain's testimony in relation to 250 Australian Workplace Agreements lodged in April vividly exposed the sham of "protected award conditions". These conditions are protected only in the sense that they have to be specifically excluded by agreement. This can easily be done in a context of workers with poor bargaining power through the use of pro-forma agreements. Indeed, McIlwain conceded that an appropriately drafted "single sentence" could do the trick. Not surprisingly, all the workplace agreements in the sample removed at least one "protected award condition" while 16 per cent removed all such conditions".
So writes Joo-Cheong Tham, Melbourne University Law lecturer, in this op-ed piece from The Age - in which he analyses the ramifications, not only economic, of the new IR legislation on workers. It makes for sober reading here.
In a not enrelated topic - for the so-called Lucky Country - The Australian Federation of Homelessness Organisations [as noted in the Salvation Army "On the Streets" publication] reports that on any given night at least 100,000 Australians are homeless, each day 1 in every 200 people are homeless and 1 in very 3 people using homeless services is a child.
So writes Joo-Cheong Tham, Melbourne University Law lecturer, in this op-ed piece from The Age - in which he analyses the ramifications, not only economic, of the new IR legislation on workers. It makes for sober reading here.
In a not enrelated topic - for the so-called Lucky Country - The Australian Federation of Homelessness Organisations [as noted in the Salvation Army "On the Streets" publication] reports that on any given night at least 100,000 Australians are homeless, each day 1 in every 200 people are homeless and 1 in very 3 people using homeless services is a child.
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