By Ann Marie Angebrandt
JULIA Gillard is calling on Australians to help the Labor Party get rid of the Government’s WorkChoices laws.
The Lalor MP and shadow minister for industrial relations has been touring the country collecting stories of how the laws have “ripped fairness out of Australian workplaces” since they were introduced a year ago, she said.
The Labor Party has announced that it will reverse the WorkChoices legislation but has not offered any alternatives in the lead up to the party’s national conference later this month.
A spokesman for Ms Gillard said Labor’s policies would be announced well before the federal election, due later this year, but would return industrial relations laws to a “work-family balance.”
Current Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) would be subject to “a sensible transition period over two or three years,” said the spokesman.
Ms Gillard has asked Australian workers who have lost conditions to sign up on-line to send a message to the government that the laws must go.
“They allow take-it-or-leave it AWAs, which cut basic award conditions, including penalty rate, overtime, leave loading and even public holiday pay,” she said.
The Howard Government has argued that the benefits of WorkChoices are clear with more than a quarter of a million new jobs created since the laws were introduced and strong wages growth.
