www.workinglife.org.au Issue 6, December 2013-January 2014

End of the road: Darren Kirwan, an electrician at Holden’s Fisherman’s Bend plant in Melbourne, will be among 2900 workers to lose their jobs when the company ceases domestic production in 2017. Photo: Mark Phillips/ACTU Body blow for Australian manufacturing Abbott blamed for Holden’s demise THE Federal Government has come under fire The first mass-produced FJ Holden rolled by MARK PHILLIPS for not doing enough to keep GM Holden in off the production line at Fishermans Bend in after the company announced it was Melbourne in 1948. ending domestic manufacturing. Managing Director Mike Devereux said The 11 December decision will mean 2900 Holden was the victim of “a perfect storm” and “ and his Holden workers will lose their jobs in that the high Australian dollar was a key factor Government have and Melbourne, but will impact on up to 50,000 in the decision. The appreciation of the currency turned their backs on direct jobs in the automotive industry. alone means that at dollar’s peak, this industry and the It also now throws into serious doubt the making things in Australia 65% more expensive people in it.” viability of Toyota continuing manufacturing compared to just a decade earlier. operations in Australia. However, taunts and goading from the - SA Premier Jay Holden said it would discontinue vehicle and Federal Government is also widely suspected Weatherill engine manufacturing and significantly reduce to have been a factor, culminating in an its engineering operations in Australia by the extraordinary letter from Acting Prime end of 2017. Continued on page 6 2 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 Hall of Shame New Senator puts families first and workers last OB Day has been hanging out on the own money into the party. by MARK PHILLIPS fringes of political power for a couple This year he was rewarded by winning the Bof decades. fifth Senate position, despite his party receiving He made his fortune as a property developer, just 36,152 first preference votes, or 3.48%. and used that as a springboard to his first public What this means is that from July next year, position of President of the Housing Industry Day will be one of a handful of minor party Association of Australia. Senators who will hold the keys to whether He was the inaugural President of the Tony Abbott is able to get his legislative Independent Contractors Association, a front agenda through Parliament or not. organisation that advocates a radical windback The changes mean the Senate will take on a of workplace protections, and Secretary of the right-wing hue, and none more so than Day. extremist HR Nicholls Society. In his few public comments since he was The latest nominee to He has also contributed to right-wing think elected, Day has provided some detail about our Hall of Shame is tanks the Institute of Public Affairs and the how he views Australia’s workplace system. an ultra-conservative Centre for Independent Studies. This month, he delivered a speech to the HR new Senator who Day has always had political aspirations and Nicholls Society calling for employers to be wants to abolish the over the years has been a serial candidate for allowed to undercut the minimum wage. This speech has minimum wage slipped under the radar as the other main speaker at the dinner was Qantas chairman and former Rio Tinto CEO Leigh Clifford, but the industrial relations newsletter Workplace Express political office. reported that Day told the dinner: “I do not But when he ran for the Liberal-held believe there should be any law preventing seat of Makin in Adelaide in 2007, he was people working on terms and conditions resoundingly rejected by voters, suffering a that suit them. For example, the Newstart 6.4% swing against him. Allowance . . . is worth about $250 a week. He next sought pre-selection to replace The minimum wage is about $620 a week. former Foreign Minister in Yet anyone who offers or accepts anything the bluechip Adelaide Hills seat of Mayo, but between $250 and $620 is breaking the law,” was beaten by , who was one of he reportedly said. the key architects of WorkChoices. It is “absurd”, Day went onto say, that “we Day spat the dummy and quit the Liberal don’t permit anyone to work for anything Party after 21 years, and switched his between zero and $620” and “it is about time allegiances to the small to we stopped dictating to people what they can run against the Liberals. He failed dismally, and can’t work for.” winning less than 12% of the vote, but since There can be no more worthy nominee to the then has poured hundreds of thousands of his Working Life Hall of Shame. GET IN TOUCH Want to know more or get involved? Contact our newsdesk by email at [email protected] or phone (03) 9664 7266. Or get in touch by Facebook (facebook.com/ThisWorkingLife) or Twitter (twitter/thisworkinglife).

Editor: Mark Phillips. Responsibility for election comment is taken by Dave Oliver, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, 365 Queen Street, Melbourne 3000. .org.au December 2013-January 2014 .org.au 3 At Work This is our community and we want to protect it

A small mining community is being ripped apart by a multinational company’s treatment of its workforce. But, writes Donna Bulloch, they are not taking it lying down

Community pride: Collinsville residents make their feelings known about the destruction being caused by Glencore Xstrata’s actions. THIRTEEN years ago, I came to Collinsville policies of coal companies, workers’ camps, never having lived in a small rural mining town drive-in/drive-out (DIDO) and the fact they are but I soon grew to love the community and taking away the choices for families in a resource the people in it, and I gained a passion for the community. This causes the development of history of the area. unhealthy communities and slowly but surely I married a local man, who is a coal miner, kills entire towns. manage a local hotel/motel and have brought up In Collinsville, Glencore/Xstrata took over two children in Collinsville. last December as owner-operator at the century- There are not many communities still around old coal mine. that have such a long, strong and proud history Previous operator Thiess had already started like Collinsville does. the ball rolling by reducing the workforce by The community has a fire in its belly – and it 95 – some by voluntary redundancies but most STAY STRONG is not ready to be extinguished just yet. were made redundant by the company. COLLINSVILLE I can’t bear to see small communities being In March and April this year, another 15 were ripped apart by Government and big multi- also made redundant. Dig deep and fund national companies – who are becoming more ruthless in the treatment of their workers and the THIS was the start of what I call “The Cobweb”: the campaign to communities that they come into. the community started showing cracks, families get the jobs back So it was an easy decision for me to get started to leave, shops were closing or reducing and to provide involved in the forming of a group that could staff hours, and people were starting to feel the longer-term represent the community and all of its issues – financial burden of losing this many people support for the big or small. So in 2010 the journey began for from a small town. Mining Communities United (MCU). The start of September saw Glencore shut the sacked workers MCU is only one of many community gates and cease production on the century-old and their families. representative groups across the Bowen mine site. Basin and we are always busy with the many Overnight, 400 skilled experienced workers Take action at: challenges we face at the local level. became unemployed – 160 living locally. http://www.pozible. We have always been involved in many issues That’s 160 pay packets taken from a town of com/project/176378 but the biggest one and the one that can damage about 2000 residents; 160 skilled experienced the community the most is the Continued on page 4 4 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 This is our community and we meeting with him. If we could not meet with want to protect it him, we had a letter ready to be delivered to Continued from page 3 him, but we also wanted to sit with company representatives in the hope that we could workers that choose to live within approximately tell them first-hand what is happening in our five or 10 minutes from the mine site. community. This workforce has an established skills base Glencore intends to start operating as soon as and they have experience in a mine that has been they can get a new workforce in place. known to have a high risk gas problem. What we want is for the 160 local experienced These are scary and difficult times and we are and skilled workers to be given their jobs back. seeing it hurt so many people. Why should they have to re-apply for a job that The community has tried to get Glencore they lost because of a company and its choices, officials to attend community forums, which are open discussions with all of the community. Instead, the company has chosen to have Glencore Reference Group meetings with a select few (of which I am lucky enough to be a part of). But this is not good enough. As I told the director of operations, Bill McKinstry – it was not good enough because it only has a select few invited, many businesses were not even present and there are many families who have been impacted. So they then held a “business owners” meeting. Still not good enough. The town and the residents are suffering – many shops have shut or cut staff hours or even put staff off, children are leaving the schools, houses are sitting vacant and families are living in limbo not knowing whether they should sit and wait for re-employment – or do they venture off in the hope they find a job where they can take their family. That is if they can rent or sell their homes. These are scary and difficult times and we are seeing it hurt so many people.

MY family is one of those in limbo. My husband made the hard decision to take a redundancy in April. It took him three months to not of their own fault? find employment and this seen him now become They are pushing aside this skilled workforce a transient worker. He now works away, driving in favour of a DIDO workforce who would more approximately four hours to his camp, and has to than likely be accommodated in camps. stay there for approximately 10 days. Glencore has a horrid history in the treatment We have never been apart for more than of people where they operate. about four days at a time, and this is hurting my To make the situation worse our town, our daughter, as she is used to having her Dad home community has been abandoned by a local every night. She turns 10 in a few days and will conservative government that has not taken not have her Dad there and this is first time this a public position on the treatment of workers, has ever happened. families and the community as a whole. We now face the dreaded tentacles of the We have the support of state Labor MP Joann spider’s web that Glencore has started. Do we Miller who has spoken about our struggle in sit and wait and see if they re-employ him, or do parliament, yet our local MP won’t help. we move? Can we rent or do we sell at a loss, or It is a tough challenge for Laurie-Ann and do we wait for the good days to return? myself, Jim Pearce and the community as whole, Will they return? but we do not intend on giving up. This is one of the reasons that made myself, We will keep going until we get noticed and Laurie-Ann Williams and Jim Pearce pursue get answers from the Ivan Glasenberg, even if Glencore’s CEO Ivan Glasenberg. this means chasing him throughout the world. We travelled to Sydney, with the hope of If he won’t come to us, we will go for him! December 2013-January 2014 .org.au 5 World News Asbestos battle goes global

Through their overseas aid agency, Australian unions are working to eradicate deadly asbestos from developing nations in South-East Asia, like Laos and Vietnam

Deadly dust: Workers monitor noise and dust levels at a roof tile factory in Vietnam. Photo courtesy of Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA LAOS is a quiet, mostly rural South-East the real costs of continuing to use asbestos.” by JULIE STRATFORD Asian country that is just starting on a path to In July 2013, this work took a big step forward industrialisation – but it is growing quickly. through a national conference which kicked off The construction industry is booming and the the development of a Laos national strategy and economy is growing 8% every year. The workers helped Laos learn lessons from experiences in in Laos’ busy roof tile factories, however, have Australia, Japan and Thailand. no idea they are working with a killer. The two-day conference, the first of its In Laos, asbestos is being used mainly in kind in Laos, discussed asbestos exposure the production of roof tiles and concrete pipes. risks for workers and communities, including Laos is a relatively recent user of asbestos, but mesothelioma and asbestosis. consumption is rising rapidly and could reach The conference heard lessons from Thailand’s 9000 tonnes a year. It is handled, stored and work towards banning asbestos use; medical transported with little concern for exposure to statistics from Laos; the Japanese and Australian its deadly fibres. experiences and subsequent bans; and about the The asbestos industry is promoting asbestos hundreds of thousands of people who have died in developing countries as a cheap and useful or will die of asbestos-related diseases around building material, just as it once did in Australia. the world. Workers and communities are being exposed to It was the first time many of the participants this deadly hazard without knowing it can kill, had heard of the dangers of asbestos. Even not only in Laos but in Vietnam as well. the Lao Federation of Trade Unions had only Julie Stratford is an Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA is working become fully aware of the dangers after the Australian trade union to change that. As the overseas humanitarian APHEDA program commenced in 2010. trainer and ex-ACTU staff aid agency of the ACTU, APHEDA has been By the end of the conference, many officials member now volunteering working with both the Lao trade union and had embraced the idea of an eventual total ban in Laos for one year with relevant government ministries since 2010. on asbestos – despite initial concerns over costs the Lao Federation of “We are sounding the warning,” said of replacement construction materials. Trade Unions through the APHEDA’s Mekong Regional Representative It may take years to eradicate this hazard from Australian Red Cross and Phillip Hazelton, “to workers and communities the Lao environment, but acting early will save supported by Union Aid to put banning asbestos on the national agenda, many lives, save future health and clean-up Abroad-APHEDA. and also help Laos do the long-term thinking on costs, and build healthier, safer workplaces. 6 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 End of the road for Holden Three generations at Holden HOLDEN veteran Alby Petraccaro thought went to Elizabeth. by NEIL WILSON the Lion’s end was a day he would never see, “It’s been a reliable job, it’s put food on a day he’s sure his father would never have the table. It helped mum and dad pay the believed possible. mortgage. It helped us buy our house and When Holden’s gates shut in 2017, raise two beautiful children.” members of his family will have worked Mr Petraccaro’s there in excess of 100 years in total. father died in 1984 The Adelaide plant union delegate is but his uncle Nicola among 1600 workers at Elizabeth, the 1300 only retired from at the Fisherman’s Bend engine plant and Holden stores a a stunned nation trying to conceive of life few weeks ago, “I just wish Hockey without local Holdens. aged 77, after a and Abbott . . . would “People were in tears last night, I think life of Kingswoods, come down frmo about their families, their kids,” said Mr Toranas, Monaros, Canberra to see Petraccaro (pictured), 58. Commodores and Holden has been part of his life since he Cruzes. Even his the impact of what was a toddler. His dad Lelio was working at son Lee drove forklifts there for a year – they’ve done out the old Woodville plant by 1958 after coming until he was among hundreds retrenched. here.” from Italy and his uncle Nicola Iannella got The only consolation Mr Petraccaro can - Alby Petraccaro a job there too. think of for workmates is now they have “I can recall being in bed when Dad would certainty until 2016-17 . . . then an uncertain get home from afternoon shift with his working future. mates, lying there smelling the spaghetti he “I just wish Hockey and Abbott, those was cooking while they had a few wines,” he eastern states politicians would come said. “I remember the talk, the laughter in down from Canberra to see the impact of the kitchen, it’s always been that way with what they’ve done out here in Adelaide, in Holden workers. People stick together. Melbourne too,” he said. “When I was going to school we had a “This did not have to happen, the Premier, Dad loved that car, and I was happy arrogance of Hockey daring Holden to go. to follow him to Woodville in ’82. Later I Now they will.”

Abbott blamed for Holden demise their watch the car manufacturing industry has Continued from page 1 been demolished.” Australian Manufacturing Workers Union Minister Warren Truss challenging Holden National Secretary Paul Bastian said the news to either remain in Australia or leave. was devastating for Holden employees. The decision follows Ford’s announcement “This did not have to happen,” he said. “We earlier this year that it would cease local knew heading into the election that the Coalition manufacturing in 2016. had plans to remove co-investment, but the It came a day after Mr Devereux appeared entire industry hoped they would see sense and before the Productivity Commission to again the impact of their decision. The Government make the case for continued government co- has failed to come to its senses.” investment in the auto industry. South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said the the announcement was a black day and would Government had shown “an appalling lack of affect 13,000 jobs in his state alone. leadership” and as a result of its inaction up to “Tony Abbott and his Coalition Government 50,000 direct skilled jobs would be lost and $21 have turned their backs on this industry and the billion wiped from the national economy. people in it,” he said. “The departure of Holden will sink the car “Holden had made it abundantly clear that if industry in this country and the flow on effects the support committed by the previous federal for jobs and manufacturing will be cataclysmic,” Labor Government remained on the table it Mr Oliver said. “Tony Abbott’s legacy will be as would stay in Australia. the Unemployment Prime Minister. “By cutting funding and, in the past week, by “The Government has no plan for future attacking Holden, Tony Abbott and the Coalition industries beyond the mining boom and under have forced Holden out of Australia.” December 2013-January 2014 .org.au 7 End of the road for Holden If this government has a jobs plan, we’d like to see it

The Federal Government all but waved Holden out the door and appears to have no plan for jobs beyond the end of the mining boom, writes ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver

HE bloodline of any country is its illogical, especially when compared to global workforce and Australia’s has just taken trends. Ta serious hit – a catastrophic blow that Other nations are fighting hard and investing will affect hundreds of thousands of people. to keep local industries and encourage exporting The most striking aspect of what must be and innovation because they can see the urgency considered a very dark day for the Australian and value. economy and its workforce is that the government Pre-election, just four months ago, Tony all but marched Holden off our shores. Abbott was often pictured in news grabs That is the clear message that will become a wearing hard-hats and high-vis-vests, standing legacy for the Coalition: they are overseeing the alongside some of the same workers who are end of the iconic domestic car manufacturing now wondering what their future will hold. industry and have done nothing to save it. It was a strategy to convince voters that the Instead of fighting for jobs and industry the Coalition was on the side of workers and their Government used a series of snappily dismissive jobs. They boasted about their commitment to retorts, thereby politicising the issue and causing workers and the economy in the form of two General Motors to not even bother waiting for million new jobs to be created. But just months the Productivity Commission’s report. into their term we have had catastrophic losses It was obvious to everyone that the Government with no indication of how this will be remedied. had no appetite or plans for a car manufacturing Along with the Coalition’s commitment to future in Australia. sever jobs in the public service, their dragging The ramifications of Holden’s exit are of feet with Qantas and now the destruction of extensive. car manufacturing in Australia we have to ask We know that Toyota is under “unprecedented what is the plan for employment growth? pressure” to survive as the sole vehicle They are free marketeers willing to let the cards manufacturer in Australia. Components and drop where they may despite the devastation and other reliant industries will topple in the wake loss it will cause so many workers and our future of a collapsing car manufacturing industry with ability as a nation to be innovative producers in a estimates of up to 250,000 total job losses. hungry global market. Along with the jobs and billions of dollars Will this be the Government of leaving our shore, will be significant expertise Unemployment? How many jobs will be lost, and innovation. Australia will well and truly sacrificed on the altar of the free market, at the Get the full story: have moved into importer territory. end of this government’s first term which is workinglife.org.au That’s why our Government’s actions are so when the job shedding will really begin? 8 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 My Working Life The battle may be lost but the war remains to be won

She became an accidental poster girl for the Big Steps cam- paign. Despite the re- cent setback, United Voice member Kerrie Devir is determined to continue fighting for professional rec- ognition and decent pay for early child- hood educators. She spoke to Ian Munro HIRTY years after she began her life’s educators is that there are meetings happening work in early childhood education, that decide things about us: how much we are TKerrie Devir could be forgiven for to be paid; what conditions we should expect feeling a little frustrated about how the and what is required of us by government and pendulum swings of national politics snatched families away the gains for workers like her. “We had never thought that we were entitled Kerrie, 47, became a poster girl for to be part of these meetings before this the United Voice Big Steps campaign for campaign. The department would present us professional wages a bit by accident by with new standards, new rules and it’s given agreeing to talk to the media about the need to you at a staff meeting. We have always just to professionalise the sector in order to keep absorbed this and done it. experienced and dedicated people like herself. “I have not worked in this profession my But, after Labor’s defeat on 7 September, the whole career to walk away and see it less than NOMINATE A promised $300 million fund to boost wages for it was. I don’t want to see good educators WORKPLACE early childhood educators has been stopped. struggling the way I do. I want to leave it HERO More than anyone, perhaps Kerrie had a better. The union campaign and the union are right to be upset, but as she sees it a win for the both about getting a seat at that table where sector is only a matter of time. decisions are made about us.” The opportunity to As Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd put early Kerri has seen the profession evolve out of nominate your best education on the agenda and the move was hospital-based mother craft nursing to early and fairest of 2013 endorsed by his successor, Julia Gillard. childhood educators; from certificate courses is coming soon. For “You can’t put that genie back in the bottle to associate diplomas and on to full diplomas any more, as if we are not important and in childcare. further information valuable,” says Kerrie. “A Prime Minister Along the way she has lost many colleagues about the annual acknowledged us. No educator is going to let who have left the sector simply because it award categories you put that genie back.” could not support them or did not adequately and nomination Kerrie says the Big Steps campaign over the value their skills. process contact past four years has changed early education Kerrie says that she will never own her own and its practitioners in profound ways. home, nor can she imagine being able to afford Michelle Ryan on “Childhood educators spend most of our to retire. Her own finances are irretrievable, (03) 9664 7379 or time with children. We don’t have a lot of no pay rise could make up for three decades email: time to network to become informed about the of inadequate pay, but she wants better life for [email protected] bigger picture. What this campaign has taught those who will follow her. December 2013-January 2014 .org.au 9 Opinion How to create WorkChoices Mark II in four easy steps Photo: flickr/cadillacdeville2000

AN you imagine how shattered the everything WorkChoices stood for became so likes of Tony Abbott and his mates in despised in the minds of the public that even Cthe HR Nicholls Society were when today Abbott cannot mention the word. WorkChoices was finally abolished? WorkChoices was not something former by SALLY McMANUS I can picture them watching in horror as the Prime Minister dreamt up Secretary of NSW/ACT magnificent uprising of union members in the after he won the Senate in 2004. It has been Branch of the ASU Your Rights At Work campaign gathered pace a coherent agenda of the hard right amongst across the country. No amount of wall-to-wall employers since the late 1980s, but has now Government advertising selling WorkChoices become mainstream for corporate Australia. could turn around public opinion. In 1986, Liberal Party pups like Peter By the end of 2007 with election day closing Costello and big business decided on a shared in, the Your Rights At Work army of union agenda to mount a war against working people The WorkChoices activists were everywhere and unstoppable. and their unions so they could overturn the dream has not gone The Government was swept from power and a rights that generations of Australian unionists Prime Minister had lost his seat. had won, so that bosses would rightfully away for Abbott and More devastating than the election result decide everything. big business. They would have been seeing 25 years of work have had six years to by the HR Nicholls Society pulled apart, THE WorkChoices dream has not gone away regroup and learnt ridiculed, reviled and comprehensively for Abbott and many others in corporate from past mistakes rejected by the public. Australia. They have had six years to regroup. We have the Mad Men of the Liberal Party’s This is what they have learnt: PR company to thank for encapsulating with • The union movement has the organisational such cynical and brilliant irony the whole capacity and resources to defeat attempts to agenda in just one word – WorkChoices. The reintroduce WorkChoices. Under-estimating striking yellow branding of WorkChoices this capability was a fatal mistake in 2005. became hated and a symbol of unfettered • It was a mistake to go after working power to employers. In three short years, Continued next page 10 .org.au December 2013-January 2014 How to create WorkChoices “productivity”. Get ready for the show they will Mark II in four easy steps put on in 2014. Continued from previous page Step 3: Hide behind inquiries and people’s rights before taking proper account of reviews the capacity of the union movement. Unions Inquiries give the impression of outside must be weakened first as they are the only legitimacy and authority. You get to stand organisations who provide effective resistance. at arm’s length. It’s a tried and true trick to • The electoral and political risks of introducing minimise fallout for decisions. A massive aspects of WorkChoices are potentially severe. industry has now grown up around it. The groundwork was not laid in 2005. This Abbott has shown had no shame whatsoever groundwork needs to be done by others and not with his selections for the Commission the Government so as to minimise political and of Audit, which is to be headed up by the electoral fallout very people who will gain financially from So this time Tony Abbott has a twin strategy: recommendations that involve privatisation – dirtying the reputation of the union movement the Business Council of Australia. Talk about in the eyes of the public at the same time putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank! making their day-to-day operations as difficult The centrepiece of Coalition IR policy is as possible. While they do this, the Coalition the full review of the whole Fair Work Act will run a series of inquiries and reviews to lay conducted by none other than the Productivity the groundwork for WorkChoices v2. Commission. This will be nothing but a singing This plan has been cooked up with corporate and dancing show for employers to lay the Australia, the likes of the Business Council of ground-work for WorkChoices v2. Australia, whose job it will be to do the running The second big review due early next year is on the PR side of the campaign, with the a full review of all Awards. Remember, a key willing assistance of the Murdoch press. part of the WorkChoices agenda is to take rights This is how they will do it: out of Awards so wages and conditions have the potential to fall a long way before they reach a Step 1: Go after unions threadbare safety-net. Employers have already Despite the disgraceful behaviour of several signalled a full scale assault on one part of take former leaders of the HSU, Australians home-pay – penalty rates. generally like and trust unions. A strong majority believe that the country is Step 4: Hide behind the new ultra right- better off with unions in most studies that have wing Senate been done on the topic. The HSU scandal has For a long time now, we have seen the opened up for Abbott a new front for this part “balance of power” in the Senate held by of his strategy which is to find as much dirt as parties of the centre or the Left, such as The possible (real or imagined) to throw. This is all Greens or the Democrats. designed to weaken the trust of the public in They have often insisted on amendments to unions and put unions on the defensive. legislation as the price of supporting it, but such This part of their strategy has already started. changes have usually not been to the detriment The hopes that it can both of workers. take the high moral ground and demonstrate A whole new world of Senate politics awaits that the HSU was not just “one bad apple”. us come 1 July 2014 and it will be a horror They can use the findings to justify further show for working people. fishing exercises. This new Senate provides great opportunities for Abbott to do more than he promised and Step 2: Make business run the more than he might have dreamt of in his first campaign term of Government. And, he doesn’t have to About a year ago, confident of a Coalition make these proposals himself. win at the election, the Business Council of After business have been running their Australia became organised. Since then, we campaigns and the various inquiries have have seen a chorus of CEOs lining up to push delivered him what business wants, he can use the WorkChoices agenda. the new Senate to finish the job. Their themes are similar: abolish or reduce I think Abbott’s strategy is clear for all to see penalty rates, taking away workers’ rights, limit if you follow what he and other WorkChoices collective bargaining, cut the minimum wage. devotees are up to. They are campaigning. They have a theme. After all, knowing or predicting your It’s not called WorkChoices. It’s not about opponents’ strategy is vitally important to Get the full story: taking away rights (yet), it is all about jobs and building your own. workinglife.org.au December 2013-January 2014 .org.au 11 Ask Us Don’t let your work Christmas party end in embarassment HELEN asks: I have been with this company Explain that you’re not used to alcohol and for about 14 years. Last night our boss took that the strength of the drinks caught you off us all out for dinner to celebrate the end of guard (I’d avoid though blowing the whistle the year. I don’t normally drink at all as I on your drink buying colleague to your boss by RIGHTS WATCH just don’t really like the taste. But one of the – though you might want to let them know girls insisted on buying me a drink and said privately that you didn’t appreciate it!). she’d get me something not too strong I’d Chances are this will have all blown over. really like. It was very nice and I drank it and If though you find that your boss isn’t very then had a couple more. I don’t remember a understanding and that you are in trouble, write lot about the evening but someone must’ve a letter apologising and saying that you regret taken me home because I woke up on my what occurred, it was unintentional and won’t The end of the year couch. I got a phone call today from one of happen again. can be a fun time at my friends saying I’d been really loud and The end of the year can be a really fun time at work, but the office horrible and had been sick in front of people work – but every year people find themselves in in the restaurant. I’m due to go into work trouble for office-party related reasons. Here’s a party can be fraught tomorrow and I am so ashamed about what handy list of do’s and don’ts: with danger. Here’s happened and I’m worried I’m going to get 1. If it’s unacceptable behaviour at any other a handy list of do’s the sack. time of the year, it’s unacceptable behaviour at and dont’s an office party. Please don’t beat yourself up about this – you’re 2. No matter how friendly they are, your boss not the first person this has happened to and you is still your boss. Don’t after a few drinks decide certainly won’t be the last. to tell them what exactly what they’re doing The person who should be feeling bad is your wrong. You’d think twice about saying it in the colleague who knew you weren’t a drinker but lift at work so don’t say it at the bar. went ahead and bought you cocktails without 3. Kris Kringle is fraught with danger. Just telling you what was in them or how strong they because you think nude calendars make an might be. hilarious gift doesn’t mean someone else won’t GOT A PROBLEM It’s important that you do go into work. Not find it offensive. AT WORK? turning up, tempting though it might be, will 4. Even though they’re out of hours, office only reflect badly on you and make any problem parties are still work events. Pace yourself. It’s worse. Would you feel comfortable about one thing to face your mates after a really messy You’ve come to the apologising upfront to your boss and those who Saturday night – it’s quite another to walk into right place. Share were there about any awkwardness you might the staffroom first day back after everything your workplace have inadvertently caused? went horribly pear shaped. issues with our other readers and How to chase up back payments get free advice from the Australian CHRIS asks: I have just finished my carpenter apprenticeship! Unions helpline and joinery apprentice, and straight away As you’re self-employed (as opposed to got some shopfitting work as my own sub- working for someone and being paid wages if you have a contractor. I worked two weeks and sent under a Tax File Number) in order to chase up problem with your away my first invoice for the first three days the money you’re owed you’ll need to make a pay, entitlements, worked, and got paid the day after which civil claim through the Small Claims Tribunal health and safety was all well and good. I then worked another in your state. or anything else at week-and-a-half, put that invoice through on This will involve paying a fee, the amount a Friday morning early December, and I have of which will depend on how much you’re work. still seen no payment into my bank account, claiming. You don’t mention what State you which is now leading me to start running out are working in, so I can’t give you any specific Phone 1300 4 of money whilst applying for new jobs. Can details, but the website of the tribunal in your UNION (1300 486 you help me out please? state should able to provide you with all the 466). information you need. Congratulations on finishing your All the best with your new business.