Using awards for "fairness test" would send most CEPU members backwards
One in seven wage agreements has failed to pass the Howard Government’s new “fairness test” with employers found to have removed workers penalty rates without fairly compensating them with higher rates of pay.
This is according to the Government’s own figures released yesterday.
These figures released by the Government’s Workplace Authority also show there is a backlog of 110,000 workers who have yet to have the workplace agreement checked. The Workplace Authority has responsibility to check all agreements against the new “fairness test”.
Between May and August the Workplace Authority assessed 12,749 agreements against the fairness test and found 1,070 were assessed as failing the test and employers were given 14 days to meet the test.
Labor’s Julia Guillard said that at this rate it will take the authority more than 10 months to clear the backlog of agreements and that is before it even starts on the estimated additional 30,000 agreements being lodged each month.
The figures show that despite Government assurances, employers are still using the Howard Government’s work choices laws to cut wages and conditions and get rid of penalty rates.
CEPU National Secretary, Peter Tighe, reminded members that the fairness test still uses the award as the basis of comparison.
“For those workers who have been on collective agreements for years, the award is not a fair basis on which to compare current agreements on offer. This is the flaw in the system,” according to Tighe.
“Many more agreements would fail the test if it was truly a fair test. Rates of pay and conditions should be compared with the current rates of pay and conditions in the expiring agreement, he said.
“Employees should not be going backwards. Rates of pay and conditions being offered in new agreements should be better than rates of pay and conditions in existing agreements.
“If new agreements are going to be cutting out penalty rates and other benefits then employees should be compensated with pay rates that are higher than what they are currently earning.
“Using awards as the basis of comparison would send most CEPU members backwards,” said Peter Tighe.
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