CPSU at UNE

(With thanks to Andrew Holland, taken from the latest UNE CPSU Branch Member Bulletin Vol. 12)

The Fair Work Act 2009 commenced on 1 July 2009.

The ACTU has called this “an historic step forward for the rights of working Australians and their families”, that will “provide workers with a raft of stronger rights and protections in the current economic downturn, and in
better times ahead”.

The new laws are the result of an unprecedented campaign by Australian workers based firmly on the Australian belief of a fair go, who demanded the return of their rights at work after those rights were stripped away by the Howard Government’s ‘WorkChoices’ laws. Amongst other things the new laws will mean:

• Genuine rights for workers to collectively bargain and be represented by their union.
• Unfair dismissal for all workers, including about 4 million workers who had no protection under WorkChoices.
• A robust new safety net of awards and national standards, along with a fair and transparent process for setting minimum wages.
• An industrial umpire with teeth to safeguard workers’ rights.

Q: How does this effect me?
A: UNE’s new Enterprise Agreement will be a Fair Work agreement.

You can find more information, and a copy of the full Act via the following link: http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/Publications/Legislation/FairWorkBill.htm

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about Fair Work or the Enterprise Bargaining process, please feel free to email Branch President and EB team member, Jen Mitchell.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.