Put Yourself in Their Shoes

1. School Employer uses new IR legislation to undermine teachers' rights by citing 'operational reasons'

WorkChoices legislation makes it legal for schools to tell experienced and competent teachers that "due to operational reasons" their position is now redundant and such a teacher has no right to challenge the school's decision.

2. Employer uses new IR laws to undermine workers' redundancy rights. 

Tristar worker John Beaven, suffering from bowel cancer, felt he had no choice but to accept the voluntary redundancy offer, but was honest enough to inform the company of his illness. While all other applicants for the reduced entitlements were paid, Mr Beaven was ignored and instead kept on sick leave, allowing the company to avoid any redundancy by waiting for him to die.

3. Children as young as 14 years old are signing AWA individual contracts under the Coalition government's IR laws.

According to previously unreleased official Government figures 598 AWA individual contracts were signed by children under the age of 15 from July last year until May 2006, including many under the new IR laws.

4. Australian workers face jail and fines up to $28,000 for taking industrial action about safety in their workplace.

107 Western Australian building workers face jail and personal fines of up to $28,600. Their crime? Participating in a stoppage in support of a sacked workmate and refusing to accept persistent safety breaches in their workplace.

5. Family man sacked and company attempts to avoid worker's right to unfair dismissal claim under new IR law opportunities. 
Under the federal government's new industrial laws it is no longer unfair to sack a worker if the company employs less than 100 staff.  Worse than this a company that employs more than 100 staff might even try to argue that the 100 threshold applies to each site it operates.

6.  Company makes an 'Agreement' with itself and then cuts workers pay by up to $190 per week under new IR laws.

Up to 65 Tasmanian workers faced pay cuts of as much as $190 a week and the loss of important award conditions under new contracts made legal by the Federal Govt's IR laws that allow owners of new businesses to impose pay cuts and change work conditions without any consultation or agreement.

7. Single mother of three interrogated by secret government task force and not allowed to discuss details with family.

This is not the story of an alleged terrorist. Rather, it is about an Australian worker in Victoria who, acting as the health and safety officer on her worksite participated in industrial action because of concerns about an unsafe railway crossing outside the front gate of the worksite.

8. Employer advertises workers jobs in the middle of negotiations.

A Sydney electrical company took out advertisements in the employment pages of newspapers to threaten workers before they vote on industrial action.

9. Industrial Relations Commission blames WorkChoices for child labour exploitation.

The full bench of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission has found that children employed by some corporations are being exploited in a "most unconscionable way".

10. Employers want to undercut the legal minimum wage for real estate agents.

A new push by major employers in the real estate industry to introduce a commission-only wages system could result in agency salespeople being paid less than the minimum legal wage.

11. Twenty young "trolley boys" in rural NSW sacked without protection because of WorkChoices laws