LABOR WILL STAND UP FOR JOB SECURITY

Businesses that have recovered from a coronavirus downturn should not have access to emergency powers that would allow them to cut the hours, pay and job security of their workers.
 
The Morrison Government has not even bothered to try and make the case why companies that are doing well – some of them actually earning higher profits and paying increased dividends to shareholders – should be able to utilise these extreme and extraordinary powers.
 
Employers were given these emergency powers at the height of the pandemic if they had taken a major hit – at least a 30 per cent downturn – and were getting taxpayer support through JobKeeper.

Now the Government is saying that even if a business has fully recovered – or is even doing better than they were six months ago – they should get to keep these emergency powers.

These are the same businesses and workers that the Government decided last month it no longer needed to support through JobKeeper. If they don’t need support why do they need emergency powers that will allow them to slash their workers’ hours from full-time to part-time without warning and without negotiation?

The Government is using the pandemic as an excuse to bring in extreme changes that will leave workers worse off.

What’s worse, they’re not even bothering to explain or seek to justify their plans to the Australian people. They’re simply hoping the public doesn’t notice this assault on their job security.

It is truly extraordinary that in the middle of a pandemic this Government's only ideas for so-called industrial relations “reform” involve cutting workers' pay, conditions, rights and job security.

Australia’s recovery will depend on domestic demand, and people won’t spend if they fear their pay could be cut at any moment.

If this pandemic has taught us anything it’s that workers need more job security, not less. These changes would be a hammer blow for job security.

Labor will not give the Morrison Government a blank cheque to attack the rights and job security of Australian workers.
 
THURSDAY, 13 AUGUST 2020