Fed: No employee will lose if AWAs are scrapped: Rudd

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2007
Fed: No employee will lose if AWAs are scrapped: Rudd

CANBERRA, April 30 AAP - Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has promised no employee on an
Australian workplace agreement (AWA) will be worse off as a result of his pledge to scrap
the controversial contracts.

Mr Rudd offered the guarantee tonight while defending aspects of his industrial relations
(IR) policies.

He said he would release details closer to the election about what would happen to
the working arrangements of employees already on AWAs if Labor won office.

"When we put out our transitional arrangements, and that's still to come some time
down the track, let me make it very clear that we will ensure that anyone who's currently
on an AWA will be no worse off when it comes to their take-home pay and conditions," he
told ABC Television.

"We're confident we can engineer transitional arrangements along those lines."

Mr Rudd's promise follows concerns expressed by Western Australian Premier Alan Carpenter
about the impact a future federal Labor government's IR changes could have on the state's
mining sector.

Mr Rudd tonight rejected accusations Labor's proposed new industrial umpire, Fair Work
Australia, would be tilted in favour of the union movement.

He vowed not to stack Fair Work Australia and other public institutions, including
the ABC, with political appointees.

"I will not be prime minister of this country and appoint some endless tribe of trade
union officials or ex-trade union officials to staff the key positions in this body,"

he said.

"People will be appointed on their merit but I'm not going to turn this into an employment
agency for retired officials from the ACTU."

The Howard government had "prostituted" Australia's public institutions and Labor would
restore their integrity and independence, Mr Rudd said.

He defended his approach to industrial relations against big business bosses' claims
that Labor's policy would simply wind back the clock.

Labor would require secret ballots before strike action and prohibit industry-wide
industrial action, he said.

Mr Rudd gave Electrical Trades Union leader Dean Mighell a dressing down for describing
Prime Minister John Howard as "a skid mark on the bedsheet of Australian politics".

"His comments the other day attacking the prime minister, using filthy language, were
in my view unacceptable and not reflective of the sentiment of the Australian Labor movement,"

Mr Rudd said.

"That sort of approach is just outdated, wrong and belongs to a different century."

AAP dcr/cdh

KEYWORD: WORKPLACE RUDD

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