How do you combine a small-target electoral strategy with an ambitious plan to force Australian workers into a Dickensian nightmare of indentured servitude?
Just ask Peter Dutton.
Presumably using a ouija board possessed with the spirit of Margaret Thatcher, the Liberal Party has revived its IR thinktank, the HR Nicholls society. DON'T SCROLL AWAY THIS IS BORING BUT IMPORTANT.
The HR Nicholls society is a way for Liberal Party politicians to get together and write policy, and release it on letterhead that doesn't say "Liberal Party". By releasing their plans under the guise of the HR Nicholls society, Liberal Ministers can avoid scrutiny for their jack-booted ideology, assisted by their compliant spaniels in the Murdoch Press.
So it is that Louise Staley (former Liberal Shadow Treasurer and current Chief of Staff to Victorian Liberal Leader John Pesutto) can consult with the former Victorian Liberal Leader Michael O'Brien, the current Liberal Shadow Treasurer Brad Roswell, and the current Member for Deakin Michael Sukkar, and release a policy that is not considered to be Liberal Party policy until after the election.
Here's the upshot:
THE LIBERAL PARTY HAS A PLAN TO CUT YOUR WAGES & DESTROY YOUR RIGHTS AT WORK
The Liberal Party has a detailed plan to make your working life harder - let's take a look at it. You can download the full plan here.
Put truckies and road users at risk by stripping safety regulations in the road transport industry
Tired, overworked truckies are a major road risk, which is why transport workers have campaigned for over a decade to set enforceable standards in transport, including in the transport gig economy.
A truck driver is killed on our roads every 8 days. Road transport companies push truck drivers to work unreasonable hours, skip breaks, and skip maintenance and repairs to protect their profits. Even employers were calling for change.
Workers fought together to legislate minimum standards for all workers, and reverse the "Amazon effect" in the industry.
Workers won improved protections and safety conditions from the Federal Labor Government, including workers being able to have a say over changes to the industry.
The HR Nicholls plan calls for the oversight and regulation of the transport industry to be abolished, so that large companies like Amazon, Woolworths and Coles can continue to use their massive power to force transport workers into unsafe working conditions. (Recommendation 8.1)
Lower the wages of 20% of Australia’s workers to a $24.10/hour.
1 in 5 of Australian workers are paid a minimum award rates - that is, the minimum wage that is considered acceptable in their industry. This is the pay rate of non-unionised workers who lack the power to negotiate a workplace agreement. (Join your union)
Only 180,000 workers are on Australia's National Minimum Wage, which is the lowest pay rate for any adult worker in Australia. (PS., we don't think your birthdate should affect your pay rate - join the campaign)
Under the HR Nicholls recommendation, 2.7 million workers would have their minimum award pay and conditions abolished and receive a pay cut to the national minimum wage.
Just so we're perfectly clear, while Australia suffers through a cost of living crisis, and massive companies continue to luxuriate in obscene profits, this policy document recommends that 1 in 5 workers in Australia should get a pay cut. (Recommendation 3.1)
But that's not all!
Require other workers to negotiate their wages individually, putting all power in the hands of the bosses.
The policy document recommends that the other 4 in 5 Australian workers should also have their wages and conditions slashed.
Rather than the safety-net of an industry award, the policy recommends that your minimum pay and conditions should be determined on an individual basis.
Unless you're the boss' favourite and you play golf together every weekend, that's not good news. In general, research has shown that individual contracts mean everyone is paid a lower rate than if they were on a collective agreement, and pay is distributed also less equally (especially exacerbating the gender pay gap). Everyone loses, but women, people of colour, and people from vulnerable communities lose more.
In an individual negotiation between a boss and a worker, the boss obviously has a lot more power. That's why smart workers come together in a union and negotiate collectively - we jointly tell the boss what we're willing to work for without fear of being individually penalised. Even non-union workers benefit from union negotiations, as they put upwards pressure on wages in the industry.
But individual agreements would not only put more power in the hands of bosses in individual negotiations - they would undermine union agreements by picking off workers from the collective. Workers could be bullied and pressured into worse agreements.
In short, the recommendation to revive individual bargaining would weaken collective bargaining power and reduce wages, conditions and protections, as employees may face pressures in negotiations without the safeguard of union representation.
(Recommendation 5.1).
Give tacit approval to wage theft – allowing dodgy bosses to steal wages without penalty.
HR Nicholls society doesn't like the term wage theft. They say it's mean to make employers sound like they're stealing wages when all they're doing is totally accidentally underpaying everyone all the time.
Instead of prosecuting bosses who accidentally trip and steal their workers' entitlements, the Liberal Party is encouraged to abolish wage theft laws and instead create another toothless government entity whose job it is to print useful pamphlets explaining how not to steal from your workers.
(Recommendation 17)
Ban union representatives from assisting members or inspecting safety breaches on worksites
Recommendation 9 removes all union "right of entry" powers from the Act, and in fact suggests that any union official entering a worksite should "be exposed to the full force of the law, including laws of trespass or economic or property torts". Which is a very cool and normal thing to recommend and suggests we shouldn't at all be concerned about what the Liberal Party thinks workplaces will look like under their Government.
HR Nicholls also recommends removing delegates' rights so that even employees of the business cannot carry out inspections or provide assistance to members.
Allow app-based platforms like Uber to avoid Australia’s hard-won minimum employment standards and workers’ rights
Recommendation 8.2 reads simply "The gig economy should be left alone".
Set minimum wage and employment standards based on economic conditions, without consideration of worker welfare or cost-of-living needs
Reading the room with all the empathy of Louis XVI, the HR Nicholls policy suggests the Productivity Commission should dictate minimum wages, minimum wage increases and employment standards. The Productivity Commission is literally in charge of ensuring Australia is producing more profit for less effort. So it's sort of like putting the crocodiles at the aquarium in charge of the height of guardrails.
The logic is that productivity growth and wage growth should go hand in hand. If we're producing more output from the same input, then the people working to create that output should see some benefit.
The problem is that businesses have consistently denied that productivity benefit to workers. When the bargaining system is so weighted against workers, rather than lead to higher wages, productivity improvements just lead to higher profits.
Australian workers are owed a big-time wage increase, and we'll win it by removing restrictions on collective bargaining - not having our wages controlled by economic boffins.
Remove “same job – same pay” protections so your employer can outsource your employment to a contractor and pay them lower wages.
The document opposes "same job, same pay" protections for labor-hire workers, potentially allowing wage disparities between contractors and permanent staff performing identical roles. This could lead to wage inequality and undermine labor hire workers' financial security. (Recommendation 8.3)
But on this point, the cart precedes the horse. The Liberal Party and Peter Dutton have already promised the mining and resources sector that he will be the "best friend" the bosses have ever had, with a promise to unwind the Same Job - Same Pay laws.
Cut redundancy pay and weaken unfair dismissal protections
Whoops, there's Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley saying she “hopes” business groups’ proposal to weaken unfair dismissal laws is something they can action in government.
The HR Nicholls document recommends more than hope. It calls for workers in businesses with fewer than 50 people to be exempt from paying redundancy, and for access to unfair dismissal laws to be tightened.
Workers have finally begun to see wage rises and new rights after suffering declining real wages under 10 years of Liberal Governments. Liberal Party think-tanks are already planning out Peter Dutton's first 6 months in office - cuts to services and safety-nets, handouts to the already wealthy, and attacks on workers' rights.
Australian workers need more progress to improve our wages and conditions – not more right-wing ideology from the Liberal Party.
Our rights are worth fighting for. Sign the petition.