ACTU attacks Fielding's IR stance

Family First's Steve Fielding is under pressure to back down on attempts to exempt
small business from a major part of Labor's industrial laws, which unions say make
them "worse than Work Choices".

Senator Fielding refused to budge during a meeting with Workplace Relations Minister
Julia Gillard on Monday.
Debate on the bill is due to start on Tuesday.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow attacked Senator Fielding's proposed changes as worse
than the former Howard government policy the bill is intended to replace.
Senator Fielding wants employees in small businesses with less than 20 workers to be
exempt from union right of entry and low wage bargaining provisions in the Fair Work
bill.
The government proposes small businesses with fewer than 15 employees have unfair
dismissal protection for staff who have served at least 12 months, and exemption
from redundancy entitlements.
Ms Burrow said the proposals would leave up to half of all workers without access to
union representation in the workplace or protection under proposed low wage
bargaining rules.
"It's zero hour for rights at work," she said.
Ms Gillard released the government's amendments on Monday which gave some ground on
employer concerns about union power in the workplace but not enough according to
business.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Australian Industry
Group (AIG) said the amendments still placed unnecessary strictures on business.
The government wants the bill passed by the end of this week - meaning parliament
could be forced to sit on Friday before it breaks for six weeks until the May
budget.
Senator Fielding told AAP late on Monday he was still in "good faith" negotiations
with the government, unions, business and independent Nick Xenophon.
"The Rudd Government has given small business exemptions for unfair dismissal and
redundancy entitlements, we've asked the government that those special provisions be
extended," he said.
Workers would already be protected by awards, by the proposed new national
employment standards, by the Workplace Ombudsman and the new body, Fair Work
Australia (FWA).
"Small business don't want the unions to become the policeman," Senator Fielding said.
His proposal allowed for a review of his amendments as part of the government's
overall review of the Fair Work Act in 2012.
A spokesman for Senator Xenophon said his chief concern was that he wanted the
definition of small business in relation to unfair dismissal laws to be 20 employees
and not the government's proposed 15 employees.
The opposition has proposed a definition of 25 employees.
Ms Burrow said Senator Fielding's amendments were "the extreme" end of the debate.
"We urge him to turn away from extreme amendments that are worse than Work Choices
and make sure that he does as he did before: stand up for working people and their
families," she said.
The government's own amendments tighten privacy requirements in relation to union
officials being able to inspect employee records, and provisions governing the
transfer of employees when a company changes hands.
But Ai Group chief executive Heather Ridout said that on these two issues the
amendments did not address "core problems" business had with the bill.
"The provisions of the bill would potentially lead to union turf wars," Ms Ridout said.
ACCI chief executive Peter Anderson told AAP the government had met some of the
employer concerns on the operation of the new industrial system but the policy was
still slanted too far in favour of unions.
Ms Gillard's office did not return AAP's calls.