Friday, June 17, 2005

Government take over of IR condemned

The president of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, Justice Lance Wright, condemned the Government's plans to take over industrial relations systems across the country.

"Despite some suggestions otherwise in the uninformed part of the current debate over federal industrial relations policies, the reality is that industrial disputation is still of significance in Australia. Contrary to some suggestions otherwise, fairness is not an outdated concept, and market forces play only a limited, and thus inadequate, role in ensuring fairness in workplace relations."

Justice Wright said the state's least powerful workers, often women or migrants, were protected by the commission in bargaining with employers.

"Any proposal for change which would remove this institution, with its role as an independent umpire, has to be seriously questioned," he said.

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