Minister for Workplace Relations Julia Gillard this week released data collected in 2006 that showed 89% of Australians were missing out on at least one of the protected award conditions.
“The Workplace Authority has provided the Government with data compiled and analysed from a sample of over 1700 Australian Workplace Agreements lodged between April and October 2006, data the previous Liberal government claimed didn’t exist," the Government said.
According to the 1748 AWAs analysed, some of the protected award conditions most frequently removed were shift work loadings (70%), annual leave loadings (68%) and public holiday payments (50%). It also said that 75% of the AWAs sampled did not provide for a guaranteed wage increase.
The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union said these figures showed that workers were badly hurt by the WorkChoices AWAs, and called for the Liberals to support Labor's move to ban new AWAs.
“WorkChoices is not dead while the Federal Coalition remains committed to using individual contracts and refuses to rule out bringing back AWAs," said the CFMEU.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions said AWAs have made life harder for thousands of Australians, and would continue to do so.
“Every day the Liberals delay the scrapping of AWAs more and more working families are being hurt," said ACTU president Sharan Burrow.
“This week we have another example of workers facing a pay cut of $300 a week under WorkChoices AWAs.
“Nearly 200 workers at Qantas valet parking across Australia, some of whom have worked there for 20 years, have been sacked and then offered their jobs back under a new contractor with the loss of pay and conditions of up to $300 a year."
