ACTU head Sally McManus calls for halving of insecure work by 2030
Sally McManus has labelled insecure work a “virus”, calling for a target to halve the proportion of insecure jobs in Australia by the end of the decade.
The secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions will make the call in a major speech on Wednesday, warning the government that unions are prepared to fight if it cuts super rises and sides with employers over cuts to workers’ take-home pay.
The speech to the National Press Club comes ahead of the release of the Coalition’s industrial relations omnibus bill, expected to simplify conditions in the retail, hospitality and restaurant sectors by endorsing employers’ bid to replace penalty rates with a higher base rate of pay.
The bill is also expected to bolster secure work by giving casuals a right to convert to permanent positions after an extended period of employment.
According to an advance copy of the speech, McManus says the coronavirus pandemic had shown the biggest weakness in Australia’s defences and the social contract is “the fact we have far too many insecure, casualised, labour hire, gig jobs that have no security and few rights”.
McManus cites the “shameful tragedy” of five delivery drivers killed in the last two months as an example of workers abandoned by the government, tech giants and inadequate workplace laws.
She says that in 2020 “our levels of casual insecure work threatened the health of everyone and damages the whole of the economy”.
McManus says “insecure work was literally spreading the virus”, citing “2.1 million workers who [had] no choice but to work more than one job just to string together a living wage” as a risk factor.
McManus says attorney general Christian Porter effectively claimed “casual workers are already paid for sick leave, and they should have been saving up for the day a pandemic hit”.
McManus argues that “heartbreaking scenes” of queues outside Centrelink in the first weeks of the pandemic “could have been avoided” if employers had known the jobkeeper wage subsidy was coming. Nevertheless, McManus credits the government for bringing unions to the table and heeding calls for wage subsidies and a form of payment for sick workers.
McManus boasts that nearly every union has seen growth in membership in 2020 and unions are back as a “trusted social partner” of businesses and governments.
She argues that Australia was able to avoid the worst of the pandemic because of its safety nets, social cohesion and belief in the greater good, as opposed to the “blind individualism” displayed in the United States, “where people are not prepared to make any personal sacrifice … even to wear masks”.
McManus admits that industrial relations roundtables with employers and the government were challenging, blaming some employer groups who failed to “put aside self-interest and act in the national interest”.
These groups proposed “the same old snatch and grab – leaving workers with less rights and hurting many of the same people who were on the front lines of the pandemic”, she says.
McManus warns the union movement “will not accept workers being worse off” through “cuts to pay or the taking away of rights”.
Although the movement would “rather not spend the new year in the trenches again … if we need to, we will be ready to fight and defend the rights of workers”.
Instead, the government should look to crack down on insecure work, which she said had flourished “by design” due to policies of conservative governments and many employers.
McManus says the target of halving insecure work is completely achievable if governments refuse to give contracts to companies who do not prioritise secure work, cutting down on outsourcing in sectors including cleaning, hotel security and aged care.
“We need to update our laws to reform fixed-term employment, gig economy work and labour hire.”
In October, Porter appeared to side with employers by arguing part-time workers are not given extra hours “because of the overtime rate”.
McManus told Guardian Australia this was a “concerning sign” the government had accepted employers’ calls in the roundtable for “part-time flexibility”.
Under the proposal, part-time workers would nominate the hours they’re available and be guaranteed a minimum amount of work, but employers could engage them for extra hours at ordinary time rates without penalties or loadings.
In the Coalition party room, Porter has stressed the need to pursue an incremental package that has a realistic chance of passing parliament.
Although he has ruled out pursuing a separate award, Porter has suggested small businesses could be aided by less onerous pay rules introduced in existing awards.