Menzies House

Attacks On The Self-Employed Continue

Ken Phillips on the campaign to damage self-employed people. 

It can sometimes be surprising just how persistent are those who hate self-employed people.
 
As ex-union boss, smiley Bill Shorten, was promoted to Cabinet as minister for industrial relations, we discover another union-organised attack against self-employed people. Shorten’s government has released proposed legislation that will take away the rights of self-employed truckies to be their own boss.
 
We’ve assessed the legislation and its impact and written to members of parliament saying ‘don’t be conned’. The con is that the government’s political spin talks about road safety. But the proposal, which is likely to pass, will impose price-fixing on truckies, push down their incomes, decrease productivity and not improve road safety. It’s a red-tape template bonanza that can be applied to all self-employed people.
 
Who knows what Shorten thinks of this but he’s now responsible for the legislation. Last week I had an article in The Australian assessing Shorten’s task as minister. It’s an impossible one, even if he wanted to do the right thing. His union background and the enemies he’s made create for him a political squeeze.
 
When the law and politics get together, watch out! Which is why a lawyer’s (red tape) approach to Christmas can even send us into a spin.

Ken Phillips is the Executive Director of the Independent Contractors Association.

Do Unions Hate Self-Employed People?

Ken Phillips on the union campaign to damage self-employed people. 

Last week I had a radio debate with the head union boss Ged Kearney of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, on the union campaign to damage self-employed people. Ged says that I’m wrong and unions actually love self-employed people.
 
But my claim is that, on the evidence of the union agitation, they think that only full-time permanent work is moral and legitimate. Here’s the ABC Radio National debate.
 
Through the Gillard Government, the unions are turning their desires into government action. I explained this in The Australian last week.
 
The ACTU produced a survey that it claims showed ‘working’ Australians support its ‘permanent work’ campaign. We looked at the survey and commented that the surveyproved the reverse. Now an academic from Monash University, Dr Tui McKeown, has also done an analysis of the survey showing that its conclusions do not stand up to scrutiny.
 
This debate over the future of work has a long way to go. Do we insist on pushing everyone into a sameness? Or do we embrace diversity of work arrangements? That’s what self-employment is about.

Ken Phillips is the Executive Director of the Independent Contractors Association.

Secrets of the Health Services Union

 

(Published November 2009) An insight into what the Health Services Union has become. Real footage of what members think of the union.

Watch up to the first 5 minutes.

Special thanks to St_KiKi for the video link. If you like, you can follow her on twitter @St_KiKi

 

Andy Semple

Follow him on twitter @Bulmkt

Kudos: ETU breaks ranks, Rejects Gillard Carbon Dioxide Tax

Kudos to the big blue-collar Electrical Trades union for breaking ranks and saying it cannot support the Gillard government's carbon tax package because of the ''total absence'' of a jobs plan for the struggling Latrobe Valley.

Electrical Trades Union state secretary Dean Mighell said while the union supported pricing carbon, lack of a detailed plan for new industry or assistance to workers meant there was a risk of a ''massive social impact'' from the likely closure of Hazelwood power station.

Mr Mighell said about 800 direct jobs would be lost if Hazelwood closed while the loss of indirect jobs could flow into the thousands. He also warned that shutting the plant, without alternative base-load power, increased the risk of brownouts in Victoria.

Mr Mighell, who met ETU delegates in the valley yesterday, said the big industry compensation when combined with lack of guarantees for workers ''leaves us unable to say we would support this plan''.

Would Howes Give Union Stamp of Approval it were Coalition Policy?

The head of Australia's largest blue collar union yesterday provided a much-needed fillip for the Gillard government by endorsing its carbon tax.

The endorsement by the Australian Workers Union came just weeks after AWU national secretary Paul Howes vowed to oppose the impost if it cost a single worker's job.

So the question that should now be put to Mr. Howes is this: If the coalition offered up the exact same policy, would his AWU Union support Tony Abbott?

Of course he wouldn’t. Howes would mount the same type of campaign Tony Abbott is making right now against this all pain no gain Carbon Dioxide Tax

It’s just more partisan politics.

I’d love to see an independent and anonymous survey on the views of the AWU’s 135,000 workers on Gillard’s Carbon Dioxide Tax, most of whom work in trade-exposed areas of the economy and have the most to lose.

 

Andy Semple

Follow him on twitter @Bulmkt

Swan’s budget: Gunning for contractors

Ken Phillips points out the horrors the Swan Budget will inflict on the job-creating independent contracting sector:

In a startling development contained in tonight’s federal budget, the Gillard Government is moving to destroy independent contractors. And the term ‘destroy’ is not overstating the development. 
 
Robert Gottliebsen’s analysis of the budget describes how this is likely to occur. He says: 

The government plans to require that anyone in the building and construction industry who hires a contractor must report to the government every cent they pay to that contractor. And every contractor must report every cent they pay to their contractors. This is part of the vigorous union-encouraged attack that the government is planning on the self-employed … it will be extended to IT and other areas.

What the government is doing is tying up contract work in so much red tape complexity that the practical ability to be self-employed will evaporate. 
 
In all my time fighting for the right of people to be their own boss I have not seen such a blatant and intentional attack as this.
 
Gottliebsen’s articles are here along with the government’s press release: <http://www.contractworld.com.au/>

Ken Phillips is the Executive Director of the Independent Contractors Association.

Compulsory Union Hooliganism!

Voluntary Student Unionism has given students more benefits than compulsory unionism ever did, writes Geoffrey Bondson.

With the demise of Compulsory Student Unionism, university students suddenly have money. When my parents were at UWA in the late 1980s, the Guild Fees were higher and the services poorer. 

Nowadays, with voluntary membership, the Guild actually has reason to provide decent services. Also, given inflation, the Guild fees now should be HIGHER than 20 years ago - but they're actually lower. 

Are unions as relevant and powerful as they once were?

Chris Browne asks if unions are becoming even more irrelevant than they already are.

I stumbled across this article today detailing how some unions are outsourcing recruitment. It seems that even the union movement now can't figure out exactly what it is they are trying to sell to workers, so they outsource it to professional marketing firms instead.