Labor launches IR scare campaign

Labor has rolled-out a scare campaign targeting Scott Morrison’s IR laws as it moves to convince voters the Coalition has used the pandemic to encourage insecure work.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus wants JobKeeper extended until the pandemic is over.

Labor has rolled out a new campaign to target Scott Morrison’s industrial relations laws as it moves to convince voters that the Coalition has used the coronavirus pandemic to encourage insecure work with few or no protections for sick and holiday leave.

The advertisements, which are booked to run on television in every state and territory from Sunday, suggest the Prime Minister’s industrial relations laws will cut the wages, conditions and penalty rates of Australians workers.

“As if employers didn’t have enough power over workers now Scott Morrison wants to give them even more tools to cut their pay,” the ad says. “Employers can use Scott Morrison’s new industrial relations rules to slash your wages and conditions and slice away your penalty rates and overtime.”

The advert uses Labor leader ­Anthony Albanese’s new pitch of the party being “on the side” of Australians. ‘‘Sticking it to ordinary workers is no way to help Australia recover, when it comes to your job Scott Morrison and the Liberals are not on your side,” it says.

But some in Labor’s ranks are baffled that Mr Albanese has ­chosen to mirror the “on your side” slogan from the disastrous 2019 campaign of former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who lost in a landslide.

A senior Labor source took aim at Mr Albanese’s slogan ­selection, declaring: “When Albo compared himself to Joe Biden, I didn’t ­realise he meant that he would plagiarise a disastrous British ­Labour leader.”

The Labor leader used a speech in Queensland last week to flag that industrial relations would become a key election battleground as he vowed to ­secure a “better deal” for workers with a suite of proposed ­reforms that improve job security and provide minimum pay and entitlements to those in insecure work.

Sticking it to ordinary workers is no way to help Australia recover. But that's exactly what Scott Morrison's new industrial relations laws would do – they'd give employers even more tools to cut your pay.

Help us stop your pay being cut at https://t.co/0Pl9RxGM8I #auspol pic.twitter.com/TS6YiKJa2R

— Australian Labor (@AustralianLabor) February 14, 2021

Among the Morrison government’s industrial relations proposals casual workers would get the choice to become a permanent employee after a year.

But ACTU secretary Sally McManus told ABC Insiders on Sunday she would prefer those rights to come in after six months.

“If the job is a permanent, ongoing job, you should have permanent rights,” she said. “At the moment what the government is saying is that employers can have reasonable grounds and that reasonable grounds would be if they just decide they don’t want to and you can’t even go to the independent umpire and get that challenge.”

Ms McManus said that making a casual worker permanent would not be an additional cost for ­employers because employees would lose their casual loading.

Attorney-General Christian Porter, who has responsibility for industrial relations, seized on Ms McManus’ comments to accuse Labor of planning to take away 25 per cent of employees’ earnings. “What is now being revealed is the plan is to decrease that cost to business by taking away casual workers’ 25 per-cent upfront wage loading,” he said. “… under Labor’s proposal workers don’t get a choice about whether to stay casual and hold on to the 25 per cent loading or go permanent.”