Port Adelaide Enfield Council - The Truth Behind the Work Choices Agreement

Members at Port Adelaide Enfield have faced one of the most aggressive pushes for Work Choices in Local Government.

The use of a costly team of lawyers and consultants, refusing to negotiate with the ASU representatives if they did not agree to negotiate a new agreement under Work Choices, restricting access of the Union reps in respect to using e-mail to communicate with staff whilst giving the pro-Work Choice non-union representatives unrestricted access to staff during work time and saying staff would get no increase at all unless they agreed to a new Work Choice agreement were all tactics used by management to get their way.

Council management eventually got their Work Choice agreement with it being voted up despite a large no vote. However in the face of an effective Union campaign which included a petition to Council signed by the majority of staff opposing Work Choices, Council management in their desperation to get a Work Choice agreement, were eventually forced to concede on a common law agreement to sit along side the Work Choice agreement that not only covers the matters prohibited by the Work Choice laws, and outlaws the use of AWAs (individual contracts) but also effectively means that the Council cannot unilaterally terminate the Work Choice agreement in the future.

Although the outcome was not as good as it could have been particularly around restoring workers full rights on unfair dismissal, it was far better than members were originally facing and they and their ASU Workplace Representatives can be proud of what they achieved.

Members will now be deciding whether the Union should become party to the Agreement.