The IR battle continues

Well, it’s all doom and gloom in the labour and union ranks as they predict the end of civilized society as we know it with Howard’s IR reforms. As the IR laws haven’t been submitted to the house yet I must presume they are basing their predictions, as they are often do, on the premise that anything coming from the Conservative benches must be bad for the worker. The unfair dismissal laws are getting a hiding as the Unions predict every honest and loyal servant will be sacked at the whim of the boss for trivial misdemeanours, but any employer acting that way is simply going downhill fast. The only people who need fear unfair dismissal laws are those bludging slugs that hitherto, bosses have been forced to keep on as it was simply to expensive to dismiss them. Rob Corr, over at Red Rag is attacking with both barrels loaded with emotive language cartridges.

Courts may face a shortage of jurors…..granny had better get used to those kerosene baths…..anyone who wants a pay rise will be forced to sign away their holidays and the proposed scrapping of unfair dismissal laws will silence whistle-blowers

and mentions

….job security should comes first with corporate profits and conservative ideology a distant last.

Maybe, but the worker better hope his company has corporate profits – it’s the source of his wages after all Labor’s new advocate and Primate of the Anglican church, Dr Phillip Aspinall, says;

The purpose of unfair dismissal laws is to prevent unfair dismissals. If a change there means we’re going to allow unfair dismissals — that is, expose vulnerable people to unfairness — that is a real concern, not only to the churches but the whole community.

This emotive, simplistic and illogical statement doesn’t hold water as the purpose may have once been to prevent unfair dismissals but in reality it ended up preventing any dismissal for almost any reason and therefore does need changing. The Unfair Dismissal laws, in fact, became Guaranteed Employment-for-life laws and has subsequently held back many businesses by forcing them to carry deadweight. And the best plug for IR Reform is Paul Keating saying we don’t need it.