By Mark Phillips:

Peak hour commuters arriving at Melbourne’s Flinders Street, Sydney’s Martin Place and Brisbane’s Roma Street railway stations last week could not avoid the WorkChoices: whatever the name, never again campaign.

In the first big event of the election campaign, community volunteers blitzed the three railway stations, handing out more than 10,000 leaflets in the period between 8 and 9am to inform the public about the Coalition’s industrial relations plans.

Many commuters appeared to share concerns that Tony Abbott will bring back the worst aspects of WorkChoices through the back door. Others were less aware of his plans, but keen to find out more.

The first week of the official 2010 election campaign has seen Tony Abbott and his team all over the shop as they avoid telling the Australian public what their real plans are for workplaces.

Abbott’s pledge on the day the election was called, 17 July, that WorkChoices was “dead, buried and cremated” unraveled within hours, and voters have been left with nothing but a few glib statements.

How Abbott can claim that WorkChoices is dead while still pursuing plans to reduce protection from unfair dismissal and re-introduce individual contracts remains unexplained by the Coalition.

There is clearly an expectation from business groups for the Liberals to wind back elements of the Fair Work laws, but Abbott has failed to clarify just what kinds of promises he has made behind closed doors.Handing out leaflets

However, it is clear that he can do much more than simply ‘tweak’ workplace laws while maintaining his promise not to alter legislation. And even that promise looks shaky after an interview on Melbourne’s 3AW, where Abbott refused to “give an absolute guarantee about every single aspect of workplace relations legislation”.

The ACTU earlier this week wrote to Abbott outlining “deep concerns” that the Coalition could make changes to regulations associated with the Fair Work laws or use other ministerial or executive powers to change the operation of the laws.

“From these statements it is clear that you are continuing to leave the door open for changes that would bring back the worst aspects of WorkChoices,” ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence wrote in the letter.

“As you are no doubt aware, changes to regulations and other non-legislative actions could achieve the return of unfair individual contracts, the removal of unfair dismissal protections and cuts to Award conditions like overtime and penalty rates . . . If you were being truthful with the Australian people, and as confirmed by employer associations, you would admit that in fact there is enormous scope for a Liberal Government to alter the operation of the Fair Work Act by regulation.”

The ACTU has identified 198 separate sections of the Fair Work Act and the three related Acts where the Minister could make changes without the approval of Parliament.

“At the stroke of a pen, Tony Abbott could reduce unfair dismissal protections for small business employees, reduce minimum conditions in modern awards or enterprise agreements, and cut their entitlements to redundancy payments,” says Lawrence.

“With 198 possible changes to the Fair Work laws that can be made through regulations, you have to wonder just how much ‘tweaking’ the Liberals intend to do.”

In any case, it only took a couple of days before Abbott appeared to have broken his core promise not to change any legislation governing workplaces.

On Tuesday, he announced a series of cuts to government spending which include a proposal to end funding for Australian Electoral Commission oversight of union elections. The Government’s legal advice is that this would require rewriting of the Fair Work laws.

It is unclear how far this ban would extend, but it could rope in ballots to approve a collective agreement or take protected action, or any other exercise of democracy in the workplace.

“This shows again that Mr Abbott’s campaign promises change like the wind and he cannot be trusted,” Lawrence says.

Mark Phillips is the ACTU’s media co-ordinator. This article was originally posted at the Your Rights at Work website.

Tags: election 2010, mark phillips, Tony Abbott, WorkChoices, your rights at work