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 Home News General
Contractors told to match union rates04 December 2003NSW unions have won a crucial test case in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission that will allow them to impose wages and conditions on independent contractors. Tuesday's decision has been hailed by the Electrical Trades Union, which ran the case, as it will allow unions to stop the wages and conditions of full-time workers being undercut by subcontractors and labour-hire firms. At the federal level, enterprise bargaining agreements that attempt to regulate the wages and conditions of subcontractors or force subcontractors into union agreements are not usually allowed. But the full bench of the NSW IRC ruled that oustourcing clauses in an agreement requiring third parties such as labour-hire workers and independent contractors to be covered by a union negotiated enterprise bargaining agreement were legally valid. The full bench said the clauses aimed to create a "level playing field" in the industry, so the cost of labour could not be used by a company as a commercial advantage. It said the relevant sections of the agreement had the "clear purpose of protecting the terms and conditions" of people employed under the agreement by the company John Goss. The agreement, used by the ETU, on about 160 construction sites in Sydney, had been challenged by the Electrical Contractors Association of NSW which argued the agreements breached the Trade Practices Act and were not industrial matters that could be included in an enterprise bargaining agreement. ETU NSW State Secretary Bernie Riordan said the decision signalled an end to the practice of subcontractors trying to undercut EBA companies by employing workers under inferior conditions. But Australian Business Ltd's industrial relations director, Dick Grozier, said the decision cut across the lawful right of suppliers and contractors to set their own wages and conditions. National Electrical Contractors Association spokesman Gerard Boyce said the association was "considering its options" in relation to the decision. But he said the decision was not clear on the issue of whether the Trade Practices Act allowed a union to force subcontractors to pay union rates. |
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© 2003 Health Services Union (HSU) |
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