Work Choices Blamed For Everything

Anyone else noticing how the work choices industrial relations reforms are getting blamed for everything relating to jobs? Even if it is irrelevant in their case. Talk about trying to score political points. Here are two case studies from this week alone:

1. Chilli’s Restaurants – staff have been underpaid for a significant amount of time, which amounts to a sizable chunk of cash. This didn’t surprise me, as I know someone who works there and I thought her wages sounded low for her age. State MP John Della Bosca proclaimed this incident as a sign that Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA’s) don’t work. But hang on a minute, all it shows is that one employer has been unscrupulous in it’s dealings with staff, and now that it has been brought to the attention of the workplace ombudsmen the matter is being dealt with.
2. McArthur Express – the trucking company in Seven Hills went into voluntary administration and employees are understandably furious, as they are still owed $1.5 million in unpaid superannuation. But for some reason they are expecting the Federal Govt to bail them out despite McArthur Express being a private company. A Transport Workers Union (TWU) official stated on radio that Industrial Relations Minister, Joe Hockey, should come out of his “North Sydney office” so that he can see how “workchoices is affecting the people.” But hang one for another minute, workchoices has nothing to do with companies going under. What holds more relevance are the dodgy business practices that have become apparent during the administrators investigations.

They will be blaming Work choices for climate change next.