Memo to Tony Abbott

Date: 07 August 2001

Labor Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Arch Bevis, said today that Tony Abbott should take Peter Reith's advice and immediately move to institute a business funded insurance scheme to protect employee's legally funded entitlements.

"Last year Peter Costello was quoted in the Australian Financial Review supporting a employer funded insurance scheme to protect employee's legally funded entitlements.

'At the end of the day you're asking taxpayers to pick up what is really the liability of an employer.'

"If the government had taken the advice of Peter Costello last year we would not now be having a protracted dispute over employee entitlements that has affected the Australian car industry.

"An employer funded insurance scheme has been the Labor position for nearly two years and it is obvious that it is the only national scheme put forward that is capable of allaying the fears that are held by all Australian workers that their life savings could be lost in cases of company collapse.

"The action by John Howard and his Government to put in place a clearly inadequate scheme following the failure of National Textiles has resulted in a great deal of frustration from workers in all industries, right across Australia.

"The Labor Party supports a national scheme where all employees are covered for unpaid wages, accrued annual leave, long service leave, termination and redundancy arrangements and superannuation payments.
"Labor's plan is based on a small contribution of 0.1% of payroll to fund the scheme. Small employers would not even pay that - their employees would be covered directly by the Government. That's a small price to pay to promote security for all Australian workers and their families," said Mr Bevis.

For further information

Contact:	David Tansey
Union:	ALP Federal
Phone:	(02) 6277 4518
Contact Mobile:	0416 136 164
Fax:	(02) 6277 8534
Email:	david.tansey@aph.gov.au
WWW:	http://www.alp.org.au

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