Cmn Guarentees Union Payroll Rights

Date: 20 December 2002

NSW unions have ended the year with two big Commission wins, securing the right to payroll deductions and seeing off a bid to outlaw bargaining fees.

Labor Council secretary John Robertson said the twin decisions set the scene for unions to organise more vigorously, particularly in areas where they already have a presence.

The Labor Council had applied for the Union Dues Clause to be inserted in industrial awards to stop the trend of employers cutting off funds to a union when in dispute.

A full bench of IRC ruled that employees should have a right to have their union dues deducted and forwarded to their union at their request.

"Union membership fees belong to workers not the boss; they should not be for the boss to use as an industrial tool," Mr Robertson said.

The decision came 24 hours after the IRC rejected a push by employer groups to have bargaining fees declared a matter outside NSW enterprise bargaining principles.

This means that NSW enterprise agreements, endorsed by a majority of employees, can require non-union members to pay a fee to a union that negotiates a pay rise on their behalf.

Mr Robertson said the decision was a slap in the face for Federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott's efforts to see bargaining fees outlawed.

"Employers have been using the legal system to reduce union rights for some years.

"These two decisions mean we can end 2002 on the front foot, ready to campaign vigorously on the ground in the year ahead."

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Contact:	Peter Lewis
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Contact Mobile:	0413 875 285

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