Reith's bargaining hypocrisy

Date: 24 March 2000

The Victorian building industry's 36-hour week campaign is an important initiative to get some civilisation back into working hours. It will not raise the costs of building projects significantly and provides an opportunity to get more jobs back into the industry, said CFMEU National Construction Secretary John Sutton today.
"Mr Reith's criticism of Grocon Constructions' agreement with the union on this issue only betrays his hypocrisy," Mr Sutton said.

"Construction workers are having to do massive amounts of overtime to get buildings up at the speed expected by property developers today. That obviously impacts negatively on their families and the community.
"The 36-hour week, coupled with a cap on overtime, will represent a significant improvement in working conditions.
"Most importantly it will create the opportunity for more employment in the industry," said Mr Sutton.

Quantity surveyors Rider Hunt estimate that the 36-hour week will only add 2 to 3 per cent to total building costs.

Mr Sutton said that Peter Reith's comments criticising Grocon Construction for signing a deal with the CFMEU showed that the Workplace Relations Minister only supported enterprise level bargaining when it was stripping conditions away from workers, and not when unions were winning new community standards for workers.

"Reith's real position on bargaining is that the umpire shouldn't intervene where the employer has the upper hand (like in the famous Hunter Valley Coal dispute); but where the unions actually get the upper hand, he says the umpire should be called in immediately and bargaining made illegal," Mr Sutton said.

For further information

Contact:	Bernadette Moloney
Union:	CFMEU
Phone:	0414 229 660
Email:	bmoloney@fed.cfmeu.asn.au

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