Protected by Law? Not according to Lawyers!

The Government's IR ad campaign says award conditions are "protected by law". ABC's PM program has a story about some corporate Lawyers, who have found a critical loophole in the legislation. It essentially allows that when an Award Condition 'nominally expires' (read: when the employer feels like it) - the agreement does NOT roll over to the same award conditions, as the Government would have you believe. Instead, until such a point that the employee and employer "negotiate" a new agreement, the employee is protected ONLY by the 5 minimum conditions. No more. This essentially means that whilst the government has been running around peddling its bull about Award systems still being in place, realistically, it is the employers perogative to terminate such awards as and when they see fit.

So, not only is the taxpayer paying for advertising a Liberal Party ideology with broad resentment in the community - these very advertisments are factually incorrect, and deliberately misleading. If this was a company, the ACCC would have pulled them up for misleading advertising. *Sigh* I take some comfort in that the legislation has been universally condemned not only by unions, but by social workers, church groups, academics - and even economists cannot find a solid case for these changes stimulating the economy. In fact anyone with half a brain (an no vested interest driving down wages) can see that this will hurt employees.