Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Amendment (Right of Entry) Bill
2004
The Senate has referred this bill to the committee
for report by 7 March 2005. Submissions are called for and are due by 4
February.
This proposed amendment to the Workplace Relations
Act 1996 is intended to define more clearly the rights and
responsibilities of parties to workplace agreements in regard to the right
of entry of unions to represent their members in the workplace. There are
two main elements to the bill.
The first element is the extension of Commonwealth
power to override the operation of state right of entry laws, within the
limits imposed by the Constitution. Under the amendment, a union will be
able to exercise a right of entry only in accordance with new provisions
of the Workplace Relations Act, with the constitutional limitation being
that a union will still be entitled to enter premises for purposes
relating to state industrial laws.
The second element is to balance the rights of
employers and employees in regard to the entry of union officials to
workplaces, particularly to ensure that such entry does not interfere with
the conduct of business. Employers and their associations have claimed
that union officials continue to enter premises without sufficient cause.
This is disputed by unions, whose officials claim that many workplaces do
not maintain satisfactory standards of OH&S practice.
The
legislation committee has not dealt specifically with the issue of right
of entry in any previous inquiry, although the References Committee dealt
with it in passing in its inquiry into the provisions of the Building and
Construction Industry Improvement Bill 2003, that report being tabled in
May 2004.
Information
links:
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to the Parliament House TTY number (02) 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. These tools are available at: http://access.adobe.com/. If you require any special arrangements in order to enable you to participate in a committee inquiry, please contact the committee secretary.
For further information, contact:
Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committees on Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia