The new Australian Fair Pay Commission will lack the AIRC's independence, while the removal of the requirement for an "effective" safety net will drive down labour costs at the bottom end of the market and create more "working poor" in Australia, according to Melbourne University's Dr John Howe.
In a provision that could cause ructions in some major unions, the Work Choices legislation provides for the de-merger of unions that amalgamated before 1997.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet has this evening called for a new emphasis on boosting Australian manufacturing as an alternative economic priority to the Federal Government's second wave IR changes.
The second-wave provisions on agreement-making have fairly closely followed the script in the WorkChoices booklet - with a few exceptions, according to CFMEU (mining & energy division) national legal officer, Alex Bukarica.
The Work Choices bill proposes "breathtaking" restrictions on the ability of employees seeking to pursue unfair dismissal claims, according to employment law specialist at Carroll & O'Dea, Peter Punch.
The Federal Government's new IR regime will cost $489.6 million over the next four years, according to estimates in the Work Choices explanatory memorandum.
State-covered employers will need legal advice to negotiate their way through the Federal Government's new IR regime, Flinders University Professor of Law, Andrew Stewart, said today.
WorkChoices' reliance on the corporations power to take over state IR systems is nothing less than a declaration of constitutional war on the states, according to one of Australia's leading constitutional law experts, Professor Greg Craven.
