Labor at war over IR laws Font Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print Ewin Hannan and Rick Wallace | October 18, 2007
THE Victorian Labor Government has been accused of undermining one of Kevin Rudd's central election pitches by using the "full force" of John Howard's Work Choices in a bitter pay dispute with the state's hospital nurses.
Union leaders last night warned the state Government's use of Work Choices would damage the ACTU's political campaign against the Howard Government in the build-up to the November 24 poll.
Nurses around the country will today converge on marginal seats as part of a planned ACTU doorknocking strategy to highlight the evils of Work Choices. Victorian nurses will not take part in the grassroots campaign, although the ACTU denied that was linked to their dispute.
The Australian Nursing Federation last night urged the Opposition Leader to intervene after state Labor sanctioned the use of Work Choices to dock the pay of nurses involved in the dispute, which yesterday closed almost 350 hospital beds and forced the cancellation of up to 60 elective surgery cases.
"Nurses recognise the hypocrisy of the Brumby Government, which spoke out against Work Choices and is now waving these bad laws in nurses' faces," the ANF's Victorian secretary, Lisa Fitzpatrick, said.
"Perhaps Kevin Rudd and his team might want to make a few phone calls to their Victorian counterparts and get them to stick to the policy."
Labor deputy leader and workplace spokeswoman Julia Gillard tried to sidestep the industrial brawl, saying federal Labor "believes nurses deserve our respect and decent pay and conditions".
"Federal Labor also understands the Victorian Government faces pressures because it has been starved of hospital funds by the Howard Government," she said in a statement to The Australian.
The dispute flared on the day Mr Rudd unveiled federal Labor's $81million bait to lure 9000 nurses back into hospitals and coincided with the Liberals unveiling television advertisements warning of the union influence over a "very, very scary" "anti-business" Rudd Labor government.
Yet despite state Labor's use of Work Choices, the federal Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey backed the nurses union, saying the Brumby Government should "do the right thing and sit down with hard-working Victorian nurses and work out a fair deal".
"I really hope Mr Brumby isn't choosing to prolong this dispute at the expense of hard-working nurses for cynical political reasons that only benefit Kevin Rudd," hesaid.
Militant union leader Dean Mighell, who was forced to quit the ALP in May, said relations between the labour movement and the Victorian ALP were close to "breaking point" and federal Labor should haul the Brumby Government into line.
Mr Mighell said state Labor's tactics were undermining the campaign by Mr Rudd and the ACTU against Work Choices.
"Labor should have state governments negotiating properly with unions and not taking advantage of Work Choices because that just gives the Libs a massive free kick," he said.
"If they're saying it's good enough for Labor to use it, how can you sincerely oppose it and say it's wrong at a federal level."
A Newspoll published in The Australian yesterday showed the federal Coalition closing the gap on Labor on the question of who was best able to manage industrial relations.
Victorian Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the state Government had no option but to comply with the federal laws.
"Hospitals are obliged under John Howard's industrial relations laws that if unlawful industrial action takes place in their health service, then they are required to dock the pay of the nurses," Mr Andrews said.
"Otherwise that health service faces fines up to $33,000 if they don't dock the pay of nurses taking unlawful action."
But Ms Fitzpatrick accused the Victorian Government of unprecedented "bullying", saying it was long-standing state government policy that nurses were paid if they did not withdraw their labour. "Nurses are not withdrawing their labour and in fact they are working even harder," she said. Members of the public had "flooded the ANF with emails and calls supporting the nurses and expressing their shock at the tactics being used against nurses by a Government that supposedly is opposed to Work Choices".
She claimed the state Government had directed hospital chief executives to conduct interviews with nurses to determine if they were taking part in the industrial action "so that they can apply the full force of the Work Choices laws against them".
