Australian work law fury spills on streets

CANBERRA - Hundreds of thousands of workers jammed Australian cities yesterday in a massive protest against radical plans by Prime Minister John Howard to strip employees of most of their rights and conditions.

Unions estimated that as many as 500,000 protesters packed rallies in state capitals and 300 other towns and regional centres.

While Government and employer groups claimed the rallies represented only a small proportion of the workforce, unions and political opponents warned of a long and vigorous campaign to push Howard from office.

Their anger has been reflected in opinion polls that have consistently shown overwhelming opposition to the new laws - at present being rammed through Parliament - and have tracked a dramatic plunge in support for Howard and his Government.

The laws have also been seized upon by a previously turbid Labor Opposition which in recent polls has seen its standing outstrip the Government's, and Howard's personal popularity dive to a four-year low.

"This will bring the Howard Government down unless they back off," Opposition Leader Kim Beazley told more than 10,000 protesters in Brisbane.

"My first act as prime minister of the nation will be to stand on the steps of Parliament and rip these laws up."

Howard is also facing resistance within his Government, with concern among backbenchers and his one-vote majority in the Senate still uncertain.

Maverick Queensland National Senator Barnaby Joyce, who crossed the floor to defeat Government competition law reforms, is opposed to parts of the legislation and has yet to announce whether or not he will support it.

He backed workers' right to rally against the laws: "Absolutely, it's their right to protest and I will be sort of listening to the main issues."

The legislation also faces a High Court constitutional challenge by the states, and is opposed bitterly by the major churches, and social welfare and community groups.

But Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews accused Labor and the unions of misrepresenting the Government's intentions, and that the issue would be decided in Parliament - not on the streets.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Hendy told ABC radio most workers had ignored the unions' call to protest. "They haven't even got a majority of the union movement membership to turn up, let alone anything more than a faction of the Australian workforce."

But in a speech to cheering crowds in Melbourne, broadcast live on a nationwide link-up on a special Sky channel, Australian Council of Trade Unions president Sharan Burrow accused the Government of deceit in an advertising blitz that cost A$55 million in taxpayers' money. "We must be the first generation of Australians who leave our kids with fewer rights at work than we inherited."

The laws will greatly reduce the number of minimum conditions, end the right to public holidays, overtime and penalty rates, paid lunch and tea breaks, and will allow employers to sack workers without recourse to unfair dismissal action.

In Melbourne, up to 200,000 workers brought the centre of the city to a standstill. Tens of thousands of balloon and banner-waving protesters also packed the central business districts of Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney, where truck drivers also blocked the M4 motorway linking central Sydney with its western suburbs.

HARD LABOUR: THE NEW LAWS

* Replace the award safety net with 5 conditions: a minimum hourly rate, 10 days' sick leave, four weeks' annual leave (two may be cashed out), unpaid parental leave, a 38-hour week.

* Abolish unfair dismissal provisions for workplaces of fewer than 100 employees - the bulk of Australian businesses.

* Replace state awards with single national awards and allow businesses to force employees to accept individual contracts.

* Axe rights to take public holidays, and end rights to weekend, shift, overtime and public holiday rates and redundancy pay.

* Allow employers to impose under-award pay and conditions.

* Hand powers to set minimum wages to a Fair Pay Commission, whose main concern is a competitive economy.

* Restrict present union rights and access to workplaces and impose punitive new sanctions on industrial action.