WORKERS WELCOME LOCAL DISPUTE RESOLUTION POWERS

4 April 2007

SA Unions has welcomed state government legislation giving dispute resolution powers to the SA Industrial Relations Commission.

SA Unions Secretary, Janet Giles says the federal government's unfair IR laws provided no dispute resolution system.

However, she says there is a clause in the federal laws which allows for an alternative dispute resolution process to be established - and the state government has used this clause to pass state legislation enabling the state IRC to deal with workplace disputes.

"This is an important breakthrough and we applaud the state government for its initiative."

"Under federal laws, workers have no rights and no capacity to argue a dispute. They're left powerless and margianlised, ripe for exploitation."

"The state government's changes mean workers now have an avenue through which to dispute their treatment. Both parties must agree to the SA IRC's involvement, but it's a big step forward in achieving a constructive dispute resolution process."

"We have enormous confidence in the SA IRC and believe this move will help return a degree of fairness to what has become a monstrously unfair system."

"We have been consistently frustrated by the absence of a dispute resolution capacity under WorkChoices. The new federal laws effectively pulled the teeth from the federal IRC and stripped it of its dispute resolution powers. So the state government's move to give the state IRC such powers is a win for fairness and a boost to industrial stability in SA", Ms Giles says.