Sigma’s Simulacrum of Reality

As all Australians know, John Howard is about to introduce his new Workchoices laws, which will transform industrial relations (IR) here. A neoliberal’s wet dream, Workchoices will try to alter Australia’s IR laws to resemble the USA’s. His rationale is that this will make Australia more competitive in the future.

However, do I really want this law? After reading an article in the SMH (which I can’t find now, so this will just have to do for now), I have decided that I don’t. And it will be one of the reasons I would be voting for Labor in next year’s GE.

Under Howard’s new IR laws, penalty rates and recess periods for workers would be canceled. I find that ridiculous, especially the penalty rates. Penalty rates are the higher rates that workers are paid (usually 1.5 times to 2 times the normal rate) when they work outside of the regular 9-5pm weekdays (and Saturdays for retail workers like myself) shifts. Since I’m a casual worker, I usually get called to work on Thursday nights, Saturdays and Sundays, shifts that the permanent workers there don’t work. I am currently getting 1.5 times more pay per hour on Sundays. So if Workchoices comes into effect, that would kill off my extra pay. There’s a reason why penalty rates were introduced. No right minded worker would want to work on Sundays and public holidays if they will not be compensated higher. Furthermore, my measly 15 minutes break during my 5 hour shifts would also be canceled with Workchoices. How much more stingy can you get? So fuck Howard, he’s going down for this

Howard seems to be a big fan of the US industrial relations system, but I can’t see why. No doubt, the USA has the strongest economy in the world and is the wealthiest nation worldwide as well. However, it’s wealth isn’t equitably distributed throughout its society. It is definitely a much more pro-employers economic system. This has given rise to a new social class there: the working-poor class. A checkout chick, a plumber, a mechanic, etc in countries such as Australia, Continental Europe and in the Scandinavian countries with more social democratic economies are much more well-off compared to people in similar jobs in the USA and Asia, with the latter group’s neoliberal/neoclassical economic underpinnings. So clearly, there’s something not quite right in the US economic model there. What’s the point of being the richest country in the world when only the employers and business owners gets a slice of the prosperity?

And so with the competent Rudd at the helm, I am now definitely gonna vote for Labor next year in regards to the economic angle of things.

Ahh, it feels so gratifying to know that my vote here has the potential of changing a government now, unlike back in Malaysia