Confirmed: AWAs are UNfair!

Mark Wooden, leading Australian economist, clarified the role of AWAs beyond any shadow of a doubt. Wooden affirmed that employers enthusiastically embraced AWAs "because they could legally reduce pay and conditions." [Fairness test killing AWAs, PM warned,The Australian, 12 November]

It is pure malicious greed to reduce pay and conditions in the economic boom-time that PM Howard reminds us we are experiencing under his leadership!

AWAs were introduced in 1997 with a "no disadvantage test." Howard gave his "rock solid guarantee our policy will not cause a cut in the take home pay of Australian workers" barely a year before WorkChoices abolished the "no disadvantage test."

And we all know about average wages falling in lower-paid jobs; backlogs of AWAs waiting to be vetted; the high percent of AWAs that fail the Fairness Test - Howard's new spin on "no disadvantage." Perhaps "no disadvantage" was one of those non-core promises ...

Wooden claims, "AWAs are dead." They should be, given their original objective and the resulting bureaucratic nightmare that AWAs and the Fairness Test have created.

Judy Bamberger,
O'Connor ACT

Contact information below.

See also Nothing fair about this "fairness test"