WorkChoices is Dead!!

Australian voters sh@t on it from a great height at the last election, but Brendan Nelson, the new Liberal leader after Howard got bounced out of office, officially killed it today. The Age says so.

For the uninitiated, WorkChoices cut the minimum rights of Australian workers to five pathetic protections: a 38 hour week plus "reasonable" extra hours (reasonable defined often by the boss); 2 weeks annual holidays, 8 days sick/carers' leave (later changed to 12 days), a minimum wage of $12.50 an hour (later upped to $13.46), and 12 months unpaid parental leave, (shared between both parents).

Everything else - from the right to join a union, to payment for working public holidays, nights or overtime, protection from random (or 'unfair') dismissal - was up to individual staff to negotiate with their employer. Now there are lots of good employers out there, but there are loads of stories of people who were sacked and then offered their old jobs back with lower wages and conditions.

Now it's all going, going, gone, along with the old government. Whoot!