No AWAs for politicians?

The ramblings of Bob the Knob asise, I wonder how committed the coalition really is to AWA’s. A couple of years ago I was offered a job working as an advisor for Sharman Stone when she was Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment (back when Senator Hill had the environment gig). It was OK work with some stupid hours so I said that I’d take it on but that I wanted an AWA. I was told that could be difficult and that inquiries would have to be made (which I understood as someone would have to check with the PM). the response – AWAs were a no go for parlimentary staffers – there was an award and that was it. I didn’t take the job in the end.

If you read the whole speech, you’ll see that Bob is being tongue-in-cheek about this issue.

He recognises the benefit of central negotiation in certain cases — politicians among them — but there are other classes of workers like police & firefighters who may also be forced onto AWAs.

Bob’s argument is that there should be sensible exemptions from individual contracts where there are clear benefits in cultivating a team ethos rather than in a “dog eat dog” one-upmanship.

the pay was about right for that job, the person was the problem.

and he wasn’t an MP.

But see what great deals you can get when you negotiate for yourself? (tongue in cheek)

ah but JB, Ministers could be on performance indicators therefore increasing the remmuneration for the better performers as well as paying more for those deemed to have higher or more responsibility even at cabinet “rank”. I’m sure that Mr Howard or his office would be able to negoitiate as suitable package. The AWB fellow got $1 million for less than a years work surely Minister’s can do better.

Sad that Bob hasn’t grasped that MP’s have a different sort of job.

The whole point of workplace flexibility is matching terms and conditions to the appropriate workplace.

Jobs involving formal rank aren’t suitable for individual agreements. Many jobs in the general workplace however can be.