NSW: Fastest job growth followed unfair dismissal laws: ACTU

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2007
NSW: Fastest job growth followed unfair dismissal laws: ACTU

SYDNEY, April 12 AAP - ACTU president Sharan Burrow says the prime minister is grasping
at straws with his claims Australia's unemployment rate is the result of the government
removing the unfair dismissal laws.

Official figures out today showed Australia's unemployment rate had dropped to 4.5
per cent in March, returning to January's 32-year low, compared with 4.6 per cent in February.

Prime Minister John Howard, in welcoming the fall, said it was largely a result of
his government's industrial relations overhaul.

"If you want to disturb low unemployment, reintroduce the unfair dismissal laws, that
will push the unemployment rate up," Mr Howard said.

But Ms Burrow said Mr Howard was wrong.

"What John Howard needs to acknowledge is that the fastest period of jobs growth was
indeed after the introduction of the unfair dismissal laws by the Keating government in
1993," she said.

"The government is grasping at straws here for any excuse to defend the fact that working
people can be dismissed at whim, without redress.

"(The government wants) to defend the fact that the laws are allowing employers to
push down wages and conditions and to take away bargaining rights."

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KEYWORD: JOBS ACTU

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