Fed: Andrews warns states against too many public holidays

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2006
Fed: Andrews warns states against too many public holidays

CANBERRA, April 12 AAP - States that try to compensate for public holidays lost under
the new industrial relations system could harm productivity, Workplace Relations Minister
Kevin Andrews says.

The NSW government has said it would consider slating an extra public holiday to compensate
workers for a lost day-off under the changes.

Unions are warning about one million workers could lose holidays like Easter Tuesday
or union picnic days.

Mr Andrews said public holidays were a matter for the states, but warned against giving
workers a day off at times not traditionally considered holidays.

"Public holidays have traditionally been a matter for the states," he told reporters.

"What we would be concerned about is that if states just said, well, we're going to
replace a whole series of days that people would not normally regard as public holidays,
and make them public holidays.

"That is not going to help productivity in Australia. It's not going to help the economy
to grow."

Mr Andrews also backed Office of Workplace Services (OWS) advice that workers may have
to show reasonable grounds for wanting gazetted public holidays off.

"There are provisions in the law about Good Friday/Easter Monday public holidays and
what they provide ... is that there are reasonable circumstances in which a person doesn't
have to work," he said.

"This is a flexibility which is in practice (and) which will continue."

The OWS yesterday said that Good Friday, Easter Monday, and Anzac Day were listed public
holidays and employees could legally refuse to work these days if they had reasonable
grounds.

But the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) says up to 44,000 NSW workers
in the printing and metal trades industry face losing their traditional union picnic day
on Easter Tuesday under the new laws.

Meanwhile, Mr Andrews has again refused to say whether a NSW abattoir that sacked its
workers had acted legally under the government's new regime.

The 29 Cowra meatworkers, who had been on a collective agreement, were offered their
jobs back but at a much lower pay rate and on individual contracts.

The workers won their jobs back following a public storm.

But Mr Andrews refused to say whether the new laws were intended to support these kinds
of actions.

"I'm not a court. I'm not a tribunal," he said.

AAP shh/so/jjs/nf

KEYWORD: WORKPLACE HOLIDAYS ANDREWS (PIX AVAILABLE)

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