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Keith Harvey is a National Industrial Officer for the Australian Services Union and has worked in the union movement for almost 35 years. Over this time he has been a close observer of interplay between Christian social teaching and industrial law, and especially since the advent of the Federal Government’s WorkChoices legislation.
The Government’s "fairness" Bill provided that new agreements should compensate employees for loss of particular award conditions. Since individual agreements remain the cornerstone of the Government’s laws, the fundamental right of employees to bargain collectively and be represented by their union remains absent.