As an employee of a major regional newspaper group, getting a full-time job as a journalist in 2003 was conditional on signing an AWA (individual contract), there being no award offered.
Under the AWA there were no penalty rates for evenings, long shifts, extra shifts, overtime or public holidays, although if Good Friday or Christmas Day were rostered on I accrued an automatic day in lieu. I worked ANZAC Days, Boxing Days, Australia Days, etc., with no overtime or accrued penalty rates or time in lieu.
Instead of penalty rates, roughly $1500 was added onto my yearly base salary. I was told this was an "estimate" of what I'd lost in penalty rates being under an AWA instead of an award. Having been on an award as a cadet, I knew that it was a fraction of the penalty rates that would have been added to the wage.
Overtime was worked on an hour-for-hour basis — each hour of overtime equal to one hour accrued time in lieu if approved (and that wasn't often!). Under the penalty rates, overtime is either time-and-a-half (paid) or double-time after the first two to three hours.
Under AWAs, the job description is widened in the employer's favour, allowing journalists to be told to do photographic, administrative, ad sales, or other work as directed. However, they do not get the conditions attached to these roles.
Under AWAs, most newsroom employees were working between five and 10 unclaimable overtime hours week in, week out. Sometimes I worked up to 20 hours (a lot of them at home after hours and weekends) to get the work done to an acceptable standard.
Under the AWA we were required to have a fully insured, registered vehicle. But we were explicitly discouraged from claiming in tax our private vehicle use, even though it was worth $0.63 cents per kilometre.
The AWA forbade strikes or other industrial action, even for unionised employees. There was no holiday leave loading (because there are no foregone penalty rates). There were no paid rest breaks. The old "15 minute employer-paid break for each four hours worked" was gone and lunch had to be noted as having been taken, even if one worked right through it, or you faced having worked unauthorised overtime (which is not granted).
Compassionate leave (two days only) and carer leave was deducted from the employees' own sick leave or accrued holiday leave (which can be extended beyond what's in the AWA with the boss's permission, as the AWA only provided for a limited time).
A doctor's certificate for sick leave was mandatory on request. (It depended on the employee and how the boss felt about them.) Even one day's sick leave may be disputed and taken out of time in lieu rather than sick leave. We had a total seven days' paid sick leave each year.
There was no paid maternity leave under the AWA. Permission must be gained from the boss for any freelance writing or reporting done outside work hours for any other organisation. In other words, they legally owned my journalistic abilities 24/7 for the duration of the contract.
My contract was for two years, with a review at 12 months. During that time I was given two advances in grading. When my contract finished, I declined to renew. I am still on the books as a casual (though getting very little work) and while not under contract I am being paid a flat rate of the 2b grading hourly rate with casual loading. It will be interesting to see if this changes under the new laws. Freelance journalists are already paid less than the award rate, and again, there has been no contract involved.
Under AWAs, even quitting a full-time job can be harder. In ours, for each year of service, a week of notice is required. This makes it difficult for long-term employees to line up another job because the new employer has to wait out your notice. The quitting tradition used to allow an employee to give the same period of notice as their pay period — a month for salary workers, a fortnight or a week for wage earners.
Let's hope Kim Beazley does get in and tear up Work Choices. It ain't work choices, it's wage slavery. AWAs are demeaning, dispiriting and leave workers ripped off in every way.
[The names of the author and company have been left off to avoid possible prosecution.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, November 30, 2005.
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