The Unions Right To Tresspass

Picture this:

I walk into a business, into the staff only areas, into secure areas, into areas which may be dangerous or contain proprietary, confidential or private information and nobody has any legal right to stop me.

I demand to speak to the CEO, and they have no right to refuse a near immediate appointment.

I walk into the payroll office and begin going thought all employee records, taking copies where ever I want, making notes of who gets paid what.

In almost any western country, I would be thrown out on my ass if I wasn't a member of the police or other authority.

In Australia I could do it if I was a union representative.

Recently I was talking with someone about the Rudd Government's "Fair Work" (their answer to the former Howard Government's Work Choices) and was astounded to find out the above facts.

I was informed that shortly after the legislation was passed, all the warehouses this company ran were forcibly visited by union representatives who:

• Forced a stop work
• Assembled all staff for a "lecture" on why they should join the union
• Talked aggressively to at least one female warehouse worker who in turn lodged an official complaint with the business. (Which can do nothing about it, but is still legally liable)
• Forced an immediate meeting with the manager with no appointment

Now, all these workers are paid above award and almost all of them are paid generous performance bonuses which they almost always achieve. They are not mistreated, they are valued and treated more as family than as employees.

To this point, not a single employee of this business has joined the union in response to this gross violation of a business' privacy.

It is implied by the promotional material that a union must give at least 24 hours notice to enter a premises, but this isn't actually the case as Fair Work Australia pretty much exempts all union officials from the requirement.

Another thing that is implied, again by the glossy slick Rudd-esque spin-doctored material, is that the union can only access employee records of union members. No, they can access any and all employee records, YOUR records including pay rates, sick leave, everything.

Now how would you feel if your pay rates were made known to other employees by a union rep? Well, they're allowed to and you have no legal right to stop them.

As bad as Work Choices was made out to be, Fair Work is worse. You now have no privacy from the unions and they can not be held accountable.