The Wire

Around half a million workers are stuck on Australian Workplace Agreements or AWA’s, and are set to earn less than other employees for years to come. That’s according to the peak union body, The ACTU, who are calling on the Rudd Government to provide a way for workers to escape John Howard’s individual contracts. Workers on AWA’s at the Austral Bricks’ plant in Victoria earn around seven and a half thousand dollars a year less than colleagues on Collective Agreements. The Government’s new Fair Work Act is currently being debated, but in its current form, no mechanism exists to help workers who have signed older contacts.