Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697633225325.pdf (Australia)
ENSURING INTEGRITY BILL SUBMISSION Introduction: Churches and Unions Recent media coverage and current political caricature often seems to define the union movement through the CFMEU and the infamous (Victorian secretary) John Setka.

But they do not define the mainline union movement any more than populist extremists of Left or Right define mainstream political parties.

The largest union, in fact, is the nurses’ union, staunchly non- party political, and representing one of the most respected professions.
Among the churches Catholic Social Teaching since Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 has always emphasised the importance of the union movement and its rights of association in supporting vulnerable workers.

It quoted speeches by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II highlighted the important work of unions.

Methodists and Anglicans have also been supportive of unions as well as the famous Presbyterian Keir Hardie.

Unionists are far from the outlaw radical image of the Setka’s and CFMEU.
They can even be respectable churchgoers, or at the very least, strongly influenced by Christian influenced human rights values.

The Democratic Role and Human Rights of Unions and Members  In a well-balanced democracy with checks and balances of power Trade Unions are key mediating institutions between disempowered isolated individuals and the corporate State (i.e.

State and big corporate entities entangled in vested interests).
In some ways like mutual societies, but usually broader, they are not for profit, voluntary and member- based groups serving society’s economic and civil goals.

To attack appropriate powers of unions is to tear a key part of the fabric of our community and have made critical contributions for generations towards a more fairer and more egalitarian Australian society.

This has made Australia, particularly in the 1890s, a pioneer in relation to worker’s conditions and rights.
Trade Unions are democratically representative bodies through which workers protect and further their industrial rights and employment goals.

 Australia’s Trade Unions have been responsible for or instrumental in the recognition of basic workers’ rights, such as the eight-hour day, annual leave, equal pay, penalty rates for unsocial working hours, compulsory super and better occupational health and safety.

Many people owe their lives and livelihoods to unions.
More broadly, their sense of mutual concern has often overflowed to society’s most vulnerable.

Union involvement in social justice movements has promoted greater recognition and rights for Aboriginals, peace and disarmament campaigns, ecological causes and humanitarian assistance for the majority world and refugees.

 The right to freely form associations of members around shared core values and concerns is fundamental to democracy.
It applies to other mediating community organisations like churches, school P&C’s, sports clubs, neighbourhood organisations etc.

It is an internationally recognised human right, akin to freedom of religion, belief, conscience and expression.
 Article 23(4) of the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights affirms that: Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 60 Everyone has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his [their] interests.

 Australia is a signatory to the majority of key UN human rights Conventions, including the Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise Convention No 87 (1973).
Its Article 2 gives workers (as well as employers) rights to develop and join organisations of their choice without others’ authorisation or approval.

The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Freedom of Association Committee (CFA) notes that ‘the free exercise of the right to establish and join unions implies the free determination of the structure and composition of unions.’ For example, if unions merge into amalgamated bodies, is a matter for members alone.
Outside obstacles to member control of organisational processes interfere with a fundamental right upheld by Convention 87.

 But any right of association in isolation lacks substance unless members can seek their lawful and legitimate goals without unjustifiable restraints or interference in their internal business, especially political interference by government, one of the first signs of totalitarianism.
The context of the current legislation, after increased attacks on the freedom of the press, religion, and whistle-blowers re ASIO, ADF and ATO etc gives it an ominous overlay.

The scent of Statism is in the air.

Disproportionate Regulation of Unions  In contrast to many voluntary associations (and especially to large corporate businesses), unions are already highly regulated.
A full Act of Parliament (the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act) (the RO Act) focuses on overseeing the operation of unions.

It has become extremely prescriptive in recent times.

The Morrison Government has not learnt from its unwarranted and embarrassing attempt to attack trade-union related industry super funds.
After delaying or ignoring calls for a Banking and Finance Industry Royal Commission that Commission revealed the Industry Funds to be far superior to the vast majority of non-industry commercial funds.

 Attacks on unions as in the case of Industry Funds, are a classic political distraction exercise.
It covers up the government’s unwillingness and inability to tackle burgeoning low wage growth, wage theft (especially in franchise, hospitality, and immigrant and international student intensive industries), rising inequality and a sluggish economy.

The Liberal Government has prioritised laws significantly undermining the most basic democratic right for workers to associate and organise in order to address such issues.
This occurs at a time when curtailing effective operation of unions (will further limit working people’s capacity to win fair wages (as research shows) and secure safe workplaces and practices.

The targeting of unions provides a blank cheque for unchecked wage theft and exploding exploitation.

It is vital for people to be free from Government and employer interference so they can join and representative unions in order to win pay rises, protect jobs, and ensure workplace safety.
 Globally, authoritarian governments interfere with the free organisation and advocacy of unions or working people’s basic rights to be represented.

Compare the government’s playing off working member’s rights against those of their representative bodies, as in their Industry Fund debacle.
Restricting the rights and powers of representative bodies Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 60 is necessarily also a reduction in the rights of the members/citizens that make up those bodies, i.e.

the right to engage highly powerful bodies not in individual isolation, but in combined, concerted debate and action.

By attacking unions and unionists’ rights, the Government attacks and silences the very working people it claims to represent.
This is a disturbing trend and part of a wider web of the erosion of democratic and civil liberties.

Surely there is room for governments and unions and businesses to relate to and represent workers when necessary, their different, distinctive and complementary ways.

How does the EI Bill work?

In sum, the EI bill provides a pathway for interfering in trade unions’ internal workings.
If enacted it would provide government, employers, or anyone else with ‘sufficient interest’ power to: apply to disqualify union leaders from their roles;   more easily de-register or terminate unions;   apply to appoint administrators to take over union management; and stop certain union mergers.

Disqualification from Holding Office The RO Act already contains measures to ensure democratic control of unions.
Most vital is the requirement for union leaders to be regularly and democratically elected by members.

Like incompetent, elected parliamentary representatives, union representatives who are unresponsive to members or engaging in disreputable or corrupt conduct are already removable from office through democratic elections.

Union regulations also provide for removal of office holders who misappropriate funds or have seriously or grossly breached union rules, misbehaved or neglected responsibilities.
Individual leaders (and members) accused misconduct can be judged by their peers and if neede, be disciplined, including removed from office.

The Act also has strict restrictions on who can be a union officer.

People convicted of fraud or dishonesty or intentional violence or property damage are excluded.

Those convicted of offences regarding union formation, registration or management, or elections, are also ineligible.

The Courts can also disqualify those breaching sections of the RO Act.
However, the EI Bill extends these grounds for exclusion considerably.

It can automatically disqualify union leaders or a court can disqualify officers for a wide range of reasons.

It allows for the automatic disqualification of a union officer for any offence under a Commonwealth, a State or Territory, or another country‘s law, punishable by imprisonment for five years plus, even if no jail time was imposed or the conviction is unrelated to their union official role.
The ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association has held that: A conviction for an act which is not, by its nature, such as to constitute a real risk for the proper exercise of trade union functions should not constitute grounds for Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 60 disqualification for trade union office, and any legislation providing for such disqualification for any type of criminal offence may be regarded as inconsistent with the principles of freedom of association.
The EI Bill also allows a Court to disqualify someone from a union office on many grounds, including involvement in a minor breach of workplace laws, or that they had failed to take reasonable steps to stop a breach by the union, or even that they are not a ‘fit and proper person’ for office.
Critically, the Minister, Registered Organisations Commissioner, or any ‘person with a sufficient interest’ can apply for such disqualification orders, so even an employer who dislikes or is in dispute with the officer concerned can argue for their disqualification.

Cancelled Union Registration The EI Bill expands grounds on which unions can be deregistered.
It also has alternative orders for disqualification from office, restricting types of members to be enrolled, controlling union fund use and property and suspending union member rights.

Once again, these all-encompassing application rights are offered to anyone with ‘sufficient interest.’ This is sweeping permission indeed.

Nothing stops a vexatious applicant, potentially an employer, making such applications as a first resort.
Of course there is no corresponding right for unions or workers to seek a company’s de-registration for wage theft or dangerous work practices.

Administration for Unions The RO Act already has mechanisms for unionists to rectify a scenario where a union no longer functions effectively or mismanages its interests.

This remedial action allows members to regularise their union’s functioning through a court-sanctioned scheme.
Yet under the EI Bill, a new broader definition of organisational misfunction, opens a path to court applications and appointment of ‘administrators’ to take over union management.

This includes individual officers having multiple breaches of designated laws, misappropriated union funds or repeatedly failed their responsibilities.

Each new category involves alleged individual wrongdoing, a major departure from current provisions focusing on how the union itself is operating.
These changes transform remedial provisions for members’ protection to more punitive option and further opportunity for the Minister, or the politicised Registered Organisations Commission, to interfere in union affairs.

Echoes of Mr Dutton’s and Border Force’s expanding role in relation to refugees resound.

Union Mergers In current law, the main cause of unions merging is the majority of union members vote for it.
The Fair Work Commission is to ensure that this has happened and is consistent with each union’s rules.

This is consistent with ILO trade union laws supporting member self- determination of the structure and organisation of a union.
Changes in the EI Bill introduce a convolute process for union amalgamations require unions to meet a ‘public interest’ test and the Fair Work Commission to refuse amalgamation if the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 60 amalgamating union or its officers have engaged in even minor legal breaches.
There is no equivalent for company mergers, and the blatant bias of the Bill requires consideration of any of any employer organisation objections based on the merger’s potential impact on industry employers.

Yet again, anyone with a ‘sufficient interest’ can seek to convince the Commission that the merger is not in ‘the public interest’.

These changes take the right to self-determination from the members themselves.
The particular part of the public of the union membership is overruled by an abstract public interest which in practice makes economies of scale and equalisation of power with big corporates or the State, impossible.

The balance of powers of civil society is undermined.

Impact on Workers Contrary to political and media myth, all Australian workers, union and non-union, gain from the work of unions.

Pay rises often flow on to analogous workers, unionised or not.
The EI attack on worker’s rights increases difficulties for them to be safe at work and increase their wages, and indirectly benefit the economy, as even the Business Council of Australia recognises.

Nearly half of Australian workers are in precarious work, and workers currently experience the longest low wage growth since World War II ended.

Wage theft is endemic across several industries, while vulnerable workers are exploited, and dangerous worksites lead to workplace injuries and deaths.
Unions do life-saving and equality-building work.

Yes, there are some bad eggs in the basket, but as in the Setka case, they seem to be being dealt with by the CFMEU and other unions.

In the majority of cases unions nourish their members and the wider economy.

Those isolated cases should not be used as an excuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
The current attack on worker representatives will most likely result in more dangerous workplaces and processes, increased wage and super theft, and further suppress wages and increase exploitation.

When Governments silence and shut down working people’s representatives, they attack the rights not only of unionists but of all working people, their families, and their communities.
Conclusion With a few minor exceptions unions perform a valuable mediating function between individuals and the contemporary corporatized State.

They help maintain and grow wages and develop better and safer conditions in workplaces.

Many unions have strong historical connections with Christian churches.

Catholic Social tradition is positive towards unions and some, like the ‘shoppies’ union, still have strong connections to the Catholic Church.
The Methodist connections go all the way back to the Tolpuddle martyrs, and Anglican Christian ‘Socialist’ thinking, reaching its peak in Archbishop William Temple’s Christianity and The Social Order (1942), and reflected in groups like The Brotherhood of St. Laurence sees unions still having a vital role to play in protecting vulnerable workers.
Concerning such vulnerable workers Catholic Religious Australia have rightly said: “Given the current instability of much of Australia’s contemporary work scene: increasing casualisation of jobs, regional unemployment, seasonal work, stagnating wages, 457 visa holders, unequal pay for women and a variety of global influences, the support and Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 60 protection of unions is paramount.” They also noted that the Morrison Government’s Ensuring Integrity Bill reduced union rights and imposed “double standards” as the same requirements were not faced by corporations.
“From the perspective of social justice and the common good this Ensuring Integrity Bill strikes at the very heart of the Union movement — namely the ability of the workers to organise and run their own unions and determining who leads them.” The reduction in union rights is an attack on the fundamentals of democracy, especially the power given to government, employers and other parties to apply to deregister a union.
“In essence this bill allows for significant political, corporate and judicial interference in what should be the free and democratic functioning of a union.

Such interference would not be accepted by any corporation or business.” (Aust catholic 6/9/19).

Proposed union ban plan ‘undemocratic’: Catholic Religious Australia (The Australian).

The Integrity Bill ignores the important role of integrating workers into the fabric of civil society with its balance of powers.
It is a disproportionate response to a few outliers like Setka, and an opportunistic attempt, like the attacks upon union Industry Funds who came out like shining angels, safeguarding and growing their worker members assets in contrast to the Super Funds and banks the government sought to protect from facing a Royal Commission.

The Integrity Bill itself lacks integrity and is a poorly aimed hammer, designed to crush a nut.
Rev’d Dr Gordon Preece, Director of the Centre for Religion & Social Policy, University of Divinity, Director of Ethos: Evangelical Alliance Centre for Christianity & Society, and Chair and Executive Melbourne Anglican Diocese Social Responsibilities Committee.

These are mine, not necessarily the views of my employers.

Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Amendment (Ensuring Integrity) Bill 2019 [Provisions]Submission 60