Australia: Gli stessi diritti ai lavoratori delle cotruzioni

Building workers should have the same rights. It is unacceptable in a modern democracy that workers in the construction industry have fewer rights than the broader workforce, says the ACTU. Standing with construction unions in a campaign to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission, ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence says it is fundamental that all workers have the same rights to hold meetings and organise without fear or intimidation. But under the Howard Government's ABCC, construction workers' rights have been stripped away. "Of all the Howard government's workplace laws, the ABCC is the most anti-worker," Mr Lawrence says. "It has more powers than the police to investigate construction workers, drag them in for secret interrogation and jail them if they refuse to answer questions. "These are ordinary workers seeking simply the rights to hold a meeting, to organise, and to protect their health and safety. This is an issue for all workers that we should have one system for everyone, no matter what industry you work in." Mr Lawrence says several recent serious workplace accidents have again shown that construction is an industry in which safety, rather than a misguided attack on workers' rights, should be a priority. A recent meeting of the ACTU Executive unanimously supported a campaign by construction workers for equal rights under law and has pledged resources to the push to abolish the ABCC before 2010. The issue has been brought to a head by the prosecution of Noel Washington, an official of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in Victoria who faces up to six months jail after he refused to answer questions from the ABCC. "Noel has done nothing illegal, yet he's being treated like a common criminal" says CFMEU construction division national secretary, Dave Noonan. "He has been accused of being a witness to an off-site, lunchtime meeting of workers, who has refused to dob in his mates. "We won't stand by and allow construction workers to be treated with fewer rights than other workers." Unions are also calling for changes to the Howard Government's Building Code, which has also been used by employers to reduce workers' rights beyond the construction industry