Fed: SA joins federal government's entitlements scheme

AAP General News (Australia)
08-07-2001
Fed: SA joins federal government's entitlements scheme

CANBERRA, Aug 7 AAP - South Australia will join the federal government's controversial
Employee Entitlements Support Scheme (EESS), Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott
has announced.

Mr Abbott said the decision was a win for workers.

"The Howard government is committed to doing all it reasonably can to protect worker
entitlements," he said.

"I am pleased that South Australia has joined a scheme that is affordable and has created
(for the first time) a safety net protection for entitlements of workers."

EESS pays up to $US20,000 ($A38,797) per employee and includes up to four weeks unpaid
annual leave, up to four weeks unpaid wages and up to four weeks unpaid redundancy pay,
Mr Abbott said.

All other states, of either political persuasion, have refused to join the EESS.

Only the Northern Territory agreed to it but, in its first year of operation, made no claims.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Arch Bevis said he was surprised South Australia's
Liberal government decided to adopt the scheme.

"Premier (John) Olsen has been the fiercest critic of the Howard government's scheme,
of all the premiers, Labor or Liberal," he told ABC radio.

"(The plan) doesn't provide the benefits to the workers, and it puts the onus on the
taxpayer, when in fact the principal responsibility should be met by the corporate sector."

SA Workplace Relations Minister Rob Lawson said the state would have preferred a legislative
scheme.

"I still believe that's probably the best way to go, but at the moment, we don't have
a legislative scheme," he told ABC radio.

"This is the best scheme that offers immediate benefits to workers and we're prepared
to support it."

NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca said NSW would continue to demand
an employer-funded, national scheme providing 100 per cent of entitlements.

"The current scheme still doesn't allow for those three important principles."

AAP jb/mg/rs

KEYWORD: CARS SA

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