Gavin Marshall (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s report for 2004-05 reminds us that in Australia we do not have a perfect record on human rights and equal opportunity and that there is always more to be done. But the report also reminds us that internationally there is much to be done, particularly in the area of human rights. It prompts me to speak to the Senate about Australian workers who have fought long and hard to gain rights and conditions at work and continue to fight to protect these hard-won gains: conditions such as the eight-hour day, safety regulations, superannuation and liveable wages. And as workers here face attacks from this conservative government, we must also recognise that these are struggles that workers fight across the world.

I want to bring to the Senate’s attention the plight of South Korean construction workers in Pohang, South Korea. In their legitimate push for better conditions, they have suffered their colleagues being sacked, injured, arrested, imprisoned and killed. These workers have been trying to achieve four basic improvements in their working conditions: the recognition of their union, a day off on Sunday, the application of overtime rates and the repeal of individual contracts, to be replaced by enterprise collective agreements. So far over 500 workers have been dismissed for pushing for these. Over 50 workers have been injured and over 70 have been charged, with one remaining in prison.

Ha Joong Keun, a member of the Korean Federation of Construction Industry Unions, was severely beaten by riot police after joining a rally on 16 July and died in hospital on 1 August. He was one of thousands of workers who attended the rally, held in solidarity with fellow construction workers who had launched a peaceful sit-in on 13 July at the headquarters of the Pohang Steel Corporation—POSCO. Thousands of riot police surrounded the rally and beat the workers with riot shields. Those on strike work up to 10 hours per day, seven days a week in dangerous conditions. Their living quarters have just seven bathrooms for over 3,000 workers and no eating facilities. POSCO is not a poor company. In fact, it made a $US6 billion profit last year alone.

Throughout this push to gain basic conditions, the Korean government’s actions have been to violently stop any dissent in order to protect these large commercial interests. This current treatment of these workers is a practical example of how legislation such as the Independent Contractors Bill 2006 can be used against workers. During the 1990s, concrete companies forced their workers to be subcontractors. They sold them the trucks and forced them to sign individual contracts which then restricted them to working with only one company. Employers routinely resist the formation of union branches to push for better conditions, and in March this year 22 workers ended up hospitalised following a concrete company’s use of a private riot squad to repress a union meeting.

I urge the government of South Korea to treat workers with respect and to legislate for workers’ rights and conditions to be protected. I also implore them to take action against the Korean Federation of Ready Mixed Concrete Industry Cooperatives and the owner of Eugene Concrete for their continued breaches of industrial relations laws.

As I have said, Australia is not perfect in all of these areas, as this report has indicated. But it does remind us of how much work needs to be done overseas and of how some of the very basic rights which have been fought for here and which we take for granted are rights that are seen as privileges in many other countries. For the right to have their union recognised, people are having to take very strong action which is met with very severe resistance sanctioned by governments and funded by employers. That is something this Senate should deplore. I will certainly be taking this matter up directly with the South Korean Ambassador to Australia, and I urge the South Korean government to look long and hard at their workplace relations. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.