Australia's centre-right government yesterday unveiled radical reforms to the country's industrial relations regulations that would remove unfair dismissal protection from more than 40 per cent of the workforce.
这些期待已久的措施，将成为澳大利亚执政联盟第四个任期内改革议程的中心议题，并且由于该联盟在去年联邦大选中获胜，这些措施的实施已成为可能。
The long-awaited measures are set to be the centrepiece of the coalition's fourth-term reform agenda and have been made possible by its victory in last year's federal election.
自7月起，大选胜利将让政府在25年内第一次控制参议院。自约翰•霍华德(John Howard)政府1996年上台至今，该议会上院已否决了政府提出的众多劳工改革方案。
From July this will give the government control of the Senate for the first time in a quarter of a century. Until now, the upper house has blocked many of the workplace reforms proposed by John Howard's administration since it won power in 1996.
此项改革方案旨在创建一个单一的全国劳资关系体系，取代此前由各州操办的分散制度，简化最低工资的设定。改革还将让员工不超过100人的企业免受不公平解雇法的约束，将新员工的试用期从3个月增加到6个月，并引入有利于个人合约而非集体谈判的做法。
The package aims to create a single national industrial relations system to replace separate state-operated regimes and simplify the setting of the minimum wage. It would also exempt businesses with up to 100 employees from unfair dismissal laws, increase the probationary period for new staff from three to six months and introduce measures favouring individual contracts over collective bargaining.
“这一系列改革计划是澳大利亚经济结构转型中尚未完成的重要部分，”霍华德先生对澳议会表示，“其目的在于给雇主和雇员更大的自由和灵活性，在工作场所层面开展谈判，”他说。但这些改革计划会引起各州的激烈反对，还可能面临工会运动团体的法律挑战。澳大利亚各州均由工党控制。
“This package embodies one of the great pieces of unfinished business in the structural transformation of the Australian economy,” Mr Howard told parliament. “The aim is to give even greater freedom and flexibility to employers and employees to negotiate at the workplace level,” he said. But the package will be vigorously contested by the states, all of which are Labor-run, and might face legal challenges from the trade union movement.
执政联盟内也存在分歧，西澳大利亚州自由党反对其中的一些措施。
There is also dissent in coalition ranks, with the state Liberal party in Western Australia opposing some of the measures.
新南威尔士州是澳大利亚人口最多的州。州总理鲍勃•卡尔(Bob Carr)表示，改革威胁到“新南威尔士州数十万工人，他们目前受到以州为基础的体系的保护，这一体系是合作、公平、简单的”。他表示，这次改革会产生风险，使普通法律师大发横财，美国式的劳动诉讼可能会增加。
Bob Carr, premier of NSW, Australia's most populous state, said the reforms threatened “hundreds of thousands of New South Wales workers who enjoy the protection of a co-operative, fair, simple state-based system”. He said the changes risked creating a bonanza for common-law lawyers and a growth in US-style employment litigation.
但企业界对霍华德总理公布的改革表示欢迎，并且盼望进一步得知具体细节。由于近年劳动生产率增长放缓，雇主团体非常担忧，而长期以来，澳大利亚相对较高的最低工资一直被视为创造就业的障碍。
But business, while keen for further detail, welcomed the prime minister's announcement. Employer groups have been concerned by the recent slowdown in productivity growth while Australia's relatively high minimum wages have long been seen as an impediment to job creation.
