In December 2010 Premier Colin Barnett and his then Commerce Minister Bill Marmion released a report containing 193 recommendations to change workplace laws in Western Australia.

The report was written by a former Howard Government industrial relations advocate, and outlines a plan for Mr Barnett to introduce WorkChoices style changes for up to 300,000 WA workers.

Recommendations in the report include:

• Forcing new employees to sign individual contracts;
• Removing protection from unfair dismissal for employees in small business;
• Stripping the Award system by abolishing many existing conditions provided for in Awards;
• Gutting the independent umpire making it harder and more expensive for employees to access a weakened Industrial Relations Commission;
• Changes that would intimidate workers into not raising issues, including those relating to workplace safety, with their union.

Despite having the report for 14 months the Government has not yet said which of the recommendations they will be adopting, but statements by Minister Marmion, and previous actions and statements from Premier Barnett in support of WorkChoices, indicate that they are looking to introduce the vast majority.

This would mean a return to the days of individual agreements, no protection from unfair dismissal, reductions in penalty rates and loss of conditions.

If introduced, the changes will affect workers in the WA public sector and employees of small businesses – up to 30% of the WA workforce, or 300,000 workers.

There is also a very real danger that the introduction of WorkChoices style changes and the cutting of minimum standards for more than 120,000 public sector workers in Western Australia could make it harder to recruit people in the new resource boom and could impact adversely on important public services, including health, education, policing, child protection, mine safety and environmental protection.