A DEMAND by management at a Sydney stationery warehouse that all employees sign non-union individual contracts or face the sack sounded a warning about the future under John Howard’s planned overhaul of workplace laws, NSW Premier Bob Carr said yesterday.

Appaloosa Holdings claims it cannot afford to keep its 22 workers under existing conditions and wants to “outsource” them to a labour hire company that will employ them on the Howard Government’s Australian Workplace Agreements.

The company claims that workers will be no worse off and the changes are necessary because it lacks management skills and payroll services.

But the workers’ union argues that employees earning $16 an hour and aged between 19 and 23 stand to lose allowances, job security and rights to union representation.

Mr Carr visited workers yesterday at the Banksmeadow warehouse in Sydney’s west in a show of support before today’s Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra, at which the Prime Minister will ask all Labor premiers to hand over their state industrial relations systems to his Government.

Mr Howard will take control by force if they refuse. He wants to create for the first time a single national system, but Mr Carr said he would refuse to co-operate because Mr Howard’s reforms were bad for NSW families and job security.

“If John Howard’s takeover goes ahead, these workers would be forced to sign up to agreements — individual agreements — or they would get the sack,” Mr Carr said.

While the NSW Premier was reported in The Australian on Monday as privately endorsing a handover of his state’s IR powers, he is opposed to any change in public and his Government is expected to back a High Court challenge by Labor states.

Under current federal laws, employers can only require that new employees sign AWAs.

But the system used by Appaloosa and a contracted labour hire firm, EL Blue, would allow serving workers to be forceably switched to AWAs under a labour hire arrangement.

The Appaloosa workers are all employed under the NSW award system, so moving them to EL Blue would automatically switch them to Mr Howard’s federal system.

EL Blue managing director Grant Montgomery said his company, which only employs workers on AWAs, was asked to take over Appaloosa staff because the company had no human resources or payroll services. It had also experienced problems with under-payment.

“Our whole operation is on AWAs because we believe it is the best way to develop individual potential,” he said.

By yesterday, 12 employees had signed AWAs, two had quit and a further eight were refusing to sign-up.