GRENVILLE Kato-Morcom is now a member of John Howard’s workforce.

The 42-year-old employee at Sydney’s Cronulla Golf Club is still on his state award — but not for long.

The High Court ruling yesterday has left the father of two uneasy as he faces the reality of the state award for bowling and golf club employees moving on to a federal footing.

“I’m not happy about the judgment — I haven’t been happy about Work Choices from the start,” he said.

“I was really hoping justice would be the winner, that the High Court would back the Australian workers.

“Personally I was hoping to go back to the conditions we have enjoyed, to go back to the way things were.”

Mr Kato-Morcom is now effectively employed under the Work Choices law because he no longer has the right to take a dispute to theNSW Industrial Relations Commission.

“The right to holidays, sick days, overtime, penalty rates, family leave, the numbers of hours you’re expected to work in a week — all these conditions were fought for by our forefathers,” he said after the ruling was announced.

“A lot of very decent people worked very hard to achieve reasonable working conditions for Australian workers, and a fair share of thenational economy. All that has gone.

“Now if you’re not getting rich, you’re nobody. People’s working conditions will get worse, the social divides in this country will get wider. The Howard Government is looking after the rich and cutting the rest of society loose.”

Mr Kato-Morcom said the Coalition’s industrial laws would affect family life, with people having to spend less time with their children.

“The IR changes are making everyone nervous,” he said.

“If you’re worried about your job, it brings out a lot of other stresses. I imagine there will be a lot more people nervous about their futures.”

Russ Collison, NSW secretary for the Australian Workers Union, which covers greenkeepers, said the High Court judgment was a devastating blow for the average worker.

Mr Collison said the union’s main concern with the new industrial system was that it stripped away working conditions. For instance, a golf club worker aged over 45 with 10 years service will have his redundancy slashed from 20 weeks on the state award to 12 weeks under the federal award.

“State conditions that won’t be in the federal award for golfing employees include the minimum standards for wet weather gear and conditions on the quality of change and meal rooms,” Mr Collison said.

“If there’s a drought or something wrong with the watering system, golf workers can be sent home without pay.

“The quality of family life will be decimated.”