Prime Minister John Howard’s new reform of the industrial relations system is sparking conflict between the Federal government and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) who are now spearheading a court challenge against the changes.

An ACTU-commissioned survey has found 72 per cent of people are opposed to scrapping unfair dismissal laws for businesses employing up to 100 people.

Mr Howard, who flagged the wide-ranging changes to industrial laws last week, said on Sunday May 29 the poll was irrelevant because it was held before the reforms were announced.

“I don’t think that survey commenced before the policy was announced has much veracity,” he said.

The ACTU secretary Greg Combet said the changes would destroy the award system, limit collective bargaining and abolish unfair dismissal for almost four million people.

“John Howard positioned himself as the battler’s friend. This is the biggest kick in the guts that the battlers have had since John Howard was elected,” Mr Combet told the Nine Network.

Mr Howard plans to introduce a new government body named the Australian Fair Pay Commission to control the minimum and award classification wages and to set out legislation for minimum conditions of employment including annual leave, maternity leave and maximum ordinary hours of work.

The Howard government also intends on legislating an exemption for businesses that employ up to 100 employees from unfair dismissal laws, claiming these laws cost jobs.

Rules for negotiating individual Australian Workplace agreements will be simplified and forced to go through the Office of the Employment Advocate rather than the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC).

The role of the AIRC will change to focus on dispute resolution, retain responsibilities regarding further simplified awards and will lose some of its arbitration powers.

The Howard government will also work towards a national workplace relations system, pending an invitation to the States to refer their powers on workplace relations to the Commonwealth.

Mr Combet responded to the reform saying “This is the first round in a 15-round heavyweight battle against these industrial relations changes, we have a long way to go ... but my word we are going to make sure that he pays a political price for this.”

Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews said Mr Combet was running a political campaign of deliberate misinformation and deception.

Mr Andrews said “The ACTU is not interested in helping workers reap the benefits that will flow to them under these reforms.”

Mr Combet said the union movement would oppose the laws every step of the way, he would not rule out a national strike and said this was likely to include a High Court challenge.

The ACTU executive will meet this Thursday June 2 to discuss an action plan to fight the changes.