THE AUSTRALIAN workplace is set to play a pivotal role in the forthcoming Federal election, after business and employer groups lined up to criticise the Australian Labor Party’s recently released workplace relations policy
THE AUSTRALIAN workplace is set to play a pivotal role in the forthcoming Federal election, after business and employer groups lined up to criticise the Australian Labor Party’s recently released workplace relations policy.
Key elements of the policy, such as re-empowering the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), would return unions to the centre of bargaining and arbitration and diminish the role of employers in direct agreements with employees, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).
“It is a flawed policy because it will add union-initiated employment regulation to an already regulated labour market, despite the fact that less than 18 per cent of the private sector workforce in Australia are union members and approximately 90 per cent of Australian businesses are non-unionised,” said ACCI chief executive Peter Hendy.
“Unions will be given control of workplace bargaining wherever unions seek that control, and the AIRC will gain expanded powers to regulate wages and employment conditions.”
He said Labor’s policy paralleled the inflexible system of the 1970s and 1980s, when industrial disputes were more than four times higher than they are today (45.7 days lost per 1,000 employees in 2003-04 compared to 214 days lost in the period 1985-93, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics).
However, the ACTU welcomed Labor’s industrial relations policy, claiming the re-empowerment of the AIRC would ensure working Australians receive fair treatment.
“Full time employees on award wages receive $300 a week less than people on either individual or collective agreements and more than half of award workers receive less than $15 an hour,” said ACTU President Sharan Burrow.
“By supporting more relevant awards, Labor’s policy will raise the incomes and working conditions of workers who have little bargaining power.”
Labor’s plans to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) also met with criticism, with the Business Council of Australia (BCA) claiming that a significant share of agreements continue to be struck under the Federal system – including in NSW and Queensland.
“Moving the Federal system closer to that operating in the States will truncate the flexibility available to employees and employers – in the same way that abolishing AWAs will limit opportunities for employees and employers,” said chairman of the BCA’s employment and participation taskforce, Michael Chaney.
Citing an Access report into the Labor’s workplace relations policy, he said the re-empowerment of the AIRC and proposed changes to the Workplace Relations Act threaten to reverse cultural and attitudinal changes that have enabled employees and local workplaces to be more accountable for performance, productivity and rewards.
However the ACTU said that less than 2 per cent of all Australian workers are on AWAs and the BCA was wrong to suggest productivity growth is linked to AWAs.
“The ACTU predicts the abolition of the Coalition’s preferred model of individual agreements (AWAs) will have next to no overall economic impact,” said Burrow.
“The abolition of AWAs will, however, reduce the ability of unscrupulous employers to offer sub-standard wages and conditions to employees with little bargaining power.”
She also said job security will also improve under Labor with its proposals for the implementation of national workplace health and safety standards; protection from unfair sackings; a 100 per cent guarantee for employee entitlements and a choice for long-term casual workers to convert to permanent work.
