'Productivity seems to be of no interest to the union movement leaders,' Ai Group says
National employer association Ai Group has criticised the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) for celebrating the passage of "costly" workplace reforms across the country.
"The ACTU's celebration of the passage of cumbersome and costly IR laws at their national congress today will be galling for many struggling businesses facing an increasingly challenging economic environment which is now overlaid with complex and unwelcome new workplace laws," said Innes Willox, Ai Group chief executive, in a statement.
The Australian government recently passed the Closing Loopholes legislation, which amends the Fair Work Act to provide specific rights and protections for the work undertaken by workplace delegates.
According to Willox, the new laws were "transparently designed to provide a lifeline to a struggling union movement."
"They do this by giving the unions a raft of new ways to impose themselves on workplaces, while doing nothing to improve our entrenched productivity problem and instead make our minefield of complex workplace relations rules harder to navigate," the Ai Group chief executive said.
He stressed that the only way to make businesses more competitive and allow their workers to enjoy the benefits is through the continuous productivity growth.
"Unfortunately, productivity seems to be of no interest to the union movement leaders," Willox said.
He further accused union movements for only focusing on growing their membership instead of growing the economy.
"Unions can have a positive influence in discussions on how Australia evolves into a modern economy and faces up to the challenges around digitalisation, decarbonisation, and diversification. They can engage on how we properly skill the workforce of the future. They can engage on how we can grow the economic pie, but they choose not to," Willox said.
He said numbers of union members dwindled because they "do not talk for most working Australians."
"The working Australians who are likely to have access to employment opportunities curtailed through the unjustified limitations on labour hire and casual employment arrangements are similarly unlikely to welcome being pressured to join a union movement," he added.
"They would be resentful that under the new laws resources that could be directed to sustaining wage rises will instead shortly need to be spent on paying union delegates to attend training to learn how to recruit members."
ACTU held this week its Congress 2024, which is the supreme decision-making body of the Australian union movement that is held every three years.
It saw the re-election of its leadership team, including Michele O'Neil as president and Sally McManus as secretary.
During the Congress, its leadership team also said unions should be proud of the victories it won for Australians over the past years.
"From achieving historic increases in award and minimum wages, to closing loopholes that big businesses exploit to drive down wages and conditions, to banning engineered stone and saving thousands of lives," the team said in a statement.
"These wins demonstrate the power of collective action, and we will build on these victories to achieve even more in the coming years."
