New reform paper draws flak after calling for major industrial reforms
An Australian think tank is calling for the abolition of modern awards in favour of a simplified minimum wage in a newly released blueprint slammed by unions.
The H.R. Nicholls Society released last week a reform paper titled The Employment Act: A Modern Blueprint for Workplace Reform that calls for radical changes in Australia's workplace relations system.
Among the key recommendations is scrapping the modern awards and replacing them with a single adult minimum wage, with proportionate rates for juniors, trainees, and apprentices.
"Real progress to a reformed and productive system can only be made by the abolition of awards," the reform paper said. "Minimum employment conditions will then be set out in the revised NES… individual agreements/contracts and/or enterprise agreements that are in force."
Other key recommendations in the reform paper include:
The think tank outlined the following key recommendations as it criticised the current Fair Work Act 2009 for not remaining relevant in the modern workplace.
"Despite all the rhetoric around fairness, the reality is that our Fair Work Act, with its layers of complexity and rigidity, is neither fair nor fit for a modern economy," said Frank Parry KC, President of the H.R. Nicholls Society, in a statement.
"Small businesses are overwhelmed, drowning in paperwork, and enterprise bargaining has been all but killed off. The productivity gains that once propelled our economy have slowed to a crawl."
According to Parry, the one-size-fits-all approach in the Fair Work Act has also held back innovation and reduced flexibility.
"By centralising workplace conditions — such as introducing multi-employer bargaining — and eliminating the option for individual agreements, the Fair Work Act is condemning Australia to decades of stagnant productivity, locking the country into a framework that fails to meet the demands of a modern economy," the think tank's president said.
But the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) warned that more than 3.3 million Australians will be kicked off awards and collective agreements should the reform paper be adopted.
"If Peter Dutton adopts these policies, all working people will have rights stripped from them," said ACTU secretary Sally McManus in a statement.
According to ACTU, the reform paper also wants the federal government to:
"This is a policy agenda designed to do one thing – cut wages," McManus said. "Peter Dutton should denounce these policies and rule every single one out."
