Industry leaders call for IR change
07/09/2011
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Resource Industry Employer Group AMMA has been joined by other leading employer groups in calling for much-needed reforms to Australia's IR laws.
The groundswell of protest across industry is reflecting a significant IR policy crisis requiring an urgent review, according to AMMA.
"In the face of so much hard evidence that the government's IR laws are damaging our economy, it is time for the Federal Government and the Opposition to consider some alternative solutions that go beyond some minor tinkering at the edges," said AMMA Chief Executive, Steve Knott.
"No longer can the repeated concerns of the Productivity Commission, the RBA and the broader business community be allowed to fall on deaf ears.
"Leading economic commentators and results from a number of other industry sectors, including retail and manufacturing, reinforce what AMMA has been arguing for nearly two years; that the Fair Work Act in its current form has undermined productivity, created unsustainable levels of wage inflation and handed significant powers back to unions to the detriment of workplaces and the economy.
"The Labor Government has stubbornly refused to acknowledge the problems with the IR laws despite growing evidence from across the resource and construction sectors that there are significant problems.
"We've heard a few platitudes from the opposition on an IR policy alternative identifying some minor changes, but nothing substantive at this point, which has been disappointing."
Two years ago AMMA commissioned RMIT University to conduct its first survey on the impacts of the Fair Work Act on its members in the resource industry. Three six-monthly surveys with hundreds of employers across the sector have been conducted so far in the ongoing research project.
AMMA survey findings over the past 18 months include that under the Fair Work Act:
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82.6% of respondents had not been able to negotiate productivity improvements in
exchange for wage increases
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37.3% were expecting wage increases in their next agreement to blow-out significantly
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29.3% had experienced flow-on effects to their enterprises from recent wage and allowance
outcomes in the offshore oil and gas industry
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42.5% said problems on their worksites due to union actions had increased
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45% said union involvement in the workplace was 'unhelpful' or 'extremely unhelpful'
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David on
24 Oct 2011 07:57 PM
The new modern awards and IR rules certainly cater to the worker. Whilst this is admirable, the cost to business - both financially, and in regards to workplace/work-life balance flexibility for business and employees has taken a huge step backward.
Unions need to drag themselves into the 21 century, practice good HR principles, listen to what workers ACTUALLY WANT.... instead of TELLING workers what they want!