THE AUSTRALIAN Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) recently terminated the bargaining period and issued an order making further industrial action unprotected at BlueScope Steel’s Western Port plant, after it was determined that industrial action was causing significant damage to the Australian economy
THE AUSTRALIAN Industrial Relations Commission’s (AIRC) recently terminated the bargaining period and issued an order making further industrial action unprotected at BlueScope Steel’s Western Port plant, after it was determined that industrial action was causing significant damage to the Australian economy.
The Federal Government welcomed the decision and encouraged businesses to use the provisions of the Workplace Relations Act to protect their interests.
“If this industrial action had continued thousands of workers would have lost their jobs and businesses would have suffered even greater losses,” said Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews.
Industrial action had delayed the completion of a planned maintenance shutdown at the plant and affected the company’s ability to supply steel products to its customers.
Minister Andrews said it was particularly disappointing that unions were prepared to hold to ransom thousands of workers across a number of businesses and risk significant damage to the Australian economy.
Unions reacted angrily to the AIRC decision, claiming that there was no evidence they were discouraging investment in the Australian industry.
“All the recent industrial action by AWU members at BlueScope has resulted from the company’s refusal to negotiate over the legitimate concerns of workers including unfair pay, casualisation, redundancy, superannuation and loss of existing conditions,” said Bill Shorten, national secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU).
The AWU was not opposed to BlueScope or Adams, but Shorten said they refused to recognise workers and their union representatives as legitimate stakeholders in the business.
“The AWU estimates that there has been a fivefold increase in industrial action since Mr Adams took over,” he said.
“At the same time every other steel company in Australia has been able to negotiate effectively with the AWU.”
BlueScope welcomed the AIRC’s decision, claiming that even with a lifting of all bans and cessation of strikes, it would take many months to restore a consistent flow of product to customers.
“Unfortunately, much damage has already been done as a result of the actions of the ETU over the past month,” said Greg Waters, president Western Port.
