THE FEDERAL Government has outlined the changes it will make to industrial relations once it gains control of the Senate, and confirmed that it will use its constitutional powers to create a national system of industrial relations that would cover up to 90 per cent of Australian employees
THE FEDERAL Government has outlined the changes it will make to industrial relations once it gains control of the Senate, and confirmed that it will use its constitutional powers to create a national industrial relations system that would cover up to 90 per cent of Australian employees.
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Kevin Andrews said the Federal Government would reduce unions’ role in agreement-making and introduce compulsory secret ballots for members, exempt small business from unfair dismissal and redundancy regulation, and possibly relieve the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) of its responsibility in setting the minimum wage.
Other measures include reducing the number of matters about which the AIRC can make an award, replacing the no disadvantage test with different threshold criteria in the certified agreement or AWA approval process, and increasing penalties for non-compliance with court or tribunal decisions.
In a speech to the Committee For Economic Development Of Australia, Minister Andrews also made his case for a national industrial relations system.
He said that the “increasingly untenable co-existence of multiple state industrial systems in conjunction with the federal system” had to be addressed and “corporations who operate in more than one state are frequently forced to contend with several inconsistent systems of workplace regulation.”
Once it gained control of the Senate, the Federal Government would introduce a package of reforms that would apply to all trading corporations within Australia. About 10-15 per cent of employees would remain under the state system.
The Minister also indicated a preparedness to ride roughshod over the State Labor Governments and slated NSW Industrial Relations Minister John Della Bosca for criticising the Federal workplace relations system.
However, Della Bosca vowed to fight the Commonwealth’s bid to impose a federal system after a meeting of state and territory Industrial Relations Ministers.
While he all but ruled out a legal challenge on the grounds that the introduction of a national industrial relations system would be unconstitutional, he said the States would instead form a united front in lobbying for public support to stop the changes.
The ACTU said it would also rely on public lobbying and workplace campaigns to oppose the Federal Government’s changes to industrial relations.
“There has been no public review of the strengths and weaknesses of the current system, no genuine process of consultation with unions or employees and no research into contemporary workplace issues,” ACTU secretary Greg Combet said.
“Worse still, there are insufficient plans to address the real issues constraining Australia’s economic efficiency, export performance, productivity and growth skills shortages and the deficit of investment in infrastructure and research and development.”
The ACTU said it was apparent that the Government was considering using its majority in the Senate to implement radical reforms driven by the big business lobby.
However, business groups were hoping for more far-reaching changes such as abolishing awards and replacing them with six minimum conditions.
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) said a decade had passed since the last significant changes to workplace relations, making a new round of changes important to support increased productivity and drive long-term growth and prosperity.
