The federal opposition's industrial relations plans announced today are nothing more than window dressing and will severely damage the economy, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The federal opposition's industrial relations plans announced today are nothing more than window dressing and will severely damage the economy, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Labor outlined the next phase of its industrial relations policy, keeping strict conditions which prevent union bosses entering workplaces at will and removing awards for workers on over $100,000 a year.
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd stressed the revised Labor plan would offer employers the flexibility they sought even though Australian Workplace Agreements would be phased out completely by 2012.
"Unfortunately the Labor policy announced today is just window dressing on a policy of industrial relations that will severely damage the Australian economy," ACCI's chief executive Peter Hendy told journalists in Canberra.
He said Labor is still proposing to abolish AWAs, get of the exemption for small business on unfair dismal and abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
"They have done little to change the policy, in substance, that they announced in April," he said.
He said in regard to the $100,000 cut-off for collective agreements, most people above that level would be in management positions and would not have been subject to the award system in the past.
"Only 4.5 per cent of the employees in this country are above $100,000," he said.
"Where people are talking about the mining industry where there is large salary increases for non-managerial staff, 65 per cent earn well below $100,000."
The Minerals Council of Australia did not find the cut-off effective either, with chief executive Mitchell H Hooke saying in an announcement that the strategy was not a substitute for AWAs.
"On a matter of principle - it compromises access to the full range of employment instruments and introduces an
arbitrary demarcation, in effect creating two classes of employees, risking a return to conflict, undermining the
hard-won culture of collaboration in workplace relationships," he said.
"On a matter of practicality - this arbitrary demarcation is accentuated by the $100,000 threshold - it is way too
high to accommodate key operatives in the minerals industry who want, individual employment contracts - nearly
two-thirds of industry employees would fall short of the threshold and have access only to common law contracts
underpinned by Awards restricting flexibility and choice."
Despite their criticisms, the MCA said the revisions represented an important shift in the ALP's preparedness to accommodate the minerals industry preferences in the nation's industrial relations system.
Prime Minister John Howard said the policy had confirmed the domination of the union movement over the ALP, saying Mr Rudd had missed an opportunity to stand up to them.
"Labor's policy will mean more power to the union bosses to push industry wide wage claims, leading to increased inflation and upward pressure on interest rates," he said.
"It will overturn the rights that small business people currently have to run their businesses free of interference from the trade union movement.
"What is now clear is that Labor's industrial relations policy will put at risk the strength of the Australian economy," he said.
But Western Australian Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Secretary Kevin Reynolds said the policy showed Mr Rudd would sacrifice anything to win the next election.
"He's just reinforcing the utopia that the employers have got these days, making billions of dollars in profits, particularly in Western Australia," he said.
"There's very little difference in what he's proposing to what John Howard's doing; there's no difference in the right of entry, for argument's sake."
Mr Rudd was no friend of the trade union movement, Mr Reynolds said.
For her part, Greens industrial relations spokesperson Rachel Siewert said the policy reinforced the need for her party to have a say on the changes.
"The ALP is no longer committed to 'ripping up' WorkChoices - it is only prepared to tinker around the edges - as it gradually sells out to big business," she said.
"What we are seeing with the ALP is 'Work Choices-lite' with their very own 'ALPWAs' rather than a genuine commitment to collective bargaining."
The full text of the Minerals Council of Australia announcement is pasted below
ALP INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS POLICY - SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS BUT STILL SHORT OF REAL FLEXIBILITY AND CHOICE
The ALP's revised industrial relations policy announced today represents an important shift in the ALP's preparedness to accommodate the minerals industry's primary requirement for a modern and progressive
industrial relations system, but still falls short on real flexibility and choice according to the Minerals Council of
Australia (MCA).
MCA Chief Executive, Mitchell H. Hooke, said, "the ALP has been consulting with business on statutory individual
contracts, right of entry provisions, industrial action and compliance measures.
"Notwithstanding that the ALP has gone to considerable lengths to address the industry's concerns about
"backsliding" on two decades of workplace relations reforms, the ALP policy will limit choice and flexibility in the
full range of employment instruments - critical to cater for the vast operational diversity across the industry and to
the modern workplace culture of collaborative, direct, mutually beneficial, employer/employee relationships.
"The ALP policy represents important movement but falls well short in the industry's fundamental requirement for
an appropriate substitute for the abolition of AWAs.
"We do not consider, as an appropriate substitute for AWAs, Labor's proposal for employees earning over
$100,000 to have access to individual common law contracts that are not subjugated by Awards but are subject to
Labor's safety net test of "10 employment standards" and "10 additional Award provisions".
"On a matter of principle - it compromises access to the full range of employment instruments and introduces an
arbitrary demarcation, in effect creating two classes of employees, risking a return to conflict, undermining the
hard-won culture of collaboration in workplace relationships.
"On a matter of practicality - this arbitrary demarcation is accentuated by the $100,000 threshold - it is way too
high to accommodate key operatives in the minerals industry who want, individual employment contracts - nearly
two-thirds of industry employees would fall short of the threshold and have access only to common law contracts
underpinned by Awards restricting flexibility and choice.
"The ALP's proposal of a substitute for AWAs remains a key point of difference between us. Although we have yet
to fully consider the detail, we are encouraged by other key aspects of the ALP's policy, specifically its
commitments relating to:
- preventing unauthorised access to the workplace in maintaining the existing right of entry provisions whichprohibit any uninvited role of unions and other external third parties;
- maintaining the existing anti-strike provisions prohibiting industrial action during the course of an agreement,restricted to those involved in negotiating an agreement and to matters under negotiation in an agreement,and appropriate sanctions for illegitimate, unprotected industrial action;
- outlawing of secondary boycotts under the Trade Practices Act;
- ensuring freedom to determine whether to, or not to, collectively bargain, the right to belong or not to belongto a union, and the right to choose or refuse to be represented by unions in any negotiations;
- maintaining the Australian Building and Construction Commission, though we reject the "transitional basis" to that policy position;
- recognising the commercial and contractual requirements of observing existing AWAs and in providing a 5year transitional arrangement, notwithstanding that we oppose such transition;
- "Award modernisation" increasing flexibility, notwithstanding the enormity of this task - there are some 4,000
- Awards with in excess of 100,000 employment classifications
- and the undesirable prospect of increased union involvement through the "back door" via negotiations on Award changes;
Over two decades of reform by both Labor and Coalition, Governments have emphasised the steady decentralisation and reorientation of Australia's industrial relations system to the individual, the individual enterprise, and flexibility and choice in workplace arrangements.
Australia cannot afford any "backsliding" in workplace reform. If the Australian minerals industry is to fully capitalise on the strongest global market growth in a generation, investing with confidence, increasing productivity, and ensuring international competitiveness, it must have access to the full range of employment instruments, including statutory individual contracts underpinned by an effective safety net.
We are encouraged by the changes announced to the ALP's industrial relations policy and we will continue to engage with the ALP for even further movement so that there is real flexibility and choice in the full range of
employment instruments underpinned by a socially and economically effective safety net.
