NON-UNION collective agreements and allowing unfair contracts to be assessed in the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission are two of the recommendations from William Ford’s review of the State’s IR laws.
The Ford report, which contains 38 recommendations, has been tabled in parliament and put out for public comment until January 17 2005.
Business groups have welcomed some of the recommendations, including: the non-union collective agreements allowing the WAIRC to award costs on a party-party basis; making improvements to employee-employer agreements (EEA); and tightening up right-of-entry provisions.
However, they are concerned at suggestions the WAIRC be allowed to consider unfair contracts and that the commission be permitted to promote “balance between work and family responsibilities”.
The EEA improvements involve allowing businesses employing fewer than five people to offer employment on an EEA alone rather than being forced to offer a choice between the EEA and the relevant award.
EEAs have been considered to be ineffective by employer groups, who claim they do not offer the same flexibility the old WA IR system allowed through workplace agreements, or that the Federal system offered with Australian Workplace Agreements.
In the past two years there have been just 250 EEAs registered, while AWA registrations for WA businesses run well into the thousands.
Consumer and Employment Protection Minister John Kobelke refused to be drawn on what recommendations from the review he would back, preferring to wait for the feedback from the public comment.
“I see the report as a fairly positive tick for the changes we made to IR law,” he said.
Chamber of Commerce and Industry director policy Bruce Williams said the chamber believed much wider IR changes were needed than those flagged in the Ford report.
