Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief executive Deidre Willmott has urged the Abbott government to go harder on its proposed industrial relations reforms, arguing more needs to be done to tackle union militancy.
Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief executive Deidre Willmott has urged the Abbott government to go harder on its proposed industrial relations reforms, arguing more needs to be done to tackle union militancy.
In her first major speech to CCI members, Ms Willmott said the coalition had taken good first steps on industrial relations but needed to do more to roll back union powers in order to encourage productivity and competitiveness.
She called on the government to address an excessive level of “give it a go” unfair dismissal claims, which she said resulted in many employers making settlements to avoid the costs of arbitration.
“These types of claims make any employer cautious about terminating poor-performing employees, resulting in many employers putting up with poor-performing staff and even more importantly, discouraging businesses from employing staff in the first place,” Ms Willmott told guests at CCI's annual IR conference in Perth.
“The protected nature of enterprise bargaining and the extensive range of issues to be negotiated has resulted in the standard time for negotiating an agreement blowing out from three months to between six and nine months.
“This is a significant cost to employers by way of resources as well as disruption to the normal relationship between the employer and employees.”
Ms Willmott also took aim at recent pay rises for apprentices, saying the changes would inevitably result in fewer apprentice positions being offered.
She welcomed the government’s Royal Commission into union corruption, which she said would ensure unions were accountable to members and operating in their best interests.
The Abbott government has tasked the Productivity Commission with undertaking a comprehensive review of the Fair Work Act but has pledged not to implement any changes that arise from the review until the next election.
Leaked draft terms of reference indicate the review will look at industrial conflict, barriers to bargaining, and pay and conditions.
The coalition last month introduced relatively modest amendments to the Fair Work Act to the parliament but with Labor and the Greens promising to block the changes in the Senate, any legislation is unlikely to pass until the new Senate takes shape in July.
The amendments include changes to union right-of-entry provisions, removing the ability of unions to enter workplace lunchrooms, and handing employers the ability to exercise reasonable control over union access.
The changes also allow employers to take proposed greenfields agreements to the Fair Work Commission if agreement has not been reached after three months.
Labor and the Greens have also pledged to block the government’s plans to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission.
Ms Willmott said the state would only be able to make the most of a changing economy if it had an industrial relations environment that promoted flexibility and encouraged employers to take on staff.
“Unions have become skillful at using the threat of industrial action to establish unreasonable terms and conditions without the need for employees to actually take that industrial action,” she said.
“The ease of obtaining protected action status encourages this, putting considerable pressure on employers to agree to demands.
“The use of industrial action as a bargaining tactic is one of the reasons so many enterprise agreements are more restrictive than the modern award and prevent businesses from adapting to market changes.”
While the Abbott government has focused attention on reducing red tape in its first year in office, Ms Willmott said it still had work to do in this area.
She highlighted anti-bullying legislation, which can be addressed under several different provisions, as an example of unnecessary duplication that was adding to the costs of business.
Fair Work Building Commission advisory board chairman John Lloyd said it was unacceptable in 2014 that workers in the construction industry continued to be met with coercion and intimidation.
Mr Lloyd, a former commissioner of the ABCC, said there was clear evidence that the number of working days lost due to unlawful conduct in the industry had sharply declined following the introduction of the watchdog in 2005.
