News & Views

With a Coalition win in the recent Federal Election, it is inevitable there will be a number of changes implemented, particularly within the Industrial Relations field where – I am sure you can all agree – the pendulum has swung too far in favour of the employee and Unions.

At time of publish, it is still unconfirmed how and when Tony Abbott will implement the proposed Fair Work Act changes. In the Coalition’s Policy to Create Jobs by Boosting Productivity, issued just prior to the Election, it was made clear that the Coalition will push to improve the Fair Work Laws (with a Productivity Commission review within six months of the election) and reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) – a decision I am sure all members will approve. Although Tony Abbott has pledged to resurrect the ABCC within 100 days, sceptics believe it may take longer.

The Coalition announced their Policy to Improve the Fair Work Laws in May 2013, with 14 relatively modest changes outlined. These changes, outlined below, in most part will be positive steps forward for business owners of all sizes. Australian Unions, in particular, will expectantly have many of their powers removed, with changes proposed including an alteration of the Union’s Right of Entry and changes to ensure Greenfield and Enterprise Agreements are negotiated more effectively and without undue pressure by the relevant Union.

NECA SA endeavours to update our members on any relevant changes the change in Federal Government will bring as soon as possible. Don’t forget to check your eNews for any updates or the next edition of our bi-monthly magazine.

If you have any Industrial Relations questions or are unsure how the new Government will affect your business, contact Danae Fleetwood, Workplace Relations Advisor at NECA (SA) on (08) 8272 2966 or by email.

The Coalition’s Policy to Improve the Fair Work Laws

Liberal Party, May 2013

1. We will keep and improve the Fair Work laws

A Coalition Government will keep the Fair Work framework and work to improve them. Although there are some problems with the current laws as set out in this document, there are also many positive aspects. The Coalition will work to improve the operation of the Fair Work laws so that workers, business and the economy are better off.

2. We will ensure the laws work for everyone

A Coalition Government will initiate a genuine and independent review of the Fair Work laws to ensure Australians have the benefit of an objective, comprehensive and factual assessment of their operation and impact. This will be conducted by the Productivity Commission which will also be asked to consider how the laws can be improved.

We will also continue the improvement of the Fair Work Commission, reflecting the change programme which is currently underway. We believe it is crucial that our workplace relations system is supported by an efficient and modern tribunal which promptly provides effective and consistent decision-making. This will include giving active consideration to the creation of an independent appeal jurisdiction.

3. We will deliver a genuine Paid Parental Leave Scheme

A Coalition Government will deliver a genuine Paid Parental Leave Scheme to give mothers six months leave based on their actual wage. We will help families get ahead and give women a more realistic choice if they want to combine work with family and continue their career.

Under the Coalition’s scheme mothers will be provided with 26 weeks of paid parental leave, at full replacement wage or the national minimum wage (whichever is greater) plus superannuation.

At 26 weeks, the Coalition’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme is consistent with recommendations from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and the World Health Organisation that the minimum period of exclusive care and breastfeeding for optimal maternal and infant health outcomes is six months.

As the Productivity Commission notes, the health gains from paid parental leave do not only benefit families. Society at large will benefit from lower long- term health costs and the likely long-run productivity benefits. Our scheme will be of benefit to the economy at large because it will keep productive and potentially productive people more engaged in the workforce.

4. We will ensure union right of entry provisions are sensible and fair

A Coalition Government will ensure union right of entry provisions are sensible and fair, by making sure they are modelled on the 2007 promise of Julia Gillard who said “we will make sure that current right of entry provisions stay.”

This promise was broken and unions were given much easier and far broader access to workplaces under the Fair Work laws, in one case, up to 200 visits in three months.

More recently, Labor said they want to go even further by forcing employers to pay for the travel and accommodation costs of union bosses travelling to workplaces and giving them a right to recruit in lunch rooms even when the workers don’t want them there.

A Coalition Government will change the law so that they are modelled on the promise that Labor made in 2007 and oppose Labor’s recent attempts to go even further.

5. We will re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission

The Coalition will re-establish the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) to ensure it maintains the rule of law and drives productivity on commercial building sites and construction projects whether on-shore or off-shore.

Until it was abolished by Labor, the ABCC had been very effective in addressing workplace militancy and improving productivity in the building and construction industry. It helped increase industry productivity by around 10 per cent, reduced days lost to strikes, and provided an annual economic welfare gain of over $6 billion per year.

The ABCC will replace Labor’s failed Fair Work Building Construction unit and will administer a national code and guidelines that will govern industrial relations arrangements for Government projects. This step will ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are used efficiently. We will work with state governments who have put in place their own codes, to ensure consistency.

6. We will provide better protection for members of Registered Organisations

The Coalition will take strong action to stamp out the rip offs, rorts and corruption that has flourished inside some unions.

Members of registered organisations, such as employer associations and trade unions, are mainly small businesses and low paid workers. The Coalition believes they are entitled to representation which is accountable and transparent. Members deserve to know that their membership fees are being used for proper purposes.

From the Health Services Union scandal to the Australian Workers Union slush fund saga, the list of corruption and allegations of wrongdoing continues to grow. There have been more than seventeen separate investigations and inquiries into registered organisations under the Fair Work laws.

A Coalition Government will ensure that registered organisations and their officials play by the same rules as companies and their directors, with the same penalties. This will ensure that members’ money cannot be spent on prostitutes, used for personal holidays, or withdrawn from ATM’s to be spent on personal items.

In addition, we will improve financial disclosure rules and create a Registered Organisations Commission as a watchdog to ensure the obligations are met and to help educate people about improved standards.

7. We will provide practical help to small business workplaces

The Coalition will provide practical and useful help for small business workplaces because this is where many jobs are created and innovation happens.

Small business men and women have many demands on their time and don’t have the resources to be legal experts as well. The Coalition is determined to help them by ensuring the Fair Work Ombudsman provides targeted and clear help.

This will include a number of initiatives and help small business improve their understanding of the Fair Work laws so they have confidence to grow and employ.

We will also encourage greater compliance and education by providing potential immunity from Fair Work Ombudsman pecuniary penalty prosecutions for a small business employer if it pays or applies the wrong employment conditions, provided the error was not deliberate and the employer had previously sought Fair Work Ombudsman advice and help on the same issue.

8. We will guarantee workers have the right to access fair flexibility

The Coalition will remove the ability to restrict the use of Labor’s Individual Flexibility Arrangements in enterprise agreements. This will ensure that workers can ask for fair and protected flexible working arrangements if they want.

The Fair Work laws introduced Individual Flexibility Arrangements (or IFAs) as a new way to allow workers and a business to agree on conditions that are suitable to their individual needs. However, because some unions don’t like workers and employers agreeing on anything except standard conditions, Labor gave them the ability to restrict access to IFAs or further narrow the standard terms in enterprise agreements. This is unfair to workers who want to work innovatively or to suit their personal situation, such as leaving early to collect children from school, coaching a sports team, or other personal commitments.

A Coalition Government will ensure that enterprise agreements cannot restrict the use of IFAs. Because a Coalition Government will retain Labor’s own ‘Better Off Overall Test’ it will mean that any IFA will always lead to a worker being better off. A Coalition Government will not reintroduce AWA’s.

9. We will ensure workplace bullying is comprehensively addressed

The Coalition believes that bullying is unacceptable in any workplace. It is a risk to health and safety and can have very serious, life-long consequences.

Although bullying is an occupational health and safety matter, Labor has promised to amend the Fair Work laws to include bullying. The Coalition will support Labor’s proposed changes to address workplace bullying but only if it is clear that a worker has first sought help and impartial advice from an independent regulatory agency, and further, the changes are expanded to include the conduct of union officials towards workers and employers.

10. We will create realistic timeframes for Greenfield agreements

The Coalition will ensure that enterprise agreements for new projects (called ‘Greenfield agreements’) can be negotiated quickly to ensure that infrastructure projects are not delayed and to encourage investment for everyone’s benefit.

Greenfield agreements apply only to new projects where there are no existing workers employed. A Greenfield agreement will form the basis of employment conditions when the project is ready to start providing jobs.

Under Labor, the Fair Work laws effectively give unions the power of veto over new projects by requiring an employer to always negotiate a Greenfield agreement with a union. Some unions have exploited this veto power by deliberately causing delays and setbacks, while others have used it as a tool to demand exorbitant conditions.

A Coalition Government will fix this problem by requiring negotiations for new project agreements to be completed within three months of them starting. If they are not completed in this time, the Fair Work Commission will be given powers to make and approve the agreement, so long as the proposed agreement provides fair working conditions that are consistent with prevailing industry standards.

We will retain Labor’s own “Better Off Overall Test” to ensure that workers will be better off when they are employed.

11. We will give underpaid workers a better deal

The Coalition will ensure that workers who are underpaid receive interest on back pay held for them by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Currently, this is kept by the government.

The Coalition believes that this is unfair and if elected, we will ensure that any interest accrued on workers’ money is given to the workers – not kept by the government.

12. We will promote harmonious, sensible and productive enterprise bargaining

The Coalition will ensure that negotiations for enterprise agreements are harmonious, sensible and productive. Enterprise bargaining is an important part of the Fair Work laws however Labor’s provisions have resulted in some outcomes that simply fail the common sense test.

For example, they allow protected industrial action to be taken before genuine and meaningful talks have taken place, and in support of claims that are fanciful and unrealistic – such as a $100,000 per year pay rise. Despite Labor claiming that productivity was a ‘cornerstone’ of the Fair Work laws, they contain no method to encourage workers and business to consider productivity when making an enterprise agreement.

To solve these problems a Coalition Government will ensure that protected industrial action can only happen if the Fair Work Commission is satisfied that there have been genuine and meaningful talks between workers and business at the workplace; and that the claims made by both parties are sensible and realistic. When it is asked to approve an enterprise agreement, the Fair Work Commission will need to be satisfied that the parties have considered and discussed ways to improve productivity.

We believe that Labor’s ‘strike first, talk later’ approach is wrong. Labor promised this wouldn’t happen – another broken promise. Protected industrial action in support of a claim for an enterprise agreement should always be considered a last resort option when talks break down – not the first step in bargaining as Labor has allowed.

13. We will urgently review the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal

A Coalition Government will urgently review the operation of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal and the need for a further level of regulation.

In recent years, there have been many developments to address safety and remuneration issues in this sector, including revised health and safety laws, the introduction of modern awards, the Fair Work Commission and the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. There is no evidence that a separate additional tribunal or a further level of regulation is necessary. Some have even suggested that the tribunal is “not about safety” and a Government commissioned review found that “being definitive around the causal link between rates and safety is difficult.”

Former transport union employees have spoken against the tribunal noting that there is “barely a specific case study where a death is involved to support [the link between rates of pay] and safety.”

A Coalition Government will urgently review the role of this tribunal. Other protections, like National Heavy Vehicle Regulator will stay.

14. We will adopt some recommendations from the Fair Work Review Panel report

Despite being handed the report almost one year ago, Labor has ignored many of the common sense recommendations made by the panel that reviewed the Fair Work laws. The Coalition supports many of the remaining recommendations and we will seek to implement them in consultation with workers and business.