Workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, has hinted Labor may remove “red tape” that discourages multi-employer collective bargaining as part of industrial relations reforms designed to lift wages.
On Monday, Burke all but confirmed the Albanese government will drastically restrict employers’ ability to terminate pay deals early in a speech to the Australian Industry Group.
The comments about red tape suggest that although Labor has not agreed to union demands for industry-level bargaining, it may look to encourage broader collective bargaining beyond separate pay deals for each employer, as the rules generally require.
Burke is leading the workplace relations reform group of the government’s jobs and skills summit in early September. Increases to productivity and workers’ wages, languishing behind runaway inflation are at the top of the agenda.
In his speech, Burke said the government wants the “Fair Work Commission to facilitate bargaining and help parties make agreements”.
“We want bargaining to happen in good faith – and we particularly want to make sure the bargaining system works for small business and for women,” he said.
Asked how Labor aims to accomplish this, Burke told reporters in Canberra he is looking to slash “red tape”.
“Sometimes you can get a situation where the employer and the workers agree and the red tape in the system blows the whole thing up,” he said.
Burke nominated time periods for pay deal bargaining processes and a restriction on joint bargaining across different employersas examples.
“I’ve had [instances] where employers have to come and seek my personal permission as to whether they’re allowed to bargain together,” he said.
“Ultimately if an employer and their workforce agree, and the union agrees, and people are going forwards in their wages, then why would we want to stand in the way of that?”
The comments are an apparent reference to the section of the Fair Work Act that requires the minister to agree that employers may bargain together for a proposed pay deal. An alternative process allowing the commission to agree to multiple employers being covered by the same pay deal would be a step in the direction of pattern bargaining, in which unions make identical pay demands of employers in the same industry.
Labor’s 2021 platform promised to “improve access to collective bargaining, including where appropriate through multi-employer collective bargaining”, but it did not agree to unions’ demands for industry-level bargaining.
Earlier in August, Steven Amendola, a senior industrial relations practitioner told a seminar organised by his law firm Kingston Reid that the “only way” enterprise bargaining could lift wages is if it is “broad-based industry or sector bargaining”, suggesting Labor may be forced to revisit the idea.
Amendola cited deals struck in the construction sector, where the CFMEU negotiates for “pattern agreements”, that have “strong” terms and conditions for employees.
The head of workplace relations at Australian Industry Group, Stephen Smith, said it had fought “tooth and nail” against industry level bargaining and would do so again if Labor were “foolish” enough to attempt it.
Earlier, in the speech, Burke said he was “increasingly concerned about … the ability of employers to make cuts to workers’ pay and conditions by unilaterally terminating” workplace pay deals, which pushes employees back on to the award minimum.
Burke said the issue would be discussed at the summit but his “starting point” is “on face value, I cannot see how this tactic can possibly be justified”.
Burke said a “narrow exception” could be made for “exceptional business distress, where termination” could help workers’ keep their jobs.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions welcomed the pledge to end that practice, which secretary Sally McManus said should be done “as soon as possible”.
McManus confirmed the ACTU is in “discussions with government and employers” about multi-employer bargaining, but was not ready to declare its position.
McManus said it would propose a “comprehensive” package to get wages moving, including to raise the national minimum wage, award minimums and improve the better off overall test.
