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Federal IR laws – employers want more restriction on unions

18 August 2011
Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary

Unlike the union movement the employer associations have a large number of media commentators promoting their cause.

Some of these commentators are very conservative and will take any opportunity to bash unions and give employers a leg up. With the minority ALP Gillard government doing it tough on a number of fronts there is a concerted push to insist on more pro-employer changes to the Fair Work Act.

Sections of the union movement also argue from time to time, for amendments that will allow the unions to be able to represent their members and potential members freely, without the WorkChoices type restrictions embedded in the current Act to continue to impact.

The employers want those restrictions increased.

Now some commentators are arguing that because western economies are wobbly and globalisation could be undermined, then the limited industrial workplace rights of workers need to be curtailed even further.

A central IR Act is described as “outdated industrial practice” and relief for employers is necessary, they say.

Such commentators also argue that there is “only one source” of higher pay for workers and that is ‘higher productivity’.

But workers well know that during the spread of globalisation over the last 20 years when companies were making big profits, their employer didn’t volunteer higher incomes out of the goodness of their hearts. Campaigns for better wages and conditions and job security still had to be pursued.

Now that the global capitalist system is in trouble, the rights of workers, especially their jobs, are being targeted more than usual.

While this general pressure is on, the employers are also challenging a handful of small gains some unions have made in the difficult legal terrain created by the Fair Work Act.

Employers have kicked off the first of three appeals against legal decisions they allege tilt the Fair Work laws in favour of unions.

The Australian Industry Group has begun arguing that a precedent – setting workplace agreement covering thousands of Victorian electricians should be ruled invalid under the Fair Work Act and under competition law.

Ai Group is appealing against a specific decision by a senior member of Fair Work Australia to approve an agreement covering ADJ Contracting, which is expected to be accepted by hundreds of other employers, if it is approved.

The employer association is objecting to clauses that place restrictions on employers engaging contractors, which broaden entry rights for union officials and requires employers to encourage workers to take up union membership. The appeal is being contested by the Electrical Trades union.

This case is being argued in parallel with an appeal by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union against a different FWA member refusing to approve a workplace agreement that allowed broader union right of entry!

In other pending appeals, the Australian Mines and Metals Association is seeking to overturn an FWA full bench decision in the so – called JJ Richards case. This allowed a union to take industrial action after the employer refused to bargain and before majority workplace support for the action had been tested.

The Victorian government is also supporting a High Court challenge by an employer which is seeking to overturn a Federal Court ruling that strengthens the rights of employees who engaged in union activity at work.  The so-called Barclay decision set a precedent on new provisions in Labor’s Fair Work laws.

As can be seen the essence of these employer challenges is to restrict workers rights to organise, a key tenet of the ILO conventions that the Australian government is a signatory to.