Malcolm Turnbull: big firms seek workplace overhaul

Some big companies are pushing the Productivity Commission to overhaul planks of its workplace relations blueprint.

10 May 2006 Qantas planes sitting on the tarmac at Sydney Airport. AFP PicGreg/Wood - industry aviation aircraft logo logos flying kangaroo on tail companies airlines

Some of Australia’s biggest companies are pushing the Productivity Commission to overhaul planks of its controversial workplace relations blueprint.

Companies including Qantas, Toll and major meat processor Teys Australia, as well as peak business groups, have written to the Productivity Commission ahead of its final report to the Turnbull government in November. In its draft report last month, the Productivity Commission found the system needed minor tweaks rather than replacement.

The draft also found that industrial action was at “low” levels, despite claims by employer groups that disputes had spiralled upwards in recent years.

But Toll says the figures “mask” an undercurrent where the potential for industrial action is enough for a company to compromise its negotiating position “beyond that which is otherwise reasonable”.

“Reported industrial action is only at low levels because employers, especially in highly competitive and unionised service sector industries, have very few weapons in their armoury to defend against industrial action,” Toll’s new submission says.

“In reality, disruption of supply to customers is not something that those customers will tolerate and major contracts can and are lost as a result. As a result concessions may be made in the face of the threat (or ever-present risk) of industrial action, even if no industrial action is taken.

“In relation to Toll, a day’s interruption to its transport supply chain could cost in excess of $10 million.”

While business was disappointed by the commission’s support for pattern bargaining agreements and the award system, the draft report also angered the unions by suggesting an overhaul of penalty rates and imposing a handbrake on the growth in minimum wage. A proposal for statutory “enterprise agreement” contracts covering groups of workers that would operate outside the award system was also met with suspicion by unions.

On penalty rates, the commission’s recommendation for one lower weekend penalty for retail and hospitality industries, while emergency and other frontline services would continue to attract premium rates on Sundays, was branded discriminatory by the ­labour movement. But underscoring business concerns, Qantas has declared that potential proposals flagged by the Productivity Commission are likely to inflame industrial tensions.

In its draft, the Productivity Commission found secret ballots are overly complex and flagged a simplification that could include removing requirements for protected action ballots to specify the types of actions being sought.

This “is likely to escalate rather than de-escalate the industrial tension” and “has the potential to complicate and prolong the bargaining process”, Qantas says in a new submission.

The comments come as public hearings have wrapped up and business continues to push for industrial relations reform, even as unions and Labor mount a political fight over penalty rates.

The Business Council of Australia says the Productivity Commission’s recommendations to repair awards and agreement making are “inadequate” to repair the system.

Arguing that awards are too broad, the Business Council has analysed 25 awards and found that many venture beyond a floor for wages and conditions.

It has also given the government’s chief micro-economic adviser an analysis of 20 enterprise agreements, finding that these extend “far beyond” the employment relationship into areas such as the use of technology.

The Master Builders Australia has proposed the construction industry should be considered “distinct” from other workplaces, arguing pattern bargaining and the modern award safety net should be abolished on worksites.