Qantas boss warns on multi-employer wage deals

Alan Joyce says the idea of industry-wide bargaining was ‘something Australia left behind a long time ago’.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil with Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce in Canberra this week. Picture: Gary Ramage

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has become the first high-profile corporate leader to raise concerns about the Albanese government’s move to allow multi-employer wage deals.

In pointed comments after the Jobs Summit in Canberra, Mr Joyce said the “idea of industry-wide bargaining is something Australia left behind a long time ago and there were good reasons why”.

“In trying to solve one set of problems we need to be careful to avoid creating new ones,” Mr Joyce, who has repeatedly clashed with airline unions, said.

“What you don’t want is the pendulum swinging too far in either direction on industrial relations because the economy relies on getting the balance right.”

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke earlier this week said the government would move on changes to the industrial relations system after the Business Council and the Australian Council of Trade Unions backed a detailed statement of agreed principles.

“Both the BCA and the ACTU believe the bargaining system under the Fair Work Act needs to be reformed so it is simpler, fairer, and more accessible,” it read. “Whilst the BCA acknowledges that the ACTU believes there is the need for new multi-employer bargaining options, the BCA is not convinced this solution is the answer to the current problems.”

The government has yet to provide a detailed proposal on industry-wide bargaining.

Other employer organisations were are concerned that the BCA – where Mr Joyce is a director – had left the door open to multi-employer bargaining.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox on Thursday said multi-employer bargaining could lead to “disruptive and costly industrial action”.

“A clear red line for industry is the potential for unions to engage in industrial action in pursuit of multi-party bargaining claims,” he said.

But the ACTU reached a deal earlier in the week with the Council of Small Business Organisations to allow multi-employer bargaining, which will unions to strike deals for workers across a number of employers in the same sector.