Labor’s IR breakthrough leaves defeated bosses fuming

Leader of the House Tony Burke during Question Time at Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Tony Burke’s industrial relations deal with the Senate crossbench represents a significant policy and political victory for Labor.

It is also a win for David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie who have achieved their objective of getting the government to split the Closing Loopholes Bill and legislate important but less contentious measures before Christmas.

The biggest losers are the opposition and the conga line of business groups who have failed in their high-profile and costly campaign to kill off the labour hire changes.

Millions of dollars have been spent by employers on behalf of companies including BHP and Qantas to try to bury the so-called same job same pay provisions.

Burke’s breakthrough represents a spectacular defeat for these business groups, notably the Minerals Council of Australia and the Business Council.

Without doubt, the crossbench backing for the labour hire changes is the most notable aspect of the surprising deal unveiled on Thursday.

Until recently, the government, at least publicly, had steadfastly refused their calls to split the bill.

Behind the scenes, Burke kept talking to the crossbench.

Unlike the casual employment and gig economy changes, which will not be determined until February, Pocock and Lambie accepted that action had to be taken now to stop big companies exploiting the labour hire loopholes.

By agreeing to the labour hire changes and, to a lesser but important extent, the wage theft provisions, the crossbench delivered critical wins to Burke that meant he could meet their calls to split the bill and pass a raft of other measures now.

It should be an overdue lesson to the corporate sector about the realities of the numbers in the parliament, especially the Senate.

In short, pragmatism beats bulldozing.

The under-resourced and time poor crossbench was unimpressed by the employers’ uncompromising tactics.

They desired a path forward that saw give and take on both sides rather than an all or nothing stand.

Like the government, the crossbench preferred the approach of the Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association which recognised the labour hire changes were more than likely to be legislated and negotiated important amendments on behalf of their members.

Ditto the Australian Hotels Association which knuckled down and negotiated changes to the casual provisions increasing their prospect of being passed early next year.

Sources said the crossbench was close to an agreement on the gig economy changes. There has also been substantial progress on negotiations between the government and the Greens to give workers a legislated right to ignore phone calls and emails from their bosses after hours.

Employer groups on Thursday were talking about maintaining the rage and keeping up their campaign.

But after several challenging weeks for the government, the agreement on workplace relations is undoubtedly welcome news for Labor MPs as federal parliament rises for the year.