Brutish Setka sends a clear message on union power

The thuggish and threatening stance taken by CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka against the AFL is another reminder of how union power is on the rise under Labor, with expensive consequences for the economy and households. Mr Setka has demanded the AFL terminate its relationship with former building watchdog Stephen McBurney, who is head of umpiring with an impressive history of overseeing 401 games, including four AFL grand finals.

Mr Setka personifies the brutish tactics that have wreaked havoc on building sites and resulted in Mr McBurney as Australian Building and Construction Commission commissioner initiating legal action that resulted in millions of dollars of penalties against the CFMEU. With Labor back in power, the union is bent on revenge, threatening to target AFL projects with work to rule and other go-slow measures. “This is going to cost the AFL a lot of f..king money. I hope it’s worth it,” Mr Setka said. “Projects without our full co-operation are going to be a f..king misery for them. They will regret the day they ever employed him.”

Colourful and distasteful, Mr Setka managed to galvanise the federal opposition, AFL and employer groups in support of Mr McBurney. Anthony Albanese was forced to distance himself from the issue, saying he ejected Mr Setka from the ALP as one of his first acts as ALP leader. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke did not comment.

The issue extends beyond the unsavoury behaviour of Mr Setka. With the ALP back in power an emboldened trade union movement is starting to tighten its grip on the workplace and economy. Mr Burke has delivered reforms that restore industry-wide bargaining, tighten the definition of casual employees and remove flexibility in the workplace and the gig economy, including making it illegal for employers to contact workers out of hours. The ACTU is gearing up for phase three, which includes a campaign for less work for the same pay and more rostered days off. Other ACTU demands include universal access to 10 days’ paid reproductive and preventive health leave including employer-funded time off work for prostate and breast cancer screening, IVF treatment, post-vasectomy recovery, and menopause, breastfeeding and menstruation issues. At the same time, trade unions are moving to reassert their influence at the heart of the resource economy with legal action against BHP that seeks to lift the pay of labour hire workers by between $10,000 and $40,000 a year. The move is a bold attempt to restrict the use of labour hire workers throughout the coalmining and broader resources industry.

The push for higher wages and less flexibility in the workplace coincides with a sharp deterioration in the economy. The number of jobs being advertised by business has plunged nearly 20 per cent in the past year, with the number of applications per job on the rise. The slowdown will assist the Reserve Bank of Australia in its fight against inflation, but the longer-term problem remains what it all means for productivity. A big concern is that three-quarters of new jobs are in the government-funded public sector. A public-sector-heavy workforce tapped into unrestrained spending by state governments and protected by unreasonable workplace laws is a recipe for trouble. The foul-mouthed revenge agenda being pursued by Mr Setka is worrying but highly visible. It is what is going on out of sight in struggling workplaces and union offices that poses the greatest threat to national economic wellbeing.