Industry groups must heed lessons on Labor and IR

Business groups have every reason to be cautious as the Albanese government seeks to double down on its industrial relations agenda for its second term.

Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth is showing a co-operative face with her offer to bring unions and business together to discuss what she wants to be a shared agenda. Business groups are being understandably pragmatic given the size of the Labor majority. But they would be wise to remember the lessons of the Albanese government’s first term.

Business embraced the Jobs and Skills Summit that was one of Labor’s first initiatives but it turned out to be little more than a Trojan horse to deliver the spoils of electoral victory to the trade union movement. As we observed at the time, the get-together was a choreographed pantomime with a predetermined outcome. The gabfest was dominated by union representatives and was used by the government to divide employer groups to engineer a return to industry-wide bargaining. Business generally, and small business in particular, was blindsided by the way in which the government and ACTU were able to split off representative bodies to claim overall sector agreement.

This time around, Ms Rishworth will convene a high-level meeting of national employers and union leaders next Tuesday to encourage “open dialogue” between the government, business and organised labour on industrial relations, especially Labor’s ambition to spread enterprise bargaining.

Ms Rishworth will chair the meeting in Melbourne of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council, whose members include ACTU secretary Sally McManus, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes ­Willox, Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn, union leaders and representatives of employer groups including the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ms Rishworth foresees a productivity agenda that involves co-operative workplaces, with “employers and also employees having a stake in the outcomes, being partners”. ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar has said business believes it is time for a reset and “the issues that were the battle lines drawn in the last parliament, those are over”.

This is a dangerous position to take. The introduction of industry-wide bargaining, the re-unionisation of vital industries such as the Pilbara iron ore province, new imposts on casual employment and cumbersome work conditions are no less dangerous today than they were before the election was held. This is particularly so given that the acknowledged challenge is to lift workplace productivity.

When Ms Rishworth took the job of Workplace Minister she said new legislation to protect penalty rates in awards would be one of her first priorities. Others included a ban on the imposition of non-­compete clauses on low- and ­middle-income workers, and pushing the Fair Work Commission to grant above-inflation pay rises for 2.9 million low-paid workers. Ms Rishworth said Labor’s second-term IR agenda was to follow through on what it had promised during the election campaign However, this is unlikely to be the end of the story. Trade unions have a long list of expectations designed to reassert their much-diminished presence in the modern workplace. Enterprise agreement does not always mean the same thing to all participants.

Business groups must take a long view and work strategically. They must not repeat the mistakes of 2022 and allow themselves to be swamped early and then ambushed. The message from the government is for industry to stop criticising and to learn to get along. But appeasement is never a good strategy.