Small business is standing up for a better IR system

If Australia is to reverse the slump in productivity that is holding back growth, exacerbating inflation and reducing living standards, the sensible plan put forward by Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar is an essential first step. The ACCI is advocating a change in the legal definition of a small business employer from 15 to 25 employees. Doing so would exempt more businesses from the odious burden of red tape covering unfair dismissal and the right to disconnect (from August next year for small business). Under current laws, workers can lodge an unfair dismissal claim if they have been employed for at least six months. But small business employees have to be in a job for at least 12 months before making a claim.

The ACCI will press the Albanese government and the opposition for change, workplace editor Ewin Hannan reports. Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash says small businesses need to be freed up rather than stifled by red tape, and that industrial relations changes should seek to simplify compliance. She is correct on both fronts. The shadow minister added that the Coalition will announce its policies before the election. This cannot come soon enough because the employers of Australia need the Coalition to be braver on the issue than it has been both in opposition and also in government following the ACTU’s damaging campaign against the Howard government’s Work Choices laws in 2007. Since then we have urged business lobbies to take a lead in making the case for the benefits of workplace reform. This has become more urgent since the Albanese government began driving through heavy-handed changes to create a more centralised, regulated workplace system after the Jobs and Skills Summit in 2022.

The Business Council of Australia also is stepping up, calling for the opposition to go beyond its pledge to drop casual employment changes and new right-to-disconnect laws, and also scrap multi-employer bargaining and same job, same pay labour hire laws.

The problems need to be addressed as soon as possible. Last week, Australian Securities & Investments Commission data showed the number of business insolvencies hit a record high of 11,053 in 2023-24, with the worst quarterly figures of 3305 in the three months to June. And the trend has continued, with 3003 insolvencies in the September quarter. More than half of business owners reported being under financial stress, with almost a third unable to pay themselves and a quarter using personal savings to keep enterprises afloat.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus, predictably, is opposed to the ACCI’s argument. Up to a million workers, she told Hannan, would have unfair dismissal rights, wage theft protection and job security safeguards taken from them if the business lobby got its way. But wage theft, most people recognise, should always be against the law in all businesses, regardless of the business’s size.

No matter the election outcome, a second Albanese or a Dutton government needs to ensure that from next year, in the interests of the economy, workplace relations are less union-dominated and give businesses small, medium and large, and their staff, the flexibility to pursue individual workplace agreements. A watchdog also must be reinstated to ensure greater productivity in the construction sector, including the building of taxpayer-funded infrastructure.

The push by blue-collar union rebels to set up a rival to the ACTU, revealed on Saturday by Hannan, has the potential to worsen the political landscape as blue-collar workers threaten to bankroll the Greens and crossbenchers in protest against the government’s creditable stand against the militant CFMEU. Industry by industry, groups such as the ACCI and the BCA need to lead pre-election public debate, standing up for the ability of business to sustain jobs.