Bosses accuse ACTU of taking ’sledgehammer to the economy’

Employers call on the government to rule out legislating to scrap junior rates if Labor is re-elected.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black says implementing the ACTU’s proposed changes would ’take a sledgehammer to the economy’. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

Further industrial relations changes proposed by the ACTU would take a “sledgehammer to the economy”, big business says, as employers call on the Albanese government to rule out legislating to scrap junior rates if the party is re-elected.

In an interview with The Australian outlining the union movement’s priorities for a second-term Labor government, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said ­unions would press for legislation to scrap junior pay rates for more than 500,000 adult-aged workers if they failed to convince the Fair Work Commission to abolish them.

Ms McManus said ­unions would push for the abolition of non-compete clauses; the expansion of the gig worker minimum standards to freelancers; and the expansion of the National Employment Standards to insert 10 days’ reproductive leave.

She said unions also supported a watering down of the employer capacity to lock out workers during industrial disputes and, in the long term, backed a review of the casual loading rate once new casual employment changes had been bedded down.

The government on Tuesday announced that IR academics Mark Bray and Alison Preston had been appointed to review the Secure Jobs Better Pay legislation to assess whether the laws had been “appropriate and effective” and to identify any unintended consequences.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said implementing the ACTU”s proposed changes would “take a sledgehammer to the economy by adding cost and complexity for businesses at the worst possible time, while not improving productivity”.

“Businesses are still coming to terms with the significant IR policies already passed through the parliament – the latest of which only came into effect at the end of August – and any further changes, without linking them to productivity will cause economic damage and lift inflation,” Mr Black said

“The government should rule out these changes and focus on generating economic growth and addressing our historically low productivity because without that all Australians will pay more through higher and longer inflation.”

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said granting the ACTU push would “unleash a third wave of industrial relations changes that would smash businesses already struggling under the weight of new workplace complexity and inflationary pressures”.

He said it was obvious that Labor’s recent employee-like changes were only a stalking horse for the imposition of minimum standards orders on all independent contractors.

“Make no mistake, where the ACTU references ‘freelancers’, in reality it is talking about all independent contractors,” he said.

He said watering down employers’ rights during industrial disputes would mean workplaces could be “more vulnerable to sabotage”, while claims that non-compete clauses constrain employees were overblown and ignored the facts.

On junior rates, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said it would be ridiculous for the government to entertain calls to override an outcome that unions did not like. “Scurrying to the government beseeching them to implement their productivity-killing agenda is nothing new for the union movement,” he said. “The ACTU’s latest demand runs true to form – if they don’t get what they want, the government has to do their bidding.”

Mr Willox said the ACTU call also reflected a “sadly naive misunderstanding” of the important role that junior rates played in helping incentivise employers to give young people a start in the workforce.

“The latest demand betrays a flagrant disregard for the impact of lost opportunities for young Australians trying to get their foot on the employment ladder,” he said.