Communistic workplace laws: Seeley

One of Australia’s major manufactures has launched a scathing attack on the Albanese government’s industrial reforms warning the company would have to sack and rehire its casual workforce every three months to comply.

Airconditioning manufacturer Seeley international’s group managing director, Jon Seeley, at Lonsdale, South Australia. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

One of Australia’s major manufactures has launched a scathing attack on the Albanese government’s industrial reforms, warning the company would have to sack and rehire its casual workforce every three months to comply, dealing a “class war” death blow to productivity.

Claiming same job, same pay laws being drafted by Workplace Minister Tony Burke were “communistic”, the head of Seeley International, the largest airconditioner manufacturer in the country, says it had received advice that companies that hired seasonal and casual workforces would be forced to lay off staff or become unviable.

The government has yet to release its proposed draft laws, claiming it was still consulting. But it has flagged exemptions for labour hire, short-term and seasonal work to be defined as three months or less. Workers employed beyond that would need to be paid on a full-time basis.

Jon Seeley, managing director of Seeley International, said his company would be forced to sack its seasonal workforce after three months, and hire them again to be in compliance. He described the proposal from the government as “draconian” and a “fantasy of Chalmer-nomics”.

Jon Seeley, managing director of Seeley International, says the government’s planned workplace reforms will force him to sack workers. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“We are one of the last remaining Australian airconditioning manufacturers, with a strong seasonal element to our business,” Mr Seeley told The Australian.

“We hire as many permanent positions as we can keep busy throughout the year, but there is always a significant requirement for additional workers during the summer and winter peaks.

“We have many casual staff who find this arrangement suits them perfectly, coming back year after year to work hard for three or four months, earning good wages including their 25 per cent casual loading, then heading off to do other things for the rest of the year. The advice we are receiving is that the draconian industrial relations changes being rammed through will force us to offer these team members permanent roles, with no leave loading, then sack them three months later.

“Everyone will be worse off – workers, employers and the economy more broadly.

“The only upside I can see is that the Labor government will have delivered on its commitment to militant unions, forcing the perverse worldview of the minority on to the 90 per cent of private sector workers who choose not to be union members.”

Mr Burke attacked Mr Seeley’s claims as “wildly misinformed”.

“These claims are wildly misinformed and have nothing to do with anything the government has put forward. But I suspect they already know that,” he said.

“I’m relieved that none of the reputable business organisations involved in the consultations have made any claims as breathlessly stupid as that one.”

Mr Seeley accused the government of being locked into a fictional “class warfare” worldview that portrayed employers as exploiters of workers. “These massive changes … run a sword through reward for effort and experience.

“The result of this communistic view of the workplace is the death of productivity. What is the incentive to work hard when your peers, no matter their experience, age or work ethic, get paid the same? Like the physical laws of gravity, the basic laws of economics cannot simply be “magic-ed away” by the fantasy of “Chalmer-nomics.”

The government’s IR proposal has also been criticised by the Minerals Council of Australia, Business Council of Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australian Petroleum & Exploration Association, Master Builders Australia, National Farmers Federation, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia and the Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association.