Low paid bargaining’ laws haven’t delivered: Greens wages push

The Greens want to change Labor’s wage bargaining laws, saying industry-wide bargaining should be available to all.

Greens Federal Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt. Picture: Penny Stephens/AAP

The Greens will push a federal Labor Government to legislate for across-the board industry wide bargaining, expressing concern the ALP in office will deny the right to workers in some industries.

Greens MP Adam Bandt said the minor party would seek to change Labor’s workplace laws if Bill Shorten won the election and the Greens held the balance of power in the Senate.

In a speech today, Mr Bandt said the Greens would try to amend Labor’s laws to ensure “workers in all sectors can collectively choose the level they want to bargain at, whether (it is) the workplace, industry or some other level”.

“The Fair Work Act makes it nigh on impossible to get a level playing field applying to the same kind of work across different workplaces,’’ he said. “And the current ‘low paid bargaining’ laws just haven’t delivered.”

Labor’s workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor has said the ALP is examining support for multi-employer bargaining but the party’s focus would be on modestly-paid workers in areas such as childcare and cleaning.

Mr Bandt said he was concerned at suggestions Labor’s proposed laws “might only give some sectors of workers the right to bargain across their industry but then deny that to others”.

“Labour laws shouldn’t hold back one group of workers at the expense of others,’’ he said.

“And if workers succeed in getting a much-needed pay rise, they shouldn’t suddenly lose their rights to organise across their industry because they are no longer ‘low-paid’. Industry-wide bargaining should be available to everybody.”

Mr Bandt said workers should be able to bargain for a ‘hard floor’ across their industry so that employers could differentiate themselves on the quality of the service they provide, not on how cheaply they can engage their staff.

“We run the risk of 19th century work practices with twenty first century technology,’’ he said. “The foreman is still standing at the top of the dock pointing to people they like the look of, only this time they’ve got an iPad. Equality in Australia is at risk again and we must fight for it.”

He said analysts were suggesting that in many states the last Senate spot would come down to a choice between the Greens or hard-right anti-union parties.

“Without the Greens in the balance of power there is a risk that any new laws may not even pass the Senate,’’ he said.

“We do not want a repeat of the ‘Your Rights at Work’ campaign, where the union movement changed the government but still got stuck with many of the same laws after Labor kept much of Howard’s legislation.

“So we will fight tooth and nail to help kick out this rotten government, but if union members and others vote for us in the Senate, we will hold the next lot to account too.”