Qantas fears return to union anarchy

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has warned a push by unions could cripple thousands of small suppliers to the airline.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has warned that a push by the union movement to reintroduce industry-wide bargaining could cripple thousands of small suppliers to the airline and take the ­nation’s industrial relations system back to the chaos of the 1970s, threatening jobs and national prosperity.

As Labor considers giving ­unions and workers the right to strike in support of pay claims covering multiple employers, Mr Joyce said any move to reintroduce industry-wide or pattern bargaining would wreak havoc with the airline’s supply chain, and the wider economy.

“Industry-wide bargaining will mean that people who need to change their business to survive will not be able to survive if the highest common denominator wins. That is terrible for employment, terrible for ­efficiency,” he told The Australian.

“We have 13,000 small suppliers around the country. We buy $7 billion worth of Australian produce. If those suppliers lose their ability to make money and be ­efficient, that is bad for us, it is bad for the economy and it is bad for Australia.”

The airline chief, who successfully took on the union movement in 2011 by grounding the entire Qantas fleet, was backed heavily yesterday by the nation’s three major employer groups, which warned of industrial upheaval if the union push was realised.

Bill Shorten has left the door open to changes that would allow industry-wide pay claims, but it is understood Labor is also considering greater powers to allow the workplace umpire to suspend and cease industrial action against multiple employers.

Labor workplace spokesman Brendan O’Connor said the opposition was “looking at multi-­employer bargaining”, but he suggested the right would not be universal. “My priority and my focus is on those who are not getting a fair share. And I have to say that tends to be those people who are not receiving high wages or very good conditions of employment,” Mr O’Connor said.

He said it was “hysterical” to suggest that some form of multi-employer bargaining would damage the economy or lead to an increase in industrial disputes. “There is not a high instance of ­industrial action for countries with multi-employer, sector or ­industry bargaining,” he said.

Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said any reintroduction of pattern bargaining would be a disaster for Australian prosperity, opening the way for job-destroying, industry-wide strikes. “Small businesses would be crippled as militant unions pursue sector-wide claims targeting hundreds of family enterprises at a time,” she said.

“Bill Shorten must stand up to the demands of his union masters and rule out industry-wide strikes ever becoming Labor policy.”

The ACTU, which is leading the campaign to revive industry-wide bargaining in response to static wage levels, accused Qantas of using the enterprise bargaining system to crush the ability of workers to achieve fair pay rises.

“Mr Joyce and other large employers have been squeezing working people for ­decades and the reason they are opposing sector bargaining is they are worried workers will finally have the power they need to fight to negotiate fair pay rises,” ACTU president ­Michelle O’Neil said. “This is a man who locked out workers and grounded thousands of travellers because he didn’t get his own way.

“He showed no concern for small suppliers or the families of workers and customers affected. Clearly he is desperate to protect a bargaining system where all the power rests with big business.”

Mr Joyce, who last week opened the airline’s new business and Qantas club lounges in Melbourne, said every company and every union should have the same interest: to improve the economic activity in Australia.

“The Hawke era saw great reform and enterprise bargaining that made a huge difference to this country. What we are worried about as a business community is some of the ideas that are on the table,” he said.

“It takes us back to the 1970s before those reforms that (Bob) Hawke bought in, which we think, and everyone thinks, were great.’’

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott warned that the ACTU plan would send workplace relations “back into the dark ages”, empowering big unions at the expense of workers. She urged the union movement to return to the role it played during the era of the Hawke Labor government in the 80s where it worked with the commonwealth to “open up Australia”.

The Australian Industry Group attacked the proposal as a “throwback” to a time when Australia was protected behind tariff walls, saying it would undermine busi­ness competitiveness and ­inno­vation in an era of global competition.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said small and medium-sized firms, with high overheads and lean inventories, would find it almost impossible to ride out industry-wide disputes. “Many SMEs will need to keep paying their non-striking employees who don’t join unions and don’t want to stop work,” ACCI workplace relations director Scott Barklamb said.

Industry-wide bargaining will be a key focus of the industrial relations policy debate at the ALP national conference next month.

Mr Joyce said it was up to corporate Australia to make the case to the government — whichever side of politics it belonged to — of the benefits for workers and productivity from enterprise bargaining. “We are in dialogue — the BCA is, all companies are. It is up to us to make the case and to show that we are speaking in the best interests of the economy, in the best interests of our employees.

“There are a lot of sensible ­people on both sides of politics and I hope that sense prevails.”

Qantas famously confronted the union movement in October 2011 when it grounded its entire fleet in response to a union industrial campaign. It was a decision backed by the company’s now former chairman Leigh Clifford.

Last month, Mr Clifford called on Mr Shorten to reveal his position on the return to collective bargaining proposals by the ACTU: “Someone’s got to ask him what he does (plan to) do so that we understand if, when we go to an election, what the alternative government’s view on this is. I think he’s been aggressively silent.”