AMWU lays out multi-employer bargaining plan

Companies across the paper manufacturing, printing and rail sectors could be the subject of multi-employer claims.

AMWU National Secretary Steve Murphy.

Companies across the paper manufacturing, printing and rail sectors could be the subject of multi-employer claims as the influential Australian Manufacturing Workers Union looks to use Labor’s new industrial relations laws to improve pay and conditions of members.

AMWU national secretary Steve Murphy said there would be precedents set as the multi-employer bargaining provisions came into operation, and unions needed to be strategic to ensure workers’ real wages did not keep going backwards due to inflation.

As builders warned against the CFMEU’s push to reinstate conditions once banned by the Coalition’s now abolished building code, Crown Resorts said 9000 workers in Melbourne and Perth had voted for a 12-month agreement that included a 5 per cent pay rise, increased personal leave entitlements and a new weekend hourly allowance.

Mr Murphy said the AMWU had been having discussions with airconditioning, heating and ventilation employers about striking one agreement covering all installers in NSW.

“We’ll agree what the terms and conditions are and those guys will come out with a really good outcome,” he said.

“We’ll have a look after the dust settles on that, learn from what was positive and what can be improved and then flow that on to parts of manufacturing where there is common interest.

“You look at the areas where it just makes sense. We have got paper manufacturers. That might be an area that we have a look at. It might be the printing industry, it might be rail. It might be fabrication and engineering workshops.

“Generally, a common interest is the skills that workers have or the trade that they have, and trying to get them so they are paid similar or same wages and conditions across their industry.”

Mr Murphy said “the idea that you can have a secure job for all of your working life at the same place just isn’t the case anymore”.

“The construction industry is a good example. As soon as the job finishes, workers move from one job to the next job and it might be a different employer which is why we want to have one agreement that covers the whole industry so when you change jobs and you go to the next one, it’s the same wages, the same conditions, you can plan for the future,” he said. “It just makes sense that you would do that in other areas as well.”

The Australian reported on Monday that the CFMEU would push for “significant” wage increases for construction workers and the reinstatement of clauses requiring employers to convert casuals to permanent employment, limit the use of labour hire and engage more apprentices.

In abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission, the Albanese government also scrapped the Coalition’s building code, which prevented employers from agreeing to insert different clauses into agreements if they wanted to remain eligible for commonwealth building work.

Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn said the construction industry had consistently been a leader in above award rate wage rises over the past decade. She said the building code did prevent builders from agreeing to “unproductive site practices in an industry with already low productivity levels”.

Mr Murphy said wage offers of 3.75 and 4 per cent were being put on the table relatively quickly.

“In manufacturing, particularly around the metals areas, bargaining is getting a little bit easier,” he said. “From the employers that we have been bargaining with, I think it is a recognition that they can afford a little bit more and we need to get wages moving. I think there’s also a kind of recognition that workers now are prepared, particularly if they are members of the AMWU, to take action if it’s required to get something.”

He highlighted the different positions taken by employers depending on the inflation rate, describing how in negotiations over improvements and profits, employers would stick to CPI when it was running at 2.5. “It’s interesting now that when you sit at the negotiating table, employers aren’t raising the CPI, they’re talking about everything else.”