Business ‘forced to pay for next union leaders’, BCA warns

The BCA says new IR laws will give unions unprecedented access to worksites and force employers to pay for staff to attend union training courses

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black. Picture: Britta Campion

The Business Council of Australia is warning that the government’s new workplace laws could force businesses to pay for the next generation of union officials, cost some employers millions and allow union delegates greater ­access to worksites.

The peak business body warned the passage of industrial relations laws last week could require employers to give uncapped paid leave to staff to attend union training courses at the request of union delegates. It said this would harm productivity.

The BCA also said the new laws did not require employees to provide proof of attendance at the training courses or the content of the training. “These extraordinary union powers will take a sledgehammer to business productivity,” BCA chief executive Bran Black said. “Business should be focused on being competitive not paying union delegates for union training. These changes will have a chilling effect on business confidence and they fly in the face of the government’s competitive agenda.”

Under the new laws, a workplace’s union delegate is now entitled to “reasonable access” to the workplace during normal working hours “for the purposes of related training.”

A union delegate will also be entitled to reasonable communication with other union members or “persons eligible to be such members” at the workplace.

The legislation also says an employer must not “unreasonably fail or refuse to deal with the workplace delegate” or “knowingly make a false or misleading representation” to the delegate.

The burden of proving the conduct of the employer is not unreasonable lies on the employer – an issue of deep concern to the BCA. The intervention sparked a fierce response from Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke, who said the changes were about “improving standards and ending underpayments”.