Business goes to war on Labor’s IR laws

Business has launched a fresh attack on the Albanese government, labelling a suite of ‘radical’ workplace laws taking effect on Monday as a ‘hellishly complex minefield’ that will undermine productivity.

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

Business has launched a fresh attack on the Albanese government, labelling a suite of “radical” workplace laws taking effect on Monday as a “hellishly complex minefield” that will undermine productivity.

The Business Council of Australia, Minerals Council of Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Australian Industry Group condemned the impact of multi-employer bargaining, after the Fair Work Commission on Friday compelled three NSW coalmining companies to collectively negotiate workplace agreements with a union.

“What’s alarming about this decision is that it essentially says all of the businesses in any sector can be roped together and subject to the same determination because of these new laws,” BCA chief executive Bran Black said of the Friday decision, impacting Whitehaven Coal, Peabody Energy, and Ulan Coal Mines.

“Businesses should be on edge about this precedent, because it will slash productivity and undermine enterprise-level engagement between employees and employers.”

From Monday, employers will be bound by new laws that limit them from contacting workers outside normal work hours, clamp down on the use of independent contractors, provide an easier pathway for casual workers to become permanent, and empower the FWC to set minimum standards for gig economy employees.

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt said the reforms were part of Labor’s pre-election platform of “getting wages moving again”. He claimed wage growth was “running above inflation on an annual basis”, despite wages in the year to June being lower than prices growth.

“When we think about cost‑of‑living, we need to be thinking about how much people are paying for things, the tax cuts they’re receiving from our government, the energy bill relief they’re being provided with as well,” Senator Watt said on Sunday. “But what’s just as important is what they’re earning at work. Some of the changes we’ve already made have been assisting to lift people’s wages, make their jobs more secure, to enable them to deal with those cost-of-living pressures.”

Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said running a business would become “even harder with a new wave of confidence-sapping industrial laws rolling out across our workplaces, making employing people more difficult and achieving productivity growth even more elusive”. Writing in The Australian, Mr Willox warned the real consequences of the reforms would “only reveal themselves in the months and years ahead as unions weaponise them”.

“Nowhere in this mass of legislative change is a word on how our pathetic productivity performance will be improved. In fact, all of this is anti-productivity,” he writes.

“Without turning our productivity outcomes around, we condemn ourselves to falling living standards and risk perpetuating high inflation and an elevated cost of living.”

ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said the new laws would “crush productivity”.

“I think there’s also a significant risk that this could mean increases in input costs for some businesses, and of course in some cases that’s going to mean those costs will be passed on to consumers,” he said.

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the new laws were “designed to create confusion in workplaces across Australia”.

“The Coalition has promised to repeal the right-to-disconnect laws when in government,” Senator Cash said.

“Mr Albanese’s changes to casual employment are designed to destroy casual jobs … For small-business employers in particular, those employing casual workers can no longer rely on their employment contract to determine their employment status.”