IR rivals invited to productivity pow-wow

New Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has called a high-level meeting of national employers and union leaders

Amanda Rishworth wants more open dialogue between employers and unions. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

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Labor will bring union and corporate leaders to the table to kickstart its productivity agenda and seek a truce after three years of combat, as a major business group concedes it has lost the fight against Anthony Albanese’s contentious first-term industrial relations agenda.

In an interview with The Australian, new Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth ­revealed she would convene a high-level meeting of national employers and union leaders next Tuesday to encourage “open dialogue” between the government, business and organised labour on industrial relations, especially Labor’s ambition to spread enterprise bargaining.

Ms Rishworth will chair the meeting in Melbourne of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council whose members include ACTU secretary Sally McManus, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes ­Willox, Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn, union leaders and representatives of employer groups including the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“I think we all need to be working on the productivity agenda,” Ms Rishworth said.

“I think we all have a role to play, but, for me, when it comes to workplace relations. I see the real opportunity is about more cooperative workplaces and resolving disputes more quickly and that involves having everyone at the table.

“When I talk about cooperative workplaces, I need to be really clear that is not just a one-way street. It is about employers and also employees having a stake in the outcomes, being partners.”

Signalling a strategic retreat by employers in their aggressive criticism of Labor’s workplace relations policies, ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar said the post-election environment presented “an opportunity for a bit of a refresh and a reset” in the relationship between employer groups and the government. “The issues where there were battlelines drawn in the last parliament, those are over,” he said.

Asked if business would move on from campaigning against the workplace relations legislation passed in Labor’s first term, Mr McKellar said: “Well, the law is the law. What was passed as legislation in the last parliament, the reality is it is there. Business is working to comply with it.”

On the government’s second-term IR agenda, Ms Rishworth said implementing election commitments including legislation to protect penalty rates in awards and scrapping non-compete clauses for low and middle-­income earners were top priorities. In relation to the government’s position on a number of Fair Work proceedings, including a union push for her to intervene in its bid to scrap junior rates for adult workers, Ms Rishworth stressed she was in her “early days” as minister and her initial focus was on election commitments. Asked about the government’s position on contributing to the funding of significant pay rises for low-paid workers as recently determined by the commission, she noted it was a provisional decision.

Asked about the threat by Transport Workers Union leader Michael Kaine to shut down the nation’s transport in support of the union’s campaign for higher pay and conditions, Ms Rishworth noted it was also “early days” in the bargaining process.

“I want to see deals struck through enterprise bargaining between employers and employees, and I want to see, quite frankly, people getting outcomes, and wages going up, and better conditions for workers, and more cooperative workplaces delivering productive gains through enterprise bargaining,” she said. “We have seen industrial action down under our government. We have seen enterprise bargaining up under our government and we have seen wage increases under our government so that is the type of outcome I’m really focused on.”