Minerals Council of Australia sounds the alarm on rights for union delegates

The peak mining lobby has warned against changes handing union delegates ‘the right to spend as much of their time at work engaging in union activities as they please’.

Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The Minerals Council of Australia has sounded the alarm against changes it says will increase business costs and harm productivity by granting union delegates “the right to spend as much of their time at work engaging in union activities as they please” while still being paid.

The MCA has taken aim at a proposal before the industrial umpire put by the Mining and Energy Union, which calls for union delegates to be freed from “normal duties for the purpose of the workplace delegate participating in bona fide union business”.

The MEU submission says union business should include preparing for, travelling to, attending and participating in collective bargaining meetings, resolving workplace disputes, court or tribunal proceedings, or political lobbying relating to members or potential members of registered organisations.

Under the MEU proposal, union delegates would also be granted access to a particular shift or roster “to facilitate the exercise of their right to represent during work time”.

The proposals have been suggested to the Fair Work Commission, which is taking submissions on how best to vary all modern awards to include a “delegates’ rights term” by July 1. The process is a consequence of the passage of the government’s closing loopholes legislation.

The legislation requires all modern awards, enterprise agreements and workplace determinations to include a “delegates’ rights term” from the middle year of the year. Where an enterprise agreement has a less favourable delegates’ rights term than a relevant award, the award will take precedence.

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

Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox told The Australian delegates’ rights terms would be used as a “weapon of intimidation in many sectors of the economy at a time of increasing business closures, real economic volatility and enormous stress for many employers”.

Writing in The Australian, MCA chief executive Tania Constable warned the union proposal would create a “two-tiered class system among Australian workers – those who work for the business and those who work for the union but get paid by the business to do so”.

“This is an absurd overreach of union power,” she said. “Before the Albanese government rushed its IR legislation through the parliament, the business community warned of some of the perverse outcomes of such rash changes.

“But this alarming push from the unions is beyond even the worst expectations. It is a green light for the unions to disrupt and control every workplace across the country. The consequences of such unprecedented union powers are clear: businesses will be less productive and more costly to run, with Australian households hit with higher cost of living.”

But MEU general president Tony Maher rejected the claims and accused the mining lobby of acting like “Chicken Little on steroids at every proposal that would improve the position of workers in their highly profitable businesses”.

MEU general president Tony Maher.

“Their hysterical claims don’t reflect the reality of proposals to embed delegates’ rights in awards,” Mr Maher said.

“Being a union delegate is difficult work conducted by volunteers.”

Mr Maher said delegates’ rights had been eroded over decades and in those pockets of the workforce were they were enshrined in enterprise agreements they worked well to the benefit of workers and employers.

Mr Maher denied the MEU proposal would mean employers would need to pay for the hours, including loadings and overtime, for union delegates to attend union or branch meetings on weekends.

He also argued that “productivity and workplace harmony” would improve as a result of workers’ issues being addressed “by a skilled delegate in a timely manner”.

“We are looking forward to these rights being embedded in industry awards, including the right to communicate with workers, participate in training and be given the time they need during normal work hours to conduct legitimate work representing workers,” he said. “We urge the MCA to engage with the consultation process around delegates’ rights in a constructive way, rather than pretending once again that the sky will fall in.”