Employer fury at Burke’s IR deal with crossbench

Unions hail the surprise pre-Christmas agreement, as bosses accuse Labor of declaring war on employers.

Tony Burke has struck a deal with Senate crossbenchers to pass key components of the government’s industrial relations bill. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labour hire changes, new rights for union delegates and the criminalisation of wage theft have been legislated following a surprise deal between the government and the Senate crossbench that was hailed by unions but condemned by furious employers, who threatened to ramp up their multimillion-dollar campaign opposing Labor’s agenda.

Mining giant BHP, which along with Qantas is a chief target of the “same job, same pay” laws for labour hire workers, joined in business attacks on the changes, saying they would add to the cost-of-living crisis, “drive up costs and do nothing to address Australia’s productivity problem”.

The Minerals Council of Australia, which spent up to $24m in a failed bid to defeat the changes, accused Labor of declaring war on the mining sector and vowed to keep campaigning against the government. “This is not about industrial relations, this is about an Albanese government attack on business – they don’t care about business,” MCA chief executive Tania Constable said.

Ten business groups, in a joint statement, accused the government of “shattering business confidence and investment at a time of economic uncertainty”, saying the “radical labour hire changes and vast union powers” would result in job losses and higher costs for consumers.

Anthony Albanese said the new laws, which passed parliament late on Thursday afternoon, represented common sense, decency and fairness.

He accused the Coalition of opposing the changes because it did not like workers getting properly paid or “getting a fair go”.

Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said the deal, which includes support for industrial manslaughter and less contentious changes backed by the crossbench, to split the bill would close “loopholes that certain employers use to undercut wages, conditions and safety for workers”.

“In short, people are being underpaid by the labour hire loophole, that the small minority of employers think it’s OK to steal from a worker, those days are over,” he said.

Proposed casual employment changes and new gig economy provisions are not part of the agreement and will be dealt with next February after a Senate inquiry reports.

Welcoming the agreement as an early Christmas present for millions of workers, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the “companies that will be crying loudest about these changes are some of Australia’s biggest and most profitable”.

“Mining companies such as Gina Rinehart’s or Qantas, whose CEOs are receiving huge bonuses, they don’t feel the hardships many Australians are feeling right now,” she said. “They can well afford these changes, but they fought against them as they don’t want to see their mega-profits take the smallest of hits. A small hit for them, a massive difference for working Australians.”

Independent senator David Pocock said BHP and Qantas had engaged in labour hire practices that had “ripped off workers for far too long now”.

“This needs to stop,” he said. “Australians do not want the ­people who serve them on planes, who will be there to help keep them safe in an emergency, to be employed by 12 different companies and to be constantly undercut. This is clearly a loophole that needs to be closed.

“There are clearly legitimate uses of labour hire but we know that some employers are using it to pay workers less, and this will stop with this legislation.”

Directing her comments at Coalition senators, the Jacqui Lambie Network leader said closing the labour hire loopholes would result in major companies losing a small portion of the big profits they had made by exploiting the laws.

“So you are going to lose a little bit more of your profit,” Senator Lambie said. “I tell you what, it would not even be a sneeze in a hanky, you won’t even notice it.”

“Quite frankly, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Merry Christmas to you.”

Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association chief executive Steve Knott said the deal showed the importance of the AREEA negotiating important amendments to exclude service contractors from the labour hire changes. “The political reality was that the government had multiple pathways to legislate its longstanding policy,” he said.

“Without AREEA … negotiating these amendments with the government, service providers not just in the resources and energy sector but across the economy would have been in the crosshairs.”

BHP Australia president Geraldine Slattery said the new laws would make “Australia an even more expensive and less competitive place to do business, making it harder to attract the global capital needed to develop vital new resources projects and the highly paid mining jobs which come with them.

“Alongside employers and businesses from sectors right across the Australian economy, BHP will remain steadfast in our opposition to this retrograde and damaging policy, and will continue to urge the parliament to repeal same job, same pay,” she said.

Qantas declined to comment.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the new laws would destroy incentives for businesses to create jobs, add layers of complexity for employers and lead to lower wages for workers..

Mr McKellar denied a $24m unsuccessful campaign against the labour hire changes was a waste of money, arguing that the spend “pales into insignificance” when compared to the broader economic impact of the laws.

The Coalition said the government’s “dirty deal” with the Senate crossbench was a “devastating day for Australian businesses”.