ACTU calls for boost to Fair Work’s powers

Sally McManus wants Fair Work Commission to be given back power of compulsory arbitration.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus. Picture: Aaron Francis

ACTU secretary Sally McManus will call for the Fair Work Commission to be given stronger powers to redress underpayment of wages, compulsorily arbitrate disputes and require head contractors and franchisors to appear before the tribunal.

Declaring the commission an ineffective workplace umpire, Ms McManus will use a speech in Melbourne today to argue for changes to the workplace laws that deliver greater interventionist powers to the tribunal.

“The independent umpire has been weakened. It no longer has the ability to listen to workers and resolve workplace problems,’’ she says. “It’s lost its power to arbitrate. The minimum wage can’t rise to deal with poverty. Pay disputes go on and on. They can’t be resolved. Improvements in award conditions to deal with insecure work and domestic violence leave can’t be awarded.

“This is because the ability of the commission to arbitrate, to make decisions after listening to both sides, has been taken away.

Ms McManus says the threat of compulsory arbitration, which employers and the government oppose, was a key to resolving disputes informally and quickly.

“The commission should have broad powers to arbitrate. It should have strong powers to compel parties to attend conferences and hearings. Arbitration is the key as it focuses the mind. The law needs to have broad coverage so that the commission can deal with all aspects of a dispute,’’ she says.

“If there is a dispute over pay at one 7-Eleven store then the commission should be empowered to summons not just the store owner but the franchisor. If there is a dispute over entitlements on a building site, then where appropriate the commission should be able to make orders against not just the subcontractor but also the head builder.”

She says the commission should be empowered to make orders to ensure “victims of wage theft” were fully repaid more quickly than by expensive and drawn-out court processes.

The commission should have the power to make decisions based on what is “fair and reasonable” in a broad range of matters, including the minimum wage.

She says the commission would have awarded the ACTU’s claim for paid domestic violence leave if a “fair and reasonable” test had been applied. Despite finding a “compelling” case, she says the commission rejected the claim because paid domestic violence leave was not necessary to meet the modern awards objective under the Fair Work Act.

“I don’t want to re-run the case. I just want to point out that the claim was defeated not because it was without merit but because it didn’t fit within the constraints of a limited test about what should or shouldn’t be in awards,’’ she says.