State Opposition leader Colin Barnett has announced plans to reverse most of the Gallop Government’s industrial relations reforms to pave the way for more individual employment agreements.
State Opposition leader Colin Barnett has announced plans to reverse most of the Gallop Government’s industrial relations reforms to pave the way for more individual employment agreements.
Mr Barnett’s plans represent a return to policies first introduced by former industrial relations minister Graham Kierath in the Court government but with some important modifications, particularly to the ‘no disadvantage’ test.
Industrial relations is one policy area where the coalition and the Government have starkly different policies.
The Gallop Government abolished workplace agreements in 2002 and replaced them with employer-employee agreements.
However EEAs have been shunned by WA employers, with many choosing to transfer to Federal Australian Workplace Agreements, which offer more flexibility.
Only about 760 EEAs have been registered over the past two years, compared with 3,000 federal AWAs being registered for WA every month.
Mr Barnett said the Federal system could only be used by businesses that were incorporated and, as a result, many small businesses operating as sole traders or partnerships were excluded.
“Labor’s package of so-called reforms have handed control of workplaces to unions and have been a disaster for business – small business in particular – with big increases in the cost of employment forcing many to close on weekends and holidays and cut back on staff,” Mr Barnett said.
The coalition aims to introduce a revised system of individual agreements that can compete with AWAs.
It would use the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act as the point of comparison for the no-disadvantage test.
However, it would seek greater flexibility in the application of the no-disadvantage test by providing for a comparison between the proposed workplace agreement and the award as a whole, rather than comparing elements line by line.
The coalition would establish an independent body separate from the WA Industrial Relations Commission to register agreements.
It also proposes the introduction of non-union collective agreements so that workers can negotiate as a group without union involvement.
Newly appointed Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive John Langoulant welcomed the coalition policy announcement.
He said most employers had found the Gallop government’s EEAs to be unworkable.
“This means that, except for EEAs, businesses in WA have been locked into hard and fast award-based employment or else union deals, unless they move to the Federal IR system,” Mr Langoulant said.
He said he wanted the Coalition to tackle other industrial relations issues, including the rules governing union right-of-entry to workplaces and unfair dismissal claims.
The right-of-entry issue came to the fore last week when the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy union won a contentious court ruling.
The Federal Court ruled that union officials were able to exercise their right under State law to enter workplaces, even if all of the workers were covered by Federal AWAs.
Yet another issue causing concern in the business community is an application by Unions WA to extend redundancy payments to all workers in WA, including those employed by small business, which have traditionally been exempt from such payments.
