COSBOA joins business groups to exclude SMEs from multi-employer bargaining

The majority of Australia’s business associations including the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Council of Small Business Organisations, Australia have said the amendments to the new Industrial Relations Bill still do not go far enough and have called for further changes to be made especially around single and multi-party employer bargaining.

Following more consultations with major stakeholders last week the Government has drafted a number of amendments including:

• Requiring majority support from employees of each employer for a single interest bargaining stream authorisation;
• Provide that businesses and workers cannot be compelled into an authorisation or single interest employer agreement when they have agreed to bargain for a proposed single enterprise agreement, and a 6 month grace period where there is a history of effective bargaining;
• Making further changes to the Better Off Overall Test to ensure new employees under an agreement are not left worse off;
• Clarifying that the Fair Work Commission must be satisfied a minimum period of good-faith bargaining has occurred before moving to arbitrate;
• Establish the Government’s promised new National Construction Industry Forum as a statutory advisory body;
• Giving business 12 months to adjust to changes to fixed-term contracts.
•  

Previously, COSBOA, had joined the Australian Council of Trade Unions to endorse multi-employer bargaining, but has now joined Australia’s other organisations in calling on the government to either “abandon or substantially amend” the multi-employer bargaining elements.

COSBOA chief executive Alexi Boyd said the organisation had concerns over the multi-employer bargaining proposals, including the speed at which the government was trying to push them through parliament and the exemption criteria for small business.

Currently, a business with less than 15 staff, including casuals and part-timers, would be exempt from the multi-employer bargaining.

COSBOA backs the BCA’s call for businesses with fewer than 100 employees to be exempt from the multi-employer bargaining.

Jennifer Westacott, Business Council of Australia chief executive said while she welcomed the amendments further changes are still required.

Ms Westacott said on the issue single enterprise bargaining that the changes that give those who already bargain or have a history of bargaining will help let people get on with creating the conditions for higher wages and getting pay into workers’ pockets faster.

“We continue to call for a longer ‘grace period’ and an even smoother pathway for those that already are bargaining that recognises that negotiations for some of the best agreements can take upwards of 18 months,” she said.

“Moves to boost the ability of workplaces that already bargain to continue doing it, will help to make the government’s hard-won improvements to the BOOT worthwhile but don’t go far enough to protect single enterprise bargaining.”

In regards to multi-employer bargaining the BCA said that businesses remain deeply concerned that the case has not been made for the expansion of multi-employer bargaining beyond the low paid stream.

“We welcome changes that keep bargaining democratic by ensuring every individual workplace would need to vote in favour of joining an agreement or taking industrial action,” Ms Westacott said

“We are concerned that a proposed amendment would enable unions veto power over employers providing their workers with a proposed multi-employer agreement to be considered for a vote.

“The ‘common interest test’ for multi-employer bargaining is too broad and does not mitigate the risk of big competitors being forced to bargain together. That’s bad for wages, bad for competition and bad for consumers.

“This complexity will be a huge challenge for everyone in the system but particularly for small businesses, so we continue to call for businesses with fewer than 100 employees to be excluded.”

Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group said the willingness of the Federal Government to begin a process of amending its IR Bill is welcome, however with unjustifiably expanded multi-employer bargaining and associated strike rights at its heart the Bill remains fatally flawed. 

“The breadth and significance of the changes in this Bill reinforce the need for the Government to slow down the passage of the Bill to enable both Parliament and the community to meaningfully assess its impact,” he said

 “The tweaks to the Bill are in response to consultations where Ai Group identified blatantly flawed and unfair aspects of the proposed legislation. Big deficiencies in the Bill remain and as it stands with multi-party bargaining potentially available across broad areas of the economy it continues to be unacceptable to industry.

 “Many of the amendments announced are highly technical and need to be carefully scrutinised.

 “There has been an important change that ensures that the Fair Work Commission can only amend agreements to the extent necessary to ensure that they pass the Better Off Overall Test (BOO)T, but further amendments are still necessary to ensure that the Commission has to obtain an employer’s consent to any change to the agreement that it proposes.

“While some amendments do make modest improvements to the Bill, others introduce new problems.”