THE Coalition Government has begun following up on its workplace relations reform commitments with new legislation to protect volunteer organisations from union takeovers.

The move to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 comes in response to the Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA) enterprise agreement dispute, whereby the Victorian Government was accused of seeking to hand control of the CFA’s volunteers to the United Firefighters Union (UFU).

“The Turnbull Government is moving swiftly to prevent the integrity and effectiveness of the Victorian CFA from being compromised,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Employment Michaelia Cash said in a joint statement.

“Prior to the federal election the Coalition made it clear that if re-elected we would use all available federal powers to stop the CFA/UFU enterprise agreement from restricting the effective use of CFA volunteers.

“The proposed CFA agreement includes a number of clauses that are clearly discriminatory against volunteers and provide the UFU with an unreasonable, unwarranted degree of control over volunteer operations, including a veto power over management decisions.

“The Fair Work Amendment (Respect for Emergency Services Volunteers) Bill 2016 will invalidate terms in enterprise agreements that undermine the capacity of firefighting or state emergency service bodies to properly manage their volunteer operations or restrict these bodies from respecting, valuing or promoting their volunteers. It will also strike out terms that are inconsistent with state or territory laws that regulate such bodies.

“This legislation also gives volunteers a voice by providing volunteer organisations the right to make submissions in Fair Work Commission agreement approval proceedings. Currently volunteer organisations do not have a right to be heard in such matters, despite the significant negative impact enterprise agreements can have on them.”

Further WR reform bills expected

The Fair Work Amendment (Respect for Emergency Services Volunteers) Bill 2016 is one of a group of workplace relations reforms committed to by the Coalition prior to the federal election. It will also stand as a test to the ability of the Coalition to get workplace relations legislation through a new Senate comprising 20 representatives from minor parties including The Greens, One Nation, the Nick Xenophon Team and Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party.

Beyond the emergency services volunteers bill, the government has foreshadowed that it will introduce bills to:

• Restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) and extend its jurisdiction to include offshore resources construction.
• Bring the governance of registered unions and employer organisations more into line with the regulation of corporations and establishing a separate Registered Organisations Commission for that purpose.
• Ensure any further amalgamations between trade unions will be subject to a public interest test.
• Implement the Policy to Protect Vulnerable Workers that it took to the 2016 election, with a focus on protecting employees of franchises from underpayment of wages.

Minister Cash has also foreshadowed that a number of previous government proposals to amend the Fair Work Act 2009, such as restoring balance to union right of entry laws, may be reintroduced in coming months.

AREEA will support proposed amendments that are consistent with members’ interests, and will continue to press for further changes to address key problems experienced in applying the Fair Work Act in resource workplaces.