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Fix enterprise bargaining to lift wages – industry urges ALP

Providing Influence and Industry Advocacy since 1918

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Fix enterprise bargaining to lift wages – industry urges ALP

Preventing Australia’s enterprise agreement making system from collapse is the best way the Australian Labor Party could encourage higher wage outcomes should it win government on Saturday.

This week CEO of the Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association (AREEA), Steve Knott, wrote to Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Tony Burke, seeking the ALP’s commitment to critical workplace reforms.

In his letter Mr Knott noted employers were abandoning enterprise bargaining in droves and urged the ALP’s leadership to support the “series of relatively minor procedural improvements” taken to Parliament by the Morrison Government in late 2020.

“The overwhelming experience of resource sector employers is that enterprise bargaining has become far too complicated and costly, offering few, if any, opportunities for productivity gains,” Mr Knott said.

“Without a more practical and efficient framework employers will continue to find alternative methods to engage and manage their employees, and enterprise bargaining will continue to wither on the vine before ultimately becoming a relic of the past.”

Noting the ALP’s election commitment to influence wage increases in line with cost-of-living pressures, Mr Knott said it was “well accepted that on average, enterprise agreement wage outcomes far exceed annual minimum wage and award increases provided by the FWC”.

“The most effective and responsible mechanism for a future Albanese Labor Government to support real wage increases is by restoring the practicality and attractiveness of enterprise agreement making,” Mr Knott said.

“This can be achieved through reducing the complexity, cost and time involved in agreement making.

“It may also involve the ALP taking a leadership position with the trade union movement and encourage the abandonment of unpalatable concepts such as industry-wide bargaining or preferencing of union agreements through the FWC to the detriment of non-union agreements.”

Another critical IR reform that AREEA urges the ALP to support, is that of ‘Project Life Greenfields Agreements’, meaning six-year agreement terms (up from four years) for the building phase of eligible major resources and energy projects.

“Australia has a significant opportunity to secure the next wave of major resources and energy project investment. The Department of Industry lists 352 new major resources and energy projects, worth $420 billion, across various stages of feasibility within Australia’s investment pipeline,” Mr Knott said.

“By allowing terms of up to six years, subject to agreement with unions and approval of the Fair Work Commission, Project Life Greenfields Agreements would deliver greater confidence to major project investors and significantly increase the prospects of new projects receiving final approval.

“The ALP’s support for Project Life Greenfields agreements, be it from either government or opposition, would be overwhelmingly in the national interest and the interests of Australian workers, who are set to benefit greatest from the large-scale creation of high-paid resources and construction jobs.”

Read AREEA CEO Steve Knott’s letter to Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke.

MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Reid, 0419 153 407 or [email protected]

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