Statement by AREEA Chief Executive Officer Steve Knott AM
As most employers predicted, a Government-appointed evaluation of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay (SJBP) Act has proved yet another “Claytons Review”.
Today’s draft report of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Review is essentially an audit of the competing submissions of unions and employer groups, with no meaningful recommendations on the most controversial elements of the SJBP changes.
It dodges any real criticism of the Albanese Government’s “unions first, employers and employees last” new enterprise bargaining laws.
For instance, on allowing unions to force employers to bargain for enterprise agreements without having to demonstrate the support of employees, the Review Panel found this was effective to “streamline bargaining and reduce barriers” – while failing to demonstrate how.
The latest ABS data shows 92.1% of private sector employees are non-union members. Having a bargaining system that preferences union bosses and only 7.9% of private sector employees is nonsensical.
The Review Panel also rejected the assertion that some unions view the Fair Work Commission’s (FWC) new powers to arbitrate intractable disputes as a bargaining tactic.
This is at odds with reality as some AREEA members are experiencing absurd logs of claims that employers simply can’t accede to.
Waiting nine months for an intractable bargaining dispute trigger and facing new agreement terms being arbitrated is problematic enough.
What makes matters worse, given the Albanese Government’s swathe of appointees who are ex-union officials and/or ALP-aligned labour lawyers, is that the prospect of those at the FWC having former professional links to the union/s involved is very real.
To deal with this issue the Government should consider barring all tribunal members from hearing matters involving ex-clients or former employers, including unions, for a minimum of five years.
More broadly, those hoping this review might be the first step to unwinding the most damaging and unproductive elements of the Albanese Government’s first wave of extreme anti-business IR changes will be bitterly disappointed.
A proper and substantial review in 2026 will undoubtedly produce more evidence on just how bad the SJBP Act’s changes to Australia’s IR laws have been.
In the meantime, continued declines in productivity and workplace harmony coupled with international competitive pressures and high energy costs will be to the detriment of employers and employees.
What the nation desperately needs to reignite the economy after three years of Labor’s so-called IR reform, is for a system that encourages employers and employees to work together to their mutual benefit and in the interests of the nation.
This means unions involved at the behest of employees who choose to be union members – and not under mandated IR laws that put privileges for union officials first.
