15 November 2013
AREEA – Australian Mines and Metals Association
THE Coalition Government’s Minister for Employment Eric Abetz has today announced to a prominent mining conference that key changes to Australia’s workplace laws to support a more competitive national resource industry will be introduced in parliament early next year.
Speaking at the 2013 AREEA Tasmania Conference, Senator Abetz said the Coalition will prioritise changes to laws governing union entry to worksites and the negotiation of wages and conditions for new resource projects (‘greenfields’) to return them “back to the sensible centre”.
After many years of fair and balanced rules in these two important areas, the Rudd/Gillard Labor government drastically changed these laws in the favour of unions.
Most recently in June 2013, the laws governing union entry to workplaces were extended to empower unions to hold recruitment meetings in employee lunchrooms, and require resource industry employers to subsidise the costs for union officials visiting far-remote projects, including those offshore.
“We will ensure that union right-of-entry protections are sensible and fair, balancing the need for workers to be represented if they wish with the need for workplaces to run without unnecessary disruption,” Senator Abetz told AREEA members in Hobart today.
“The way that right of entry operates under the Fair Work Act is not balanced and is not based on common sense. When I hear of one project experiencing 200 union visits in just three months it is clear there are issues with the system that need to be addressed.
“We will also get rid of the changes made by the previous government whilst in its death throes. Let me be clear: we will stop the lunch-room invasion and we will stop the joy rides for union bosses to offshore sites at company expense.”
The other key area of change outlined by Senator Abetz at AREEA’s Tasmania Conference today referred to ‘greenfield’ agreements – the workplace negotiation process for new projects.
“Unions should not have the power to effectively veto the commencement of new projects or extract exorbitant wages and conditions by refusing to sign up to a greenfields agreement,” the Senator said.
“The current model for greenfields agreements delays construction projects, is bad for jobs, bad for businesses and is bad for the Australian economy.
“We will fix this problem by providing that if negotiations for a greenfields agreement have not been completed within three months then a business will be able to take their proposed agreement to the Fair Work Commission for approval (subject to the ‘Better Off Overall Test’).”
AREEA chief executive Steve Knott said AREEA and its members have been at the forefront of calling for changes to restore balance and sensibility to our workplace relations system. He said new project (greenfield) agreements and union site entry rules are key issues for resource industry employers.
“It is highly appropriate that Senator Abetz used a forum of AREEA members today to make significant announcements on major concerns for resource industry employers,” Mr Knott said.
“The ALP’s changes in June were a last-ditch attempt to further impose unions directly between employers and their employees. They provided an artificial leg up to unions consistently failing to win support from working Australians, particularly in the resource industry.
“Even before Labor’s most recent overreach, major resource industry projects were already experiencing hundreds of visits from competing unions in the space of a few months, as a direct result of the previous government abandoning proven and widely accepted regulatory approaches.
“In terms of ‘greenfield’ negotiations – how we regulate work on new projects is critical for jobs and opportunities in this country, and it is clear to virtually everyone that the previous government got the policy settings wrong in this area.
“What Australia demands of new project investors has been an escalating problem over the past few years and a primary driver of a higher cost, lower productivity and less competitive industry. Fixing the negotiation process for employment on new projects is a key priority in turning this around.
“The government’s approach will help ensure not only that resource industry employees remain among the highest paid, but that new projects can come to market in Australia, delivering more jobs.
“We welcome Minister Abetz signalling that the government will prioritise changes in these two critical areas in the new year, and call on all members of Parliament to progress these changes urgently.
“Injecting more jobs and more investment into our economy should be more important than six months of politicking.”
In his presentation, Senator Abetz also expanded further on the Coalition’s move to bring back the ABCC, introduced to parliament yesterday, and confirmed terms of reference for the foreshadowed Productivity Commission review of the wider operation of Fair Work Act will be released in March 2014.
Copies of presentations from the AREEA 2013 Tasmania Conference available on request.
For a PDF of this release including relevant media contact, click here.
