Latest news with #industrialrelations
The Australian
29-05-2025
- Business
- The Australian
Industry groups must heed lessons on Labor and IR
Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth is showing a co-operative face with her offer to bring unions and business together to discuss what she wants to be a shared agenda. Business groups are being understandably pragmatic given the size of the Labor majority. But they would be wise to remember the lessons of the Albanese government's first term. Business embraced the Jobs and Skills Summit that was one of Labor's first initiatives but it turned out to be little more than a Trojan horse to deliver the spoils of electoral victory to the trade union movement. As we observed at the time, the get-together was a choreographed pantomime with a predetermined outcome. The gabfest was dominated by union representatives and was used by the government to divide employer groups to engineer a return to industry-wide bargaining. Business generally, and small business in particular, was blindsided by the way in which the government and ACTU were able to split off representative bodies to claim overall sector agreement. This time around, Ms Rishworth will convene a high-level meeting of national employers and union leaders next Tuesday to encourage 'open dialogue' between the government, business and organised labour on industrial relations, especially Labor's ambition to spread enterprise bargaining. Ms Rishworth will chair the meeting in Melbourne of the National Workplace Relations Consultative Council, whose members include ACTU secretary Sally McManus, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox, Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn, union leaders and representatives of employer groups including the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Ms Rishworth foresees a productivity agenda that involves co-operative workplaces, with 'employers and also employees having a stake in the outcomes, being partners'. ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar has said business believes it is time for a reset and 'the issues that were the battle lines drawn in the last parliament, those are over'. This is a dangerous position to take. The introduction of industry-wide bargaining, the re-unionisation of vital industries such as the Pilbara iron ore province, new imposts on casual employment and cumbersome work conditions are no less dangerous today than they were before the election was held. This is particularly so given that the acknowledged challenge is to lift workplace productivity. When Ms Rishworth took the job of Workplace Minister she said new legislation to protect penalty rates in awards would be one of her first priorities. Others included a ban on the imposition of non-compete clauses on low- and middle-income workers, and pushing the Fair Work Commission to grant above-inflation pay rises for 2.9 million low-paid workers. Ms Rishworth said Labor's second-term IR agenda was to follow through on what it had promised during the election campaign However, this is unlikely to be the end of the story. Trade unions have a long list of expectations designed to reassert their much-diminished presence in the modern workplace. Enterprise agreement does not always mean the same thing to all participants. Business groups must take a long view and work strategically. They must not repeat the mistakes of 2022 and allow themselves to be swamped early and then ambushed. The message from the government is for industry to stop criticising and to learn to get along. But appeasement is never a good strategy.
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
NSW government defends controversial workers compensation reform
The workers compensation scheme has 'become a place where industrial relations and general health issues' are being borne out, the NSW government claims as hotly contested reforms are put to the test in the first public hearing. A parliamentary inquiry into the proposed reforms will hear from a range of government, union, and business leaders on Friday morning, including the NSW Teachers Federation, the NSW Bar Association, and Unions NSW. Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey, who will give evidence, said 95 per cent of workers with a permanent impairment from a psychological injury would not receive compensation due to the proposed 31 per cent threshold. The new threshold for damages is part of a raft of proposed changes to overhaul the system and tighten claims for psychological injury, including requiring sufferers of racial, sexual harassment or bullying to obtain a court finding first. NSW Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis told the committee in her opening address that there was 'no doubt mental health is a societal issue'. 'But, the increase in psychological claims would indicate that the system has become a place where industrial relations and general health issues are being managed through a system that was designed to support those injured at work, to recover, and to return to work.' The inquiry was told claims for psychological injury had doubled in just six years, 91 per cent of physical injury claims resolved within 13 weeks, while 50 per cent of psychological claims were not resolved after a year. Ms Cotsis said there were 3068 NSW public sector workers on workers compensation claims awaiting returning to work. 'Now this is unacceptable because these public sector workers have capacity to work, but the system has these artificial barriers that doesn't allow them to get back into the system,' she told the inquiry. Treasurer Daniel Mookhey told the hearing the upcoming state budget would report a $2.6bn writedown arising from the Treasury Managed Fund, the government's self-insurer. 'As the TMF continues to deteriorate, the pressure for cash injections grows,' Mr Mookhey said. 'Since I became treasurer, the government has authorised an additional $1.2bn in cash injections to keep the public insurer fully funded.' Since 2018, the state government has borrowed $6.1bn so that the TMF's assets equalled its liabilities. 'I will not be authorising any further injections,' Mr Mookhey said. 'Not until parliament decides its collective response to a scheme that most acknowledge is failing. 'Not when that money is coming at the expense of schools, hospitals or kids in need of out-of-home care. 'That choice is clear for me.' Opponents of the changes have accused the government of attempting to rush through the amendments, with the Law Society of NSW calling for a 'pause' so that broader consultation and key changes to legislation can be enacted. President Jennifer Bell said on Thursday that while the system was under pressure and in need of reform, the 31 per cent threshold would exclude 'nearly all workers with psychological injury' from being able to make a claim.
