URGENTLY fixing ‘flawed and unbalanced’ union right of entry laws should be put back on the government’s agenda, AREEA has argued in a recent submission to a post-implementation review of changes to the Fair Work Act.

Providing feedback to the review of parts of the Fair Work Amendment Act 2013, which took effect on 1 January 2014, AREEA highlighted that the already problematic area of union access to workplaces has become an even greater issue for employers since further changes were made relating to:

1. Location of union interviews and discussions;
2. Facilitation of accommodation and transport to remote sites; and
3. Frequency of entry for union discussions.

AREEA’s submission noted the first two areas above (A and B) were intended to be repealed by the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014, in line with the Coalition’s 2013 federal election mandate to improve the Fair Work laws.

However, in order to gain Senate cross-bench support, these amendments were completely removed ahead of the bill being passed last month.

In addition to removing the 1 January 2014 Fair Work Act amendments relating to lunch rooms and remote sites, AREEA’s submission notes that the bill also sought to amend the basis of entry for discussion purposes according to whether the union was covered by an enterprise agreement onsite.

Importantly, this would have meant that when a union is not covered by an enterprise agreement onsite, its officials would have to be invited in by a union member or prospective member to hold discussions.

AREEA’s submission notes that the review is occurring at the same time as the Productivity Commission (PC) is preparing its final report to government on its review of Australia’s workplace relations system.

“In AREEA’s original submission, and reply submission to the PC’s draft report, AREEA has examined union access to workplaces and other areas covered in this submission in great detail, proposing an extensive suite of reforms that AREEA maintains are needed in these areas,” the submission states.

“While the PC has made two draft recommendations regarding union access to workplaces, these do not go as far as the changes in the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2014, and do not go nearly far enough in relation to AREEA’s suite of proposed reforms.

“To be absolutely clear, AREEA considers the current union entry provisions of the Fair Work Act, which are the product of both the 2009 and 2014 amendments, to be flawed, unbalanced, open to abuse, and encouraging of disputes. Change in this area is desperately needed.”

The submission details key problems relating to the location of union interviews and discussion, including:

• Allowing lunch rooms or crib rooms to be default meeting places without needing the agreement of the site occupier.
• Cases of unions deliberately creating a dispute or making no effort to agree on a reasonable meeting room.
• Employee preferences to not be subject to unions discussion in lunch/crib rooms not being taken into account
• The unique circumstances and hazardous nature of the resource industry when allowing unions access to non-traditional lunch rooms/areas
• Operational and security impacts of lunch room access
• Confusion/ disagreement around which lunch rooms unions are entitled to access
• Examples of unsafe union behaviour when visiting remote or inaccessible workplaces.

In addition, AREEA called for the removal of provisions requiring occupiers to facilitate union officials’ accommodation and transport arrangements to enable them to visit worksites in remote areas.

“The plethora of safety issues associated with union access to remote sites includes that infrequent travellers require escorting on all offshore platforms and helicopters to ensure their safety at all times. This is a further distraction requiring extra resources to be diverted while at the same time opening up the occupier to significant risk and liability,” AREEA’s submission states.

“Offshore and onshore resource worksites in remote locations are often also major hazard facilities. Visitors are a liability in emergency response situations and this is something employers have to factor in for each and every workplace visit. They need to be especially vigilant regarding union visitors who often do not obey instructions and are prone to walking off on their own to investigate.”

AREEA’s submission also provides feedback to the review on:

• The introduction of a new jurisdiction for the Fair Work Commission to deal with bullying complaints;
• Consent arbitration of dismissal-related matters; and
• Consultation about changes to working hours.

For more information on AREEA’s submission to the post-implementation review of parts of the Fair Work Amendment Act 2013, or our broader advocacy for change to the national workplace relations framework, contact AREEA’s senior workplace policy adviser, Lisa Matthews on (03) 6270 2256 or [email protected].