AS the Fair Work Review Panel prepares its final report for Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten, one of Australia’s top workplace relations academics has today backed key reform areas put forth by the resource industry.
Macquarie University professor Paul Gollan told around 500 delegates at the AREEA 2012 National Conference how key reforms around productivity improvements and the pre-conditions for taking protected industrial action should be considered by Minister Shorten.
Reinforcing the arguments from AREEA and other industry bodies, Prof Gollan said that enterprise agreements should be subject to productivity enhancement potential as a matter of Australia’s ‘economic future and living standards’.
“A relatively high Australian dollar and greater competition in the international market have crystallised the importance for Australia to reconsider the real economic and workplace issues associated with increasing our productivity,” Prof Gollan said.
“There are two ways that the Fair Work Act can provide a basis for productivity improvements. First, it can eliminate inefficient and wasteful use of labour and capital. Greater flexibility in hours, more productive shift patterns, and lean production strategies are examples.
“Much harder is the second point, which is adding value to the production process. For this to occur, a positive workplace culture must be in place, which gives all employees a voice and allows good ideas to be heard and implemented.
“However the recent increase in strike action and the use of lockouts by employers have highlighted the adversarial nature of the Fair Work Act. Unions have also resisted calls for a way forward in linking productivity with wage increases. This urgently requires government action.”
Prof Gollan, who holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, has conducted two academic reviews of the industrial environment through a ‘business lens’ – in 2009 and earlier this year. His co-authored submission to the Review Panel called for greater workplace consultation and information arrangements to facilitate innovative and productive workplace cultures.
In a wide-ranging presentation at AREEA’s three-day conference – one of the largest resource industry events of the year – Prof Gollan also outlined how the Fair Work Review process should consider fixed term durations for individual flexibility arrangements and to apply good faith bargaining principles to Greenfield agreements.
The audience of resources executives and workforce-related professionals also listened intently to his recommendations for the legislation to place greater pre-conditions on the ability for unions to take protected industrial action.
“Business and industrial groups have reported concerns about the increased power of unions: they can bargain and take industrial action over a much wider set of claims, whereas FWA intervention can only take place at extremities,” Prof Gollan said.
“In fact, there has been only one instance to date of FWA initiating intervention and halting protected industrial protection under these provisions, which was the determination settling the Qantas dispute.
“The damaging deadlock demonstrated by the Qantas case exposes the inherent flaws in the Fair Work Act and highlights the need for its refinement.
“In particular, the lack of a procedure to encourage and help the parties in dispute resolution is a critical gap. If we pass the smoke and mirrors of this dispute, the real issues are around competitiveness and how much influence unions have over management’s right to manage the business.
“The Qantas dispute showed the need for changes to IR legislation to ensure good faith bargaining and to assist both sides as Fair Work Australia’s ability to resolve bargaining disputes by arbitration is rather limited. A system is required to provide a process for negotiations and a means to resolve protracted disputes such as this.”
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