The direction of Australian workplaces is set to be an even hotter topic in 2019 than the year prior.
In case you missed it, in December AREEA released its most future-focused report in two decades, A New Horizon: Guiding Principles for the Future of Work, exploring how opportunities created by the future of work can be unlocked through open and flexible regulatory models.
Seeking to spark a fresh debate throughout 2019 about the future of Australian workplace regulation, the report details how technology, demographic and competitive factors are influencing the future of work in the resources and energy industry.
With resources and energy employers experiencing rapid change in their workplaces and continual exposure to global competitive forces, the report argues Australia cannot centrally plan or regulate its way to a better future.
“This is an approach that has fundamentally failed Australia since the introduction of the Fair Work Act in 2009,” A New Horizon reports.
“Unlike the current legislative approach, supporting employers in the future creation of high quality, well-paying, durable jobs with flexible terms and conditions, hinges on an open, cost competitive and flexible regulatory environment.”
With an Australian Federal Election set to occur in or prior to May, AREEA will be using the highly politicised environment to pursue and advocate its 12 “guiding principles for future of work regulation” put forward in the report.
One of the key principles focuses on the need for a new approach to work regulation.
Guiding Principle #12: Open and flexible regulatory models will be critical to unlocking the opportunities created by the future of work.
“Resources and energy employers grow increasingly frustrated that Australia’s approach to work is designed around the “lowest common denominator”, applying a one-size-fits-all system to all industries, employers and employees including high-growth, high-innovation sectors,” the report says.
“This is having a detrimental impact on growth and productivity in the most successful areas of the Australian economy. High innovation growth sectors should be free from the lowest common denominator in labour market regulation. They should have the flexibility to move freely once above all reasonable considerations of fair pay and protections.”
The report finds a flexible approach to work regulation would empower individuals to make their own decisions about what type of terms and conditions under which they wish to be employed.
It also uncovers that opening up multiple agreement making options would be crucial to redefining the role of work regulation from a compliance burden to a productivity enabler.
Increased flexibility in the agreement making and bargaining framework is likely to have industry-specific and broader implications, including employment engagement choice for both employers and employees, and increased productivity.
Read the report here and/or email [email protected] for more information about AREEA’s policy development and advocacy activities on behalf of members.
