ACTU President Ged Kearney will detail three key changes to Australia's workplace laws that unions will call for under the Productivity Commission inquiry into workplace relations at a National Press Club debate in Canberra today.
Ms Kearney will debate Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Kate Carnell at 12.30pm on Tuesday 17 March.
>> UPDATE - you can read Ged's speech at the foot of this item (see below).
The three key changes the ACTU is calling for include:
- Pursuing a portable entitlements scheme for non-permanent employees and giving casual workers the legal right to become permanent employees
- Creating a new right for employees to return to work in their existing role on a part-time basis following parental leave
- Strengthening bargaining requirements in the Fair Work Act to include compulsory arbitration to resolve deadlocks that occurs when employers refuse to bargain in good faith
Quotes attributable to ACTU President Ged Kearney:
"Australian workers are worried about their wages, job security and rights at work.
"You only have to look at the facts: the gender pay gap is at a record high of almost 19% and that one-in-two pregnant women are discriminated against in the workplace to know there is an urgent need for action.
"Compulsory arbitration will give working Australians the ability to fully exercise their rights to collective bargaining. It will act as a mechanism to break intractable deadlocks caused by an employer's refusal to bargain in good faith.
"There are 2.2 million casual workers in Australia – that's one in five Australian workers who deserve the respect and recognition of decent, secure work and entitlements.
"A casual conversion clause will recognise people who are permanent employees in everything but name and give them the recognition and respect of a secure permanent job.
"The Coalition Government is using the Productivity Commission inquiry into rights at work in an attempt to cut penalty rates, abolish the minimum wage, bring back unfair individual contracts and swing even more power to the employers."
"The government wants to swing the pendulum in favour of employers and take away rights at work.
Media contact: Kara Douglas, 0418 793 885 or Carla De Campo 0410 579 575
The Workplace Relations Debate: Address by ACTU President Ged Kearney to the National Press Club, 17 March 2015
Click here to read this on the ACTU website
Thank you for the invitation today.
I'm proud to stand here as the representative of almost two million union members and millions of other working people who benefit from the workplace conditions fought for and won by unions.
What usually passes as the industrial relations "debate" in this country unfortunately is little more than a series of unquestioned assertions by business and employers.
Assertions like:
• Unions have too much power (or are irrelevant);
• Industrial disputes are too high;
• Penalty rates are a drag on business growth;
• Wages are too high;
• Labour productivity is too low.
And so on.
Assertions built on questionable evidence.
Like those about penalty rates.
Throw a stone in the air, and you are almost guaranteed to hit a celebrity chef – Luke Mangan, George Calombaris, take your pick – who will provide a dial-a-quote about the so-called economic costs of penalty rates.
But they never acknowledge that over the past 20 years, the relative shares of retail and hospitality income going to profits have not changed, and that today there are more restaurants, cafes and shops open at night and on weekends than at any other time in our history.
The IR debate in Australia is about a lot of things – wages, productivity, output, rights – but at its heart it is about people.
It does not have to be about productivity or profits at the expense of fair and decent wages and working conditions.
***
You need look no further than Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz as the reason for today's debate.
It is they who have ordered a Productivity Commission inquiry into the IR system – despite the fact that a comprehensive review was conducted by a highly-regarded panel a mere three years ago – and it found the system was working well.
The sense of crisis manufactured by the business lobby and the government is not supported by the facts.
Wages growth was contained at 2.5% in 2014 – in fact, we would say it is too slow. Industrial disputes, measured in days of work lost, were the second lowest ever last year. Labour productivity growth was solid in 2014.
What this is about is payback to the business community for their support of the Coalition.
***
Our workplace system is based on principles established around the time of federation: fairness, equality, protection of the vulnerable, and reward for hard work.
From this followed a minimum wage, reasonable working hours, paid leave, protection from unfair dismissal, the right of workers to organise and bargain collectively, and more – all overseen by an independent umpire.
When extremists have sought to tear apart those foundations, such as with WorkChoices, the verdict from the public has been overwhelming.
Two weeks ago, 100,000 people took to the streets in 17 cities and towns around Australia to defend their rights at work.
Australian workers are concerned when they hear business leaders and politicians decry that wages in this country are too high.
Or that workers should just shut up and accept a casual or short-term job, with all the insecurity that comes with it.
For most Australians, productivity and flexibility are just fancy words for doing more with less, working harder and longer for the same pay.
And for them, the only wages blow-out they have seen over the past few years has been the earnings of their CEO.
***
Our research tells us that workers feel their living standards are under attack from slow wages growth, rising household bills, and from cuts to health and education.
On top of 6.3% unemployment, we now have a record underemployment rate of 8.6%. That means more than a million Australians are not getting enough work to make ends meet.
What people crave is a positive agenda from the government.
Let me give you three key areas for improvement.
Firstly, we know about 40% of the modern Australian workforce lack secure jobs.
These people are casuals, labour hire employees, people on short-term or fixed contracts, and so-called "independent" contractors.
We are pursuing a portable entitlements scheme for all employees and robust and enforceable conversion clauses that will allow long-term casuals to become permanent employees.
It is also time to end the second class status of labour hire workers and to grant them the same entitlements as their co-workers. And tighter definitions of contractors would protect the employee status of people who are forced to get an ABN to do the same job they did as an employee.
Secondly, equality of workforce participation.
You only have to look at the facts to know there is an urgent need for action.
The gender pay gap is at a record high of 18.8% and one-in-two mothers are discriminated against in the workplace at some point during their pregnancy, parental leave or return to work.
Closing this gap and increasing workforce participation by women is not just a matter of fairness. It is economic good sense.
Research commissioned for the G20 last year found that this would result in a 6% boost to the economy.
The ACTU wants women to have the right to return to work in their existing role on a part time basis following parental leave – not just a right to request.
I note that the only areas under the entire Fair Work Act where an employee does not have the right to appeal a refusal is in relation to requests for family friendly work arrangement and extensions to unpaid parental leave – this needs to change.
Finally, I'd like to touch on workplace changes that would enable employees to fully exercise their rights to collective bargaining.
Workers that get together to ask for a payrise ought to have the right to do so. And where militant employers refuse to bargain in good faith, there should be an effective dispute resolution mechanism - particularly in the context of negotiations for a first agreement.
Any moves to further restrict the rights to industrial action, already heavily curtailed in Australia and inconsistent with international standards, must be opposed, and the important compliance role of unions in the workplace needs to be protected.
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At the most fundamental level, our workplace system is based on a broad and enduring social consensus: that workers' rights must be protected and there is a role for policy intervention to ensure they are rewarded equitably for their efforts.
This is a system Australians have demonstrated they want and support.
So let me put the Coalition Government and employers on notice today that if you come after workers' wages, their penalty rates, their conditions and their safety at work, then you will have a fight on your hands.
A hundred thousand people marched to defend those things two weeks ago.
And that was just the start.
Thank you.
*** ENDS ***