A major review into the Fair Work Act (FWA) says the nation's workplace laws are 'working well'. Industry response has been predictable, uncompromising and perhaps even dishonest. Their critique produces more heat than light — a few good sound-bites heavy on rhetoric and light on substance.
The 'Towards More Productive and Equitable Workplaces' report by Professor Ron McCallum, the Hon. Michael Moore and Dr John Edwards and initiated by the Minister for Workplace Relations Bill Shorten says:
Industrial disputes are uncommon, overall wages growth has remained consistent with low consumer price inflation while wages growth between industries and regions is responding to supply and demand, unemployment has steadily declined while participation in the workforce has increased, wages after inflation have markedly improved, and at the same time the profit share of incomes has increased. These are considerable achievements, not to be put at risk lightly.
The 294 page report has made 53 relatively minor recommendations — my analysis suggests 21 of the 53 are neutral (they either cut both ways or are technical/procedural in nature), 15 favour employees and 17 favour employers (although they fall dramatically short of what employers actually called for in their submissions).
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has described the review as 'disappointing' and a 'missed opportunity' with 'alarming indifference' to productivity, competitiveness and unemployment.
The Business Council of Australia responded by saying 'Every day in Australia, jobs are lost, businesses are shutting ... We're just missing the point.'
What is clear is that industry has developed a definitive media strategy; piggyback broad economic concerns with calls for workplace deregulation. The business sector is yet to produce any real evidence that Australia's industrial relations laws are having an adverse impact on the economy.
By contrast, the review concludes:
Since the FWA came into force important outcomes such as wages growth, industrial disputation, the responsiveness of wages to supply and demand, the rate of employment growth have been favourable to Australia's continuing prosperity. The exception has been productivity growth, which has been disappointing in the FWA framework and in the two preceding frameworks over the last decade.
Many agree that the nation's productivity problems may well be related to our industrial relations system. However, diminishing productivity is a multi-faceted issue and