Businesses outlined myriad challenges in the current industrial relations landscape and heard the Federal Opposition’s plans in a robust CCIWA roundtable with Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash.
Cash, the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations last week heard how new workplace laws over the past 18 months had made it harder to do business in Western Australia.
CCIWA Members said the Federal Labor Government’s anti-business policies, including complex agreement-making provisions, had gone too far in re-regulating the IR system.
Several Members raised same job, same pay, right to disconnect, multi-employer bargaining and an emboldened union movement as amongst the more significant issues impacting WA businesses.
The Shadow Minister took attendees through the thinking of the Federal Opposition on industrial policies, including a focus on flexibility for both employers and employees.
Cash noted that the Liberal Party would deliver a workplace relations system that is pro-employment, and in particular small-business friendly.
It would be flexible to respond to both the needs of employers and employees.
Casual employment definition to change
The Shadow Minister re-committed to returning the definition of casual employment back to the 2021 definition, which gives certainty to both employers and employees.
Cash said under the Liberal Party the right-to-disconnect policy would be scrapped, and broader limits to fixed-term contracts considered to provide businesses flexibility to use them again. As is the case with the Opposition’s promise to cut red tape for approvals of major projects, Cash reiterated that the Liberal Party would look to remove red tape from life-of-project agreements.
Cash warned that the rate and extent of IR changes would only get worse under the current Federal Government.
“A lot of the changes haven’t actually commenced or flowed through the system yet, but they will,” she said.
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