Increasing noise about enterprise bargaining from unions in the Pilbara poses a significant threat to WA’s economic prosperity, says CCIWA Chief Executive Chris Rodwell.
The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) this week signalled it was planning to force mining companies into enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations.
New enterprise bargaining laws in force since February have tipped negotiations in unions’ favour. When a dispute reaches the intractable bargaining threshold, the Fair Work Commission cannot make a ruling that is less favourable than existing EA terms.
This is among the many changes arising from the Federal Government’s overhaul of workplace laws, which have hurt businesses.
The new laws have led to WA miners being forced to negotiate with unions and the FWC compelling three New South Wales mining companies into multi-employer bargaining.
A ploy for union membership, says Rodwell
Rodwell warns the power grab by unions could wind industrial progress back by decades.
“The push to re-unionise the Pilbara risks dragging Western Australia back to the bad old days of the 1980s, where unions would strike at the slightest provocation – to the detriment of job creation and economic growth,” he says.
“The fact is that workers in the Pilbara are among the safest and best paid in the world. There’s a good reason why union membership is so low, and continues to decline, in the Pilbara.
“The Federal Government’s industrial relations reforms provide an unnecessary foothold for the unions to insert themselves between workers and their employers and threaten the productivity of an industry that sits at the heart of our nation’s prosperity.”
Our legal team can provide practical legal advice to ensure your business stays compliant and minimise commercial impacts arising from these changes. Please contact our legal team at [email protected] or call (08) 9365 7746.
