News Article

Rise in IR action calls for serious work laws review: ACCI

21/11/2011 -

The current spate of industrial action in Australia shows the need for a planned review of workplace laws, which should be conducted by the Productivity Commission, a leading business lobby group says.

- Greg Roberts

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) hosted a meeting on Sunday that it said affirmed the need for changes to Australia's fair work laws.

Unions had too much power, particularly over small and medium businesses, ACCI said in a statement.

The Qantas dispute risked taking focus away from the impacts on small and medium enterprises, it said.

According to ACCI, fair work laws did not provide the right balance between workers and their bosses and were not acting to drive productivity and competitiveness, as the government had promised.

ACCI's chief executive Peter Anderson cited recent industrial action in the aviation, construction, ports and manufacturing industries.

"The common view at today's meeting was that they (fair work laws) increased trade union power, were impeding business efficiency, and were imposing higher costs and red tape on small business," he said in a statement.

Those involved in the meeting included industrial relations executives from industry associations, who believed the federal government's review must be independent, wide ranging, and preferably conducted by the Productivity Commission, he said.

"The value of these discussion was to highlight that despite high profile cases like Qantas, most employers regulated by the system remained small and medium businesses (SME)," Anderson said.

"Vital as it is to fix problems with excessive union power over strikes and bargaining, important SME issues also exist, such as higher labour costs under awards, new adverse action and unfair dismissal litigation, and the compliance nightmare when fair work laws are added to other regulation."

Source: AAP NewsWire

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