Opportunity beckons for new rights at work campaign

ONE of the big take outs from the federal election was just how much workplace relations remains a no-go zone for the Liberal Party.

Both houses of Parliament were dissolved back in May ostensibly so Malcolm Turnbull could organise a joint sitting to finally ram through the legislation to reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission after it was twice blocked by the Senate.

But the ABCC was barely mentioned during the entire eight week campaign until Turnbull’s election night speech when he bizarrely ranted for several minutes about the threat strong unionism in the construction sector posed to Australia’s economic growth.

The Victorian Liberals’ attempt to use the Country Fire Authority dispute as a proxy for a union power scare campaign is now seen as backfiring badly — just as union-bashing did in the state election in 2014.

By the end of the election the big lie which was the reason for the double-dissolution had been exposed. And so had the Liberals’ reluctance to stray into workplace relations as a political issue.

The workplace is a Labor strength

After health and education, workplace relations remains one of Labor’s strongest and one of the Liberals’ weakest policy areas.

It has been thus ever since the 2007 election, when the ACTU’s Your Rights At Work wrote the book for modern third party political campaigning.

Regardless of the hype around this year’s union ‘ground war’, Your Rights At Work remains the undisputed benchmark for a successful campaign as it not only contributed to the ousting of the Howard Government and its hated WorkChoices laws, but it elevated workplace relations to near the very top of political issues, and introduced a new generation to unionism as a positive force for change.

So powerful was that campaign, that in 2010 one of Tony Abbott’s very first acts during the election was to make his infamous “WorkChoices is dead, buried and cremated” pledge.

Even though Abbott cruised to victory in 2013, the workplace barely rated a mention in the Liberal’s policy platform again that year. In opposition, Abbott had mainly promised minimalist changes with a strategy of using a Productivity Commission review as a Trojan horse for more radical change.

This year was meant to be different.

After all, the Heydon royal commission meant there was no shortage of ammunition for the Liberals to use to bash unions. Additionally, Nigel Hadgkiss’ Fair Work Building and Construction agency had helpfully built a large dossier of militancy by the CFMEU.

Victorian CFMEU officials John Setka and Shaun Reardon are currently awaiting trial on blackmail charges stemming from a long-running dispute with Grocon and Boral. Kathy Jackson faces the prospect of prosecution for alleged misappropriation of funds at the Health Services Union.

And Abbott’s Productivity Commission’s review of the workplace system delivered late last year made numerous recommendations which sided with employer demands for more workplace “flexibility”, such as reducing or eliminating Sunday rates of pay and making it easier to unfairly dismiss people.

The opportunity was there for Turnbull to finally deliver to the business and employer lobby what they had been demanding for years: weaker unions, watered down workplace rights, lower wages.

But instead, the Liberals squibbed it. They never even released a workplace policy and now have no mandate for change.

Employers continue to agitate for changes

The scars from WorkChoices are still fresh for many of the Liberals who were in parliament at that time. A well-organised union movement makes them fearful of lifting their heads above the workplace parapet.

The frustration of employers has been immediate. Within a couple of days of the election, they had already begun ramping up their calls for “reform”, and it gathered speed last week with comments by the new head of the National Retailers Association that her group would continue to agitate for lower weekend rates of pay.

But in reality, Turnbull now has nowhere left to turn. Having failed to address the Productivity Commission’s recommendations with a comprehensive election policy, he has no mandate to adopt them now.

His best hope will be an upcoming Fair Work Commission ruling on whether to reduce weekend rates in the retail and hospitality sectors. That decision is expected very soon.

Surprisingly, unions and Labor were also low key about workplace issues during the election campaign, despite their obvious advantages in this area.

Only United Voice with its ‘Save Our Weekend’ campaign consistently campaigned about a workplace issue on a large scale.

Some observers believe the union movement missed a golden opportunity in the election to press the case for improvements to the workplace relations system.

After six years of operation, the flaws and weaknesses of the Fair Work Act are glaring. Wage growth is virtually stagnant, partly because the act is so weighted against workers’ exercising any power in the workplace, while the ease with which Carlton United Breweries recently sacked 54 contractors shows that safeguards of workers’ jobs and wages need to be strengthened.

And the cases of wage fraud at 7-Eleven and other convenience store and fast food outlets are further signs of a system that needs reform in favour of protecting workers.

Insecure work remains a priority

The growth of insecure work has not lessened under the Fair Work Act, and that should become the union movement’s number one campaigning priority between now and the next election.

Unions now have up to three years before the next election to campaign, lobby and agitate for sweeping improvements to the workplace system, including cracking down on sham contracting, a licensing system for labour hire firms, and making big companies ultimately responsible for the treatment of employees of their contractors or franchisees. Some of these proposals are already in the ALP’s election platform.

Unions should also back the Greens’ policies of legislation to protect penalty rates in law through the National Employment Standards, and the introduction of so-called secure employment orders which workers could apply for in the Fair Work Commission.

Now with the election over, the government on the back foot over workplace policy, and a blank slate before them, let’s hope the union movement makes the most of this opportunity to push for a new wave of reforms for Australian workers.

Originally published at workinglife.org.au on July 20, 2016.