The Albanese government is hoping to get its jam-packed workplace relations bill through the lower house after ceding some ground to business groups on multi-employer bargaining.
The 249-page Secure Jobs, Better Pay bill is expected to return to the lower house this week following meetings between Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke and business groups last week.
The bill contains changes to industrial relations laws intended to drive wages growth and improve working conditions, including expansions of multi-employer bargaining that will allow employees from multiple workforces to bargain in concert.
Business groups have raised concerns about the multi-employer bargaining changes, and have already managed to broker an agreement with the government to amend the bill so that businesses and workforces aren’t roped into industrial action against their will.
But business groups want the government to go further. Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott welcomed the government’s concessions but said big problems remained “including a lowest common denominator risk to wages and increased complexity that could delay wage increases”.
Key independents, including David Pocock and Jacquie Lambie, are also concerned the bill is being rushed through without enough scrutiny.
Senator Pocock has proposed splitting the bill and solely voting on the non-controversial aspects, such as measures to improve gender pay equity, before Christmas.
But Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said workers couldn’t wait any longer for a pay rise, with wages stagnant for a decade and real wages going backwards for more than year.
Ms O’Neil also said business groups were trying to stop wages from rising by opposing the multi-employer bargain components of the bill.
“Nobody should be fooled by the business lobby,” she wrote on Twitter.
“They oppose bargaining changes because they don’t want workers to get higher wages by bargaining together.”
© AAP 2022
