Qantas dispute highlights need for “circuit-breaker” in Fair Work regime: IR lawyer

Australia’s industrial relations laws could be reformed to introduce a “circuit-breaker” to speed up a resolution between employers and unions during bargaining periods, workplace law expert Joydeep Hor says.

Hor, founder and managing partner of employment law firm, People & Culture Strategies, says one way to place “very clear pressure on everyone at the table” in disputes such as the Qantas battle with three unions is to set a timetable for a new agreement to be signed.

“There needs to be a better circuit-breaker built into the infrastructure,” Hor says.

Hor says putting a time-limit on negotiations could speed up talks between employers and employees. If an agreement is not reached, one solution would be to take talks to Fair Work Australia, he says.

Unlike many industrial relations experts and aviation watchers, Hor is upbeat that Qantas will reach agreements with the three unions – the Transport Workers Union, the Australian and International Pilots Association and the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association – over the negotiation period set by Fair Work Australia.

Qantas and the unions were granted 21 days to negotiate, with the option of another 21 days if real progress had been made. Arbitration would follow if parties cannot strike a deal.

“In my view, it’s more likely than not that given the scrutiny that’s been applied to the case, a deal will be struck,” Hor says. He adds that the parties will want to be in control of their own destiny, rather than try their luck with arbitration.

Any deal struck will feature compromise on both sides, he predicts. “Exactly what that looks like will necessitate a fair amount of give from both sides.”

Hor adds that business would be mistaken in seeing the Qantas case as a precedent or part of a larger ideological battle against unions. “There are very few businesses that would, as a result of the potential employer action, cause jeopardy to the economy in the way that Qantas’s did.”

His comments come amid heated discussions on the Fair Work Act, with the Coalition criticising the Government for not using Section 431 of the Act – which allows the Government to issue a declaration ordering an end of industrial action – and saying negotiations between employers and employees should be limited to pay, rather than broader issues such as job security.

Labor, on the other hand, says any early intervention from the Government could have been bogged down by appeals, and the Act puts the onus on business, rather than the Government, to work out its disputes.

It also says Fair Work’s decision on Monday morning to terminate the industrial action – because the lockout passed the “significant economic damage test” – is a sign that Act works.

But Andrew Stewart, an academic at the University of Adelaide who helped with the writing of the Fair Work Act, is less certain an agreement will be reached over the next few weeks, because Qantas and the unions are unlikely to see eye-to-eye on the airline’s plans to outsource to Asia.