Labor rules out wholesale changes to Fair Work Act, but ‘evidence-based’ changes to be implemented by next election

Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans has ruled out wholesale changes to the Fair Work Act, but says reforms based on evidence will be enacted before the next election.

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review ahead of the 2012 review, Evans called for feedback on good-faith bargaining and unfair dismissals, but said that much of the commentary from business about the Act is “not factually based”.

“I don’t want to create expectations that we are going to rewrite the act but that doesn’t mean we won’t respond to legitimate evidence-based issues raised,” Evans said.

“A lot of people now are trying to see the review as a re-argument about the Fair Work legislation and a rerun of the traditional ideological positions on industrial relations. Well, that is not what the Government intends to happen.”

Evans said that although there are a “couple of high-profile cases where the employers are unhappy”, it’s interesting to note that “both employers and the Liberal Party, who for years argued that the umpire ought to stay out many disputes and allow parties to resolves them independently, the moment there is industrial action calls for intervention of either Fair Work or the Government.”

Shae McCrystal, senior lecturer, Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney, says it’s difficult to predict the outcome of the review, given it’s a political matter, but there’s no doubt many people don’t understand the Act.

“I don’t doubt we’re going to see a replay of those ideological agendas, but the Act is doing its job,” McCrystal says. This is particularly in regards to good-faith bargaining, she says, by requiring parties to engage but not necessarily agree.

Pointing out that strike action in Australia is around historical lows, McCrystal says if the country want a system that limits disruption, it needs to reconsider arbitration.

“If disputation is your problem, you’ve got a model that is about letting parties sort them out for themselves,” McCrystal says.

“That’s [arbitration] a more fundamental question, and I find it very surprising that we’d have business lobbies looking for a return to arbitration models.”