Australia’s peak body for small business groups will not immediately discount an Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) proposal to introduce sector-wide enterprise bargaining, saying it will investigate any proposal which could make the industrial relations system easier to navigate for SMEs.
ACTU national secretary Sally McManus says the union group will take a plan to drastically expand the enterprise bargaining system to the government’s landmark Jobs and Skills Summit, set to kick off on September 1.
With just 14% of Australian workers engaged under some kind of enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA), McManus says it is time to think beyond individual agreements struck between workers and workplaces, and instead permit workers in entire sectors to negotiate deals with a large swathe of employers at once.
In doing so, the enterprise bargaining system would expand to cover more workers in female-dominated industries and those employed by SMEs — workers the ACTU states are “effectively locked out of bargaining” by the current regime.
“Allowing workers to band together across workplaces to bargain is an essential way of getting wages moving again after a lost decade of flatlining wages and real wage cuts,” McManus said in a statement.
“It should be unacceptable to all of us that real wage cuts are projected year upon year.”
EBAs struck between small business staff and operators under the current system are rare, given the legal complexity and cost associated with brokering workplace agreements.
The recent agreement forged between the workers and owners of Sydney bookstore Better Read Than Dead made headlines for its uncommonness.
Alexi Boyd, CEO of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), says her organisation would consider any proposal designed to streamline the industrial relations system for small employers.
“We don’t want to discount any possibilities, and we don’t want to give any weighting to one side or the other,” Boyd told SmartCompany.
Boyd, whose organisation will represent the small business interests at the summit, says COSBOA would champion initiatives designed to make life easier for SMEs without teams of lawyers at their disposal.
“The system right now is broken for small businesses. It’s unfair. And what we need to see happen is better accessibility to make it fairer, and to enable them to have those conversations.”
“The EBA process right now is intimidating and not really seen as an option,” Boyd said in a separate statement.
“We’re open to reforms that make it more accessible for those who believe it would be the right tool to get the outcome they need.”
Industry groups representing major employers have taken a clearer approach, roundly rejecting a plan which would let workers negotiate for conditions across a spate of separate companies, and potentially launch industrial action impacting many employers at once.
On Thursday, Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, said the system should be tweaked to increase small employer engagement.
But “we should definitely not subject them to a one-size-fits-all approach of sector bargaining and the prospect of damaging industrial action.”
Taking to ABC RN Breakfast, Andrew McKellar, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says the plan would “jeopardise” the relationship between employees and employers who try to negotiate in good faith.
“It’s one size fits all,” he said.
“It’s not something I think business would be very attracted to at all, and frankly what it amounts to is a reversal of the sorts of reforms in the Hawke and Keating era.”
When asked which reforms would result in stronger wage growth, McKellar pushed for other simplifications to the enterprise bargaining system, saving time and administrative resources for businesses facing rising costs.
Appearing on ABC RN Breakfast Thursday morning, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the impending summit was a chance for labour representatives and employers to thrash out reforms to an enterprise bargaining system that is “not delivering”.
But Chalmers did not directly advocate for the union group’s sector-wide bargaining plan.
Some ideas, like the ACTU proposal, “are a bit more contentious” than others, he said.
“But we’re not in the business of trying to limit the discussion at the Summit. We know that enterprise bargaining is not delivering. Different people have different ideas about how to improve it, and we welcome them all.”
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
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