The Minerals Council of Australia has called on the Government to allow further investigation of the potentially harmful effects of the workplace relations bill currently proposed.
MCA chief executive Tania Constable said the group favoured a split that would enable the non-controversial parts of the bill to pass, while allocating more time for debate on harmful aspects such as multi-employer bargaining and other workplace issues.
“The numerous amendments now being proposed by the Federal Government to its own bill proves the controversial changes must be given longer consideration,” she said.
“While the MCA welcomes the government’s announcement that it will make amendments to the bill, they do not go far enough to address the severe unintended consequences the bill will have on the mining industry.”
These include:
roping businesses in to large, inflexible multi-employer agreements that they have not agreed to participate in
increased industrial disputes that could spread across whole supply chains and industries
reduced productivity that will lead to poor outcomes for investment, jobs and wages.
“The amendments also acknowledge drafting errors the government has made due to the rushed process for consideration of the bill,” Constable said.
“The MCA remains concerned that the bill may include further significant errors and consequences that have not been fully thought through, and urges the government to agree to extend the time frame for its review.”
Constable said only 40 per cent of mining workers were covered by enterprise agreements, 59 per cent were on individual agreements on terms that are better than both awards and enterprise agreements, and just 1 per cent were on award conditions.
“Moreover, the 40 per cent of the workforce that rely on enterprise agreements for their pay and conditions includes agreements that are past their nominal expiry date, but where the expired agreement continues to determining worker’s wages and conditions,” she said.
Under the government’s changes, when an agreement passes its nominal expiry date, the employer will be exposed to multi-employer bargaining (even though the agreement is in force). This means that mines representing 60 per cent of the mining workforce would still be exposed to multi-employer bargaining under the government’s changes.