ALERT: Respect@Work Bill passes Parliament and Labor secures Senate support for IR Reform Bill

Senator Pocock had previously indicated that he held concerns about Labor’s original proposal for multi-employer bargaining. That proposal provided for:

• employee bargaining representatives to apply for an agreement authorisation to cover two or more employers, subject to majority support of the relevant employees;
• employers and employee bargaining representatives to apply to vary an agreement authorisation to add or remove the name of an employer from the agreement, subject to meeting specified requirements; and
• employers and employee organisations to apply to the FWC for approval of a variation to extend coverage of an existing agreement to a new employer and its employees, subject to meeting specified requirements.

The FWC would be required to consider whether there was a “common interest” between employers to be covered by a multi-employer agreement, and small business employers would be excluded from coverage.

A supported bargaining stream would be created to facilitate bargaining in areas where bargaining is difficult to achieve at a single employer level such as aged care, disability services and childcare. Bargaining would be facilitated under the auspices of the FWC, and an employer specified under bargaining authorisation could not bargain independently with its employees unless agreed to by the FWC.

To obtain Senator Pocock’s support, Labor has agreed that:

• the definition of small business for the purposes of bargaining will be 20 employees (excluding seasonal workers and irregular casuals);
• employers with fewer than 50 employees may be able to oppose an authorisation bid, with the onus falling upon the applicant union to satisfy the FWC that there is reasonable comparability with the other employers who would be subject to the authorisation;
• employers with 50 or more employees may also oppose an authorisation bid but the onus will rest with them as to why they should not be caught by it;
• Unions will not have a veto to stop an agreement being put to employees for ballot;
• civil construction will be excluded from all streams of multi-employer bargaining; and
• the Minister will have the power to declare an industry or occupation eligible for the supported bargaining stream.

Labor has also agreed to:

• undertake a review of the amended Fair Work Act within 2 years of the Bill passing;
• establish a National Construction Industry Forum to advise government on matters pertaining to the industry; and
• establish an expert advisory panel to provide advice to government on the adequacy of Jobseeker and other support payments annually prior to each Federal budget.