Paul Howes got something right, although like many of you I am rather ungraciously questioning his motivation (Yes, Minister). It is clear that the current industrial relations system is not working in the way that our country needs it to. Whilst many employees and their union representatives have benefited from Australia’s long history of strong economic growth, there are at least three things that concern me.
It is early days, but there are clear signs that employers are clawing back or planning to clawback terms and conditions in their enterprise agreements that are no longer affordable. How do you do this without alienating your employees and their representatives?
It doesn’t have to be this way. Too many employers fail to “take charge” of their EBA negotiations and /or put an EBA in place that provides significant benefit for all stakeholders. Too many employers only respond to union demands.
We recently wrote about employers who shoot themselves in the foot during enterprise bargaining negotiations with unions or with their employees, by agreeing to conditions that can threaten their very financial existence, or otherwise are not in their best interests. However, we also sometimes see situations where employers fail to reach agreements which clearly WOULD BE in their financial or other interests. In these supposedly economically rational times, why would that happen?
Why do some employers have a habit of shooting themselves in the foot in bargaining negotiations with unions and other parties, whilst others do a far better job at keeping in control of their labour costs and employee productivity? We provide some clues.
As a consultancy which only represents employers, we sometimes are taken aback by how many companies are ‘being done over’ in enterprise agreement negotiations.
Negotiators use a variety of tactics to achieve a result. However, is the use of “threats” a legitimate negotiating tactic, or just a sign that the person making the threat has run out of options?
The issues at the heart of the recent Qantas bargaining dispute were not wage increases or other financial benefits for the employees involved. They ran to the heart of how Qantas would be able to conduct its future business in a challenging business environment. These were not matters that were capable of being lawfully negotiated under Work Choices – a point lost in the debate and all the disruption in the aftermath of the dispute. Our article discusses the history of arbitration in Australia - and whether the government should heed union calls for increased intervention from the "umpire".
Our parent company (ER Strategies Pty Ltd) Director Steve Champion sees the new good faith bargaining requirements as being one of the more important changes introduced by the Fair Work Act , and one that is likely to be seen as a turning point in the Australian Industrial Relations system in years to come.
If you are about to embark on some important enterprise bargaining negotiations and don't know where to start, or alternatively want to think about how you can do it better, you should find our Enterprise Bargaining flowchart of great benefit.
