Master Electricians shocked by ACTU’s Better Bargaining policy

As an employer group, Master Electricians Australia is extremely concerned with the Australian Council of Trade Union’s (ACTU) recently proposed Better Bargaining policy which will see a return to the unproductive central wage fixation practices of the past.

The ACTU’s proposal demonstrates the Labor Party want to control business in every aspect of management including social and corporate responsibility. In our view, the policy exposes Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten’s stance on bargaining, at the enterprise level, as rhetoric compared to the faceless men’s real objectives. Can you imagine employers being subject to lawful industrial action just because a company may not support the union’s own social issue?

We’re convinced the ACTU’s proposed policy to allow unions to adopt other enterprise bargaining agreements from other industries points to massive wage explosion. Greenfield agreements being used in areas like LNG and resources under the policy could then translate into areas such as manufacturing, general service maintenance, retail, or building and construction industries, which will drive up prices and add further pressure to the cost of living for families.

The Better Bargaining policy, combined with the federal government’s Budget announcement to reduce training opportunities and abandoning the 1% tax reduction for business, is counterproductive to the union’s own members and constituents. Surely the arrogance of the ACTU to push such an agenda at a time when there are a significant number of people giving up the search for employment and withdrawing from the workforce, as demonstrated by May’s unemployment figures, is counterproductive for what is supposed to be the Labor heartland.

The ACTU policy claims to improve work life balance by pursuing individual flexibility, but in practice unions in the building construction, electrical and resources industries continue to refuse to accept the Prime Minister’s own National Employment Standard clause for individual flexibility. This is obviously just another example of the double standards and feigned paternalistic nature of the left wing of the Australian Labor Party.

The sham continues to unravel Mr Shorten’s own statement on the basis that the policy calls for a superannuation increase to 12% should not be traded off for either productivity increases or forgoing wage increases in enterprise bargaining. We’re concerned that once again the ACTU congress has no intention in increasing productivity and that central wage fixation is their ultimate goal.

Master Electricians Australia is hugely concerned the ACTU’s Better Bargaining policy will result in higher levels of industrial action unemployment, welfare payments and less incentive for small to medium business to grow and employ people.