More than jobs, inflation, security or disputation, the Coalition’s just-released policy on industrial relations claims to be about productivity.
The policy is replete with over 30 references to “productivity…
The coalition’s industrial relations policy is likely to disappoint small business.
AAP
Tony Abbott’s industrial relations strategy has received a less than rapturous response from both business and trade unions.
The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group have criticised…
Tony Abbott’s industrial relations policy launch attempts to neutralise Labor’s advantage and bed down fears of a resurgence of WorkChoices.
Industrial relations is the one area of public policy that traditionally marks a major fault line between the Coalition parties and Labor. It is also one area of policy where neither side finds it easy…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott at the launch of his politically cautious industrial relations policy today in Sydney.
AAP/Paul Miller
Unions' power would be curbed under an Abbott government, with more restrictions put on their right of entry to workplaces and a time limit imposed for concluding “greenfield agreements” for new projects…
President Obama has proposed raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, reigniting the debate about the effect of a wage hike on unemployment.
flickr\brianwallace
In his State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama reignited a perennial debate in his proposal to increase the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 an hour to $9.00 an hour. Advocating…
This election year, taxation, industrial relations and red tape will feature prominently on the business community’s agenda.
AAP
The business community was effectively sidelined at the last federal election, and they felt somewhat miffed about it. Business associations were caught flat-footed at the suddenness of Julia Gillard…
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has ruled out making any sweeping changes to the Fair Work Act.
AAP
The post implementation review of the Fair Work Act, 2009, was released this afternoon. A three member panel – Professor Ron McCallum, Dr John Edwards and Michael Moore – produced the three hundred–odd…
If the government is serious about maintaining its economic prosperity into the future, it needs to address Australia’s historically poor productivity growth.
Ann Douglas
The majority of Australians would prefer higher living standards. This can take the form of better access to better healthcare services and education, better environmental outcomes, more time for friends…
Australia’s global competitiveness has slipped, according to a global study: but it is worth exploring some of its assumptions.
AAP
The IMD World Competitiveness Rankings released this week are worth reflecting on, not so much because of the relative positioning of various countries – including Australia – but rather because of the…
Industrial relations in Australia is captive to antagonistic histories.
“The object of [the Fair Work] Act is to provide a balanced framework for cooperative and productive workplace relations that promotes national economic prosperity and social inclusion for all Australians…
Toyota has culled 350 workers from its Altona plant, based on an assessment system that rated individuals' performance.
AAP
As if losing their jobs wasn’t bad enough in a contracting local economy, the 350 laid-off workers from the Toyota plant in Altona, also leave with the stigma of being a “low-productivity” worker or, colloquially…
Victorian nurses have been clashing with the Victorian government for months.
AAP/Joe Castro
The dispute between the Australian Nursing Federation and Victoria’s Baillieu government is expected to be resolved today.
Nurses ceased industrial action two weeks ago. For the Victorian community it…
Apprenticeships are an integral part of our workforce.
AAP
The ACTU is escalating a push through its case with Fair Work Australia to improve the wages of apprentices, many of whom are paid below the poverty line. There is a case for this and it is long overdue…
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce’s announced job cuts again places him in conflict with unions.
AAP
Plans announced by Qantas to cut 500 jobs have been greeted with dismay by unions, who have warned they will hold chief executive Alan Joyce to his promise that maintenance jobs will not go overseas…
An early agreement with at least one Qantas union has been reached despite strong rhetoric on both sides.
AAP
Qantas management has made an early agreement with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) in a deal that reflects compromise by both parties, despite earlier strong rhetoric from…
Dissatisfaction over the recent shutdown by Qantas surprisingly may not affect loyalty.
AAP
Is it the comfort of the seats, the high standard of the food or the friendliness of the cabin crew that has us using the same airline time after time?
According to recent research we conducted at the…
The idea that Australians work longer hours than workers from other countries is a myth.
Flickr/hongoxl
Many economic and social commentators, including the University of Canberra’s Josh Fear on The Conversation yesterday, continue to express concern about the number of hours many Australians spend doing…
Workers are finding it increasingly difficult to leave work on time or enjoy their free time.
Flickr/Floris M. Oosterveld
Today is national Go Home on Time Day, the one day of the year that you can work the hours you are paid for and no more – without feeling guilty. Since The Australia Institute first declared Go Home on…
International examples show that quicker access to arbitration could have avoided the drastic action taken by Qantas chief Alan Joyce.
AAP
As the Qantas dispute moves into the arbitration phase in Fair Work Australia (FWA), it is timely to consider whether the tests for access to arbitration under the Fair Work Act need refining.
Prompted…
Will arbitration by Fair Work Australia provide the outcome Qantas chief Alan Joyce wants? Not necessarily.
AAP
Memo to the Qantas public relations team: if you mount a Twitter campaign calling for travellers' luxury flying experiences in the middle of an unresolved industrial dispute, be aware there might be a…
After 20 years of enterprise bargaining, are we seeing an unintended return to compulsory arbitration?
AAP
With the threat of further industrial action at Qantas looming and Victorian nurses continuing with their rolling work bans, you could be forgiven for thinking that Australia has entered a new phase of…
Alan Joyce walked with staff in August – but what will win them back now?
AAP
It is possible to rebuild relations after major disputes. British Airways is currently trying to do just that after a long industrial-relations dispute with many of its flight attendants.
Qantas’s CEO…
An adversarial approach is not the only – or even the best – way to resolve the Qantas dispute.
AAP
Nearly all of the analysis and critique of the Qantas saga since the grounding has turned on the designs of principal players, their behaviours in the moment and the vagaries of the Fair Work Act.
It…
There is more behind the Qantas lockout than short-term industrial disputes.
AAP
As the initial shock of the Qantas lockout of its workforce abates, it is time to consider the wider implications of this action.
One lesson is the folly of national identification of companies that are…
More turmoil, not closure, is likely to be ahead of Qantas following last week’s industrial action.
AAP
Following on from Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s controversial decision to lock out staff and ground the entire fleet, there has been a flurry of writing – in The Conversation and across the world – on the rights…
In debate over the Qantas IR dispute, the truth of the Fair Work Act is the elephant in the room.
AAP
The drawn-out dispute between Qantas and unions that led to the airline’s entire fleet being grounded over the weekend has sparked calls for reform of Australia’s industrial relations laws.
Business leaders…
Qantas flights are back in the air after Fair Work Australia ordered the termination of industrial action.
AAP
The Fair Work Australia (FWA) decision on the Qantas industrial dispute makes it clear the action by the three unions was not enough to trigger a decision by FWA to terminate the bargaining periods.
A…
FWA used legislation enacted in 1993 to protect the economy from protracted industrial action.
AAP
Read the Fair Work Australia decision here
Read Roy Green, Dean of UTS Business School: Planes set to fly again – but what now for Qantas?
Read our previous coverage here
The decision by Fair Work…
Qantas management have taken a risky approach to end their dispute with unions.
AFP/William West
Qantas planes are set to return to the air today after Fairwork Australia ruled to terminate an industrial dispute that grounded the airline over the weekend.
The extraordinary action on Saturday by…
Staff are due to be locked out by Qantas management at 8pm on Monday.
The stakes are high for both the union movement and Qantas, as a Fairwork Australia hearing aimed at ending the industrial crisis which has grounded Qantas planes continues this evening.
Qantas wants…
Tony Abbott has tough decisions to make on workplace reform before the next election.
AAP
In one of the most significant moments of the 2010 federal election campaign, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott declared the Coalition’s unpopular WorkChoices policy “dead, buried, cremated.”
In an interview…
Cutting penalty rates and reviving individual workplace agreements will have no impact on productivity.
AAP
Business leaders are insisting changes be made to the Fair Work Act to boost productivity.
Retailers apparently face a crisis because of penalty rates, and an MP agrees that penalty rates stymie productivity…
Expansion is behind a transitory decline in the mining sector productivity growth: but what’s the picture for other sectors?
AAP
Official explanations of the deterioration in Australia’s productivity growth have tended to emphasise the especially sharp declines in three sectors – agriculture, mining, and utilities (such as electricity…
Don Argus’s focus on industrial relations overlooks the real issues behind slowing productivity growth.
AAP
Former BHP Billiton Chairman Don Argus has blamed inflexible industrial relations laws for Australia’s lagging productivity, describing the Gillard Government’s economic reform agenda as “lazy”.
Argus…
Peter Reith votes in the Liberal Federal presidency election.
AAP
“Julia Gillard’s retrograde changes to workplace relations law are slowly burning our economy and in time the voices of embattled business will be heard across the country.” – Peter Reith, The Age, June…
A Melbourne picket line during the 1998 waterfront dispute.
Takver's Soapbox/Wikipedia
After his failed attempt at winning the Liberal Party presidency, Peter Reith has become a liberated soul.
As president he would be expected to avoid controversy, especially on policy issues. But now…
The Labor government has shied away from making substantial changes in industrial relations law.
AAP/Patrick Hamilton
Peter Reith’s spectacular re-emergence into Australian politics has enlivened the so-called “IR” debate.
His intervention has called forth a flood of commentary, from Tony Abbott (who now supports “practical…
Few in the Liberal party are keen to see a potentially damaging return to the workplace debate.
AAP
With political debate dominated by carbon and mining taxes, the recent stirrings by Peter Reith about industrial relations may have come as a bit of a surprise – out of left field, if you will excuse the…
Action-man Abbott bonding with the working man AAP.
Peter Reith’s recent column in The Age arguing that the Liberals need to revisit and radically change their industrial relations policy explains precisely why Tony Abbott did not support him for Liberal…
Peter Reith votes in the Liberal Federal presidency election.
AAP
I have some very fond memories of the mid 1980s. The fluoro shirts, the feathered haircuts, dancing to Wham! at the local blue light disco.
But this week I’m having a disturbing ‘80s industrial relations…
Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin must ensure policy reflect cultural differences.
The Gillard Government’s new discussion paper on indigenous welfare policy in the Northern Territory continues Labor’s rhetorical reliance on a loosely defined concept of the “dignity of work”.
Federal…
FairWork Australia’s decision will allow young workers more flexibility.
AAP
Fair Work Australia’s decision to relax the minimum shift requirement for school kids from three hours to 90 minutes has been praised by employer groups and criticised by unions, who fear low-paid teens…
