Labor and unionists are warding off criticism of the government's industrial relations reforms by saying opponents want a return to the coalition's harsher Work Choices regime.   

The former head of the Australian Building and Construction Commission John Lloyd on Monday said concerns about the state of the industrial relations system were widespread.

"Employers across the whole spectrum are expressing concern about this, and obviously employees are becoming worried about their future job security," Mr Lloyd told Sky News on Monday.

Jobs and productivity are subjects of rising anxiety after BlueScope Steel last week announced it would shed 1000 jobs due to the pressures of the strong Australian dollar.   

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens called last week for a review of industrial relations, saying many business people felt that the government's reforms had reduced workforce flexibility.

That prompted ACTU President Ged Kearney to say the central bank chief was "captive to the big end of town".

Greens industrial relations spokesman Adam Bandt called for the Reserve Bank board to include union and community representatives, not just business leaders, to protect full employment.   

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Dave Oliver said productivity was the real issue.

"Not the Glenn Stevens Reserve Bank productivity by removing penalty rates of workers, but real productivity at a macro level to investment in infrastructure, investment in skills, investment in innovation, research and development, improved management capability and access to finance," he told reporters in Canberra.

"Clearly Glenn Stevens hasn't been looking into the (steel) industry very often because what he would have found is that since 2007 there hasn't been a single day lost in the steel industry through industrial action, unlike during the period of Work Choices."

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said the current IR system was "one size fits all" and needed and overhaul to boost productivity.

Queensland Liberal backbencher Steve Ciobo said Labor's Fair Work Act had choked labour market flexibility.

"The re-regulation of the workforce is costing Aussie jobs.

"As far as I am concerned the 1000 lost jobs at BlueScope last week lie right at the feet of Labor and the unions," he told The Australian.

"With the high Aussie dollar we need to be even more competitive than our trading partners."

But Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans said it was "disgraceful" that Mr Ciobo was blaming workers for the job losses.   

"To suggest that BlueScope's redundancies were caused by the wages and conditions of the BlueScope workers flies in the face of reality," Senator Evans said.   

"We know that this has been caused by the high Australian dollar.

"This is about Work Choices, about returning to a system that says you should lower the wages and conditions of Australian workers." 

Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes said productivity in the steel industry was high and the workplace relations system was working.

"It is not the old narrative in terms of worker losing, worker winning, or boss losing or boss winning," he said.

"It's about being clever, it's being innovative, it's about appropriate levels of managerial experience in manufacturing to ensure we can innovate, can diversify and we can stay the long term."

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complete and utter crap.

I didnt realise the Coalition were in power

what was so bad about workchoices

prob nothing

Hmm, the doom and gloom stories are picking up...

Wonder if that means an early election is in the wind????

Labor's (their overlords in the ACTU that is) have destoyed Australian manufacturing by rolling back IR reform.

Collective agreements are obsolete.

No good having a collective agreement if you haven't got a job.

You whinging comrades got what you voted for.

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One thing that has surprised me about the Rudd/Gillard Govts to date, is that they didn't make a big deal about the stats of AWAs lodged under the Howardian Era's EmployerChoices legislation...

I believe that this was a huge political mistake on the part of the ALP - since they gave Macca et al scope to claim that the Rudd/Gillard changes to workplace laws was tokenistic window-dressing, which largely left the Howardian workplace regime intact...

Ironically, in recent months, we have seen business and Liberal powermongers squawking that the Rudd/Gillard Govts wound back workplace laws by decades...

So, which was it: did Rudd/Gillard leave Howard's workplace laws intact - or did they wind them back a whole lot further!?

It is about time, that the media and employee advocates started demanding the stats under FOI!

THE Greens have warned Tony Abbott they will oppose any return to individual workplace agreements under a Coalition government.   

Meanwhile, business groups welcomed the opposition's commitment to reform aspects of the industrial relations system.

Mr Abbott on Wednesday gave the strongest indication yet that a Coalition government would seek to strike more flexible workplace agreements without union involvement, saying he would inject more "freedom" into arrangements between workers and employers.

Lower House Greens MP Adam Bandt yesterday declared his party would block any attempt to revive individual workplace contracts.   

"We will oppose any attempt to return to Work Choices," Mr Bandt said. "The only way Mr Abbott could revive Work Choices will be if Labor is willing to back it. We will not."   



Mr Bandt said that important employment rights were at risk under a Coalition government, including penalty rates, sick leave and holidays.

But Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said it was important to promote productivity in the workplace. "The fact that the opposition have now recognised the need to join this debate is strongly welcome," she said.

"Productivity is built from the enterprise up and is, of course, dependent on investment in skills, infrastructure and technology. But efficient workplace practices also have to be part of the equation." .

The Labor Party has accused Mr Abbott of reviving Work Choices, but Liberal sources have insisted the Coalition is not intent on returning to individual contracts.

"I think we need freedom. I think we ought to be able to trust the businesses and the workers of Australia to come to arrangements which suit themselves," Mr Abbott told Melbourne's 3AW on Wednesday.

"There's got to be minimums. There's got to be fairness. But there's also got to be freedom."

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said there were a number of flaws in the Fair Work system that needed to be urgently addressed by the Labor government, but said Mr Abbott had taken a positive step forward.

"We welcome the prospect of the opposition developing some alternative policy approaches," he said.

"Our priority in the business community is to redress problems with the Fair Work system without waiting for any change or potential change in government. There are real issues that need to be addressed now."