Call for limit on public holidays

Date
    August 2, 2012


An independent report into the Fair Work Act has recommended that the government limits the number of public holidays for which penalty rates are payable to 11.   

Currently, the number of public holidays varies from state to state.  The number this year is expected to range from 10 to 13 days.

This year, Queensland, the ACT and New South Wales will have 13 public holiday days, while Victoria will have 12 and Western Australia and Tasmania 11.

According to the report, the Fair Work Act includes an entitlement under the National Employment Standards (NES) for eight public holidays a year, as well as any further days prescribed by state or territory legislation.

The Act then provides a right to be absent and paid at the base rate on a public holiday. Penalty rates for working on a public holiday are provided for in modern awards and enterprise agreements - not the Act - and typically provide for a penalty rate payable for working on any public holiday.

A large number of employers told the review panel they were concerned about the ability for state and territory governments to declare additional public holidays and the resultant increase in wage costs due to penalty rates.   

To overcome these concerns, the report recommended that under the NES, there should be a nationally consistent number of public holidays each year for which penalty rates are payable.

The report - based on a four month investigation - also calls for last-resort pay arbitration on new mining and other greenfields projects ''if the parties are unable to reach agreement within a suitable timeframe''.

Under current law, if a company wants a new mine, it must negotiate with unions the terms and conditions even before the workforce is employed.

Employers complain a union can make unreasonable demands and force negotiations to drag on until the company, sensitive that the project needs to get under way, gives in.

Under the changes recommended in the review, employers will still have to negotiate with unions but it is understood there will be an arbitration system to ensure the process is conducted in good faith and swiftly.

The review panel said that it was not persuaded that the current legislative framework was accountable for Australia's productivity slowdown.

Workplaces Relations Minister Bill Shorten said the review has found the Fair Work Act is working well, and that no emergency changes are needed to Australia's industrial relations laws.   


Business groups are arguing that the report ''sidesteps'' the real issues confronting workplace productivity, while unions say they are pleased it rejected calls for the reintroduction of key parts of Work Choices.   

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott told Sky News today that the report did not address the concerns that business has about productivity and jobs growth.

''It doesn't gel with common sense,'' Ms Westacott said.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson said that businesses would be ''bitterly disappointed' with the findings.

''The real issues have been sidestepped,'' he said.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney said there were still concerns that some of the recommendations could be used by employers to "strip workers of their rights".   

“Unions maintain the view that any further changes to workplace laws should improve job security, rights and protections for Australian workers, not hand more power to employers," Ms Kearney said.   

The review, conducted by former Federal Court judge Michael Moore, John Edwards, a member of the Reserve Bank Board, and Ron McCallum, a workplace relations academic, made more than 50 recommendations. Mr Shorten said the feedback was ''constructive''.

The report rejects a return to any of the underlying principles of Work Choices such as individual Australian Workplace Agreements, even if underpinned by a safety net of terms and conditions, which Work Choices stripped away.

Nor does it recommend any changes to the unfair dismissal protection Labor reintroduced.

The recommendations, aimed at improving equality, flexibility and productivity, also include that the time limit for lodging unfair dismissal applications is extended to 21 days and that Fair Work Australia changes its name.

Mr Shorten said that with the release of the report, the Coalition should now engage in an ''honest and transparent'' debate about their plans for workplace policy.     

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said a Coalition government may make changes to the Fair Work Act but insisted that they will be careful, cautious and not based on ideology.

Speaking before the review's release today, Mr Abbott told reporters at a Brisbane meat processing plant that Australia faces some serious workplace relations issues in the areas of productivity, militancy and flexibility.

''I've certainly said that we do need to address these issues. [That] may very well involve changes to the Fair Work Act,'' Mr Abbott said.

But he moved also to calm fears that he would reintroduce WorkChoices or radically overhaul the industrial relations regime.

''The point I've made all along is they will be careful, cautious, prudent, responsible changes within the framework of the existing act,'' he said.

''They will be based on addressing problems, not applying ideology.''

In response, Mr Shorten said that ''words like caution'' could not ''mask forever the lack of detail'' in the Coalition's policy.
''I think what this report highlights, is where's the Liberal policy?''   

It has been predicted that the release of the review would see Labor try to force the Coalition to declare its hand on industrial relations policy with the aim of starting another Work Choices-style scare campaign.

Yesterday senior sources told The Sydney Morning Herald that the Coalition was not likely to take the bait and that Mr Abbott would only promise minor changes to workplace law, not the swinging changes some sectors of the business community want.

Today in Brisbane, Mr Abbott criticised the review, arguing it should have been done by the Productivity Commission.

''Naturally, the government reviewing the government has decided that the government doesn't have a a problem,'' he said.

The Fair Work Act was introduced by Labor to replace Work Choices, the policy which contributed to the downfall of the Howard government in 2007.

Business feels the pendulum has swung too far back towards workers and unions and in submissions to the review called for changes to increase flexibility and limit the potential to strike and conduct other militant behaviour.   

Mr Shorten said he would now consult business groups about the report and that the federal government planned to talk to the states in mid-August.

He said that if legislation was required it would be ''good'' to introduce it in the Spring session of parliament.

He also suggested that there might be two lots of legislation, if there were areas in which it was difficult to reach agreement.

Greens Deputy Leader Adam Bandt said his party would work with the Gillard government to amend the Fair Work Act.   

But he said the Greens were concerned about proposals to limit bargaining on greenfields sites and the possible removal of holiday penalty rates in some states and territories.

Coalition Workplace Relations spokesman Eric Abetz slammed the review process and said taxpayers should ask for their money back.

“Australian taxpayers should be demanding the return of the $1 million spent in the less than adequate review of the Fair Work Act," Senator Abetz said in a statement.

“At a cost of $3000 a page, the report is a major let down and an insight into Australia’s productivity problems.”

Senator Abetz said Mr Shorten had "stacked the panel" and "skewed the terms of reference" to make sure the report was positive.

With Phillip Coorey, AAP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/call-for-limit-on-public-holidays-20120802-23hei.html#ixzz22NMZcGTe