Progressive Labour Party - Official Policy – Last amended: National Conference 2007

Industrial Relations Policy

Preamble

The Progressive Labour Party (PLP) industrial relations policy is one part of an overall policy for sustainable development and social justice. Industrial relations legislation should recognize the dignity of productive work, and facilitate healthy, open and cooperative employment relationships. This means that the unequal bargaining power of employers and workers must be recognized, and legislation must address that imbalance.

Australia should move from the current social values system where paid work defines attitude and identity, to a values system where the nature of work is redefined and where value is also placed on community involvement and on unpaid work. Current trends such as the growth in underemployment, the trend towards casual and part time work, and the lack of recognition for domestic work by women and men, make this development important.

Unions provide a voice for workers and, through collective strength, enable working people to organise for better conditions and improved pay.  All working Australians enjoy terms and conditions of employment won by working people through organised trade union struggle. The PLP is committed to an industrial relations system which recognises and supports the central role of trade unions. 

We need to press for democratization in the workplace and active involvement of workers in decision making. The PLP supports democratic involvement of workers at an industry level and greater participation by workers in decisions affecting their work environments, production methods and company direction.

We recognize the interdependence of management and labour and also recognize the need for effective disputes procedures to resolve workplace conflict.

The PLP opposes all anti-worker legislation, including the Workplace Relations Act (WorkChoices) and the penal powers used against employees and their unions. The Workplace Relations Act undermines the important role of unions and makes cooperative industrial relationships less likely.

Legislation must re-establish the primacy of an arbitrated, industry Award system, confirm the central role of the Industrial Relations Commission, and provide a relevant and meaningful legislated safety net to protect those workers most vulnerable to exploitation at work, in particular young people, casual workers, Indigenous workers, workers with disabilities, and workers in industries made up of small workplaces and women.

The PLP seeks a domestic led recovery of the Australian economy. Dealing with unemployment and improving the wages and conditions of those in work is a crucial part of this strategy.

We also propose a more democratic economy, where decisions are made by the people that will be affected by them.  Our regional development policy and our investment in getting Australia back to economic and industrial stability will involve workers, unions, employers and local communities in economic decision making, restoring some control over our own destiny.

Objectives

The PLP will:

Awards And Conditions

It should be every employer's obligation, whether state or private, small or large, to pay no less than award wages and provide no less than award working conditions which should comply with nationally determined standards. The quality of life for all Australians depends in large part on fair wages and working conditions. Employers along with workers will benefit from maintenance of wages and conditions. Decent wages and working conditions are like environmental protection: something that government and every business should be required to comply with and not just "those who can afford to.

Collective bargaining through trade unions, backed up by the unfettered right to take industrial action, is the only basis for negotiating employment conditions.  Where this fails, alternative mechanisms are direct legislation for minimum conditions, and an arbitration system through an independent “umpire” – the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

THE HOURS OF WORK

A thirty five hour week is a reasonable limit to ordinary working hours. Many workers currently have to work long and anti social hours to support themselves and their families. The right to be able to earn a comfortable living within a thirty five hour week should be a basic right.

Overtime should be discouraged in favour of increased employment opportunities, while recognising the requirement for income maintenance for some sectors of the community. All overtime worked should be paid at a penalty rate sufficient to provide a real disincentive against using overtime in preference to employing additional staff.  Heavy fines should be used to prevent employers from requiring workers to work unpaid overtime.

All public sector enterprises must be funded and staffed at levels which enable work to be completed within the hours paid, while maintaining the highest level of service to the community.

The PLP supports the concept of permanent part time work (with pro rata pay and, where appropriate, conditions) as a choice for those preferring it.  However the capacity to move from part time to increased hours or to full time work is an essential feature.  It is important that part time work does not remain a career path dead end for women with family responsibilities, thus reinforcing existing gender disparities.  Part time work should be an opportunity available to any worker but not a trap, as it is increasingly becoming for many young people.

JOB SECURITY

The casualisation of work has taken several forms in Australia, all of which are unacceptable.  Casual employment, short term contracts, labour hire and independent contractor arrangements all serve to shift the risk of operating in an unpredictable market from the employer to the employee.  They also disempower workers by removing them from protections against unfair dismissal, leaving them exposed to bullying, intimidation, unsafe work practices and arbitrary dismissal.

Casual employment should be restricted to those limited circumstances where there is genuinely an unexpected and short-term vacancy.  It should not be available for ongoing work, or for regular and predictable shifts in the pattern of work.  Short term contracts, which currently incur neither casual loadings nor severance payment, are similarly misused.

Casual and short-term contract work should attract penalty rates (loadings) which are sufficiently high to provide a real incentive to make an ongoing appointment instead of using these exploitative forms of employment.

Labour hire and independent contractor workers should be subject to the prevailing rights and conditions in the workplace in which they work, including membership of the relevant union, and the host employer should bear the full responsibilities of an employment relationship with respect to those workers.  These provisions should quickly eliminate the use of these forms of employment in all cases except those which objectively justify them.

Employee entitlements will be protected, including through the establishment of industry trusts for accrued entitlements, to ensure they are not lost in circumstances of enterprise or company liquidation.

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

Where they do not already exist, May Day and International Women's Day should be introduced as additional public holidays.

LEAVE ENTITLEMENTS

Minimum national standards should be raised, including a goal of: unlimited sick leave, fourteen weeks paid maternity leave, ten days paid parental leave, and increased annual leave to encourage the elimination of unemployment.

A system of national portability of long service leave should be introduced.

Health And Safety

A national health and safety regime should be introduced, based on recognised best practice.  This will include a strong and well-resourced inspectorate, vigorous prosecution of breaches in standards, imposition of stronger penalties, effective protection against retribution for complainants, and a central role for worker-elected health and safety representatives. The possibility of inspectors being elected from within various industries will be investigated.

The PLP supports maintenance of health and safety legislation that requires the establishment of workplace health and safety committees in establishments of over 20 employees. The powers of these committees should be enhanced. For smaller workplaces effective provision must be made for worker representation on health and safety issues. Workplace health and safety must be integrated into broader planning for public health.

Industrial Bargaining

Australia has moved from national, industry-level bargaining to enterprise-level bargaining and, more recently, to the imposition of conditions through individual contracts such as AWAs.  At the same time, legislation has weakened the bargaining position of workers by undermining the role of unions, removing the arbitral powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, subjecting industrial action to stringent limitations, removing important conditions from awards, and prohibiting bargaining on some subject matters altogether.

The result has been fragmentation of wages and conditions, increasing differences within industries and occupations in the wages and conditions experienced by workers, a growth in the gender wages gap, and an individualisation of industrial bargaining.

Because employers within an industry are competing with each other, if one employer succeeds in substantially reducing wage costs then other employers feel obliged to follow suit in order to compete.  However, competition should be between products and services, not wages and working conditions. Industry based negotiation, including pattern bargaining, is the most desirable and stable basis for industrial relations.

A mix of arbitrated industry awards, enterprise or industry agreements and legislated minimum standards should be used to provide a comprehensive system of regulation.

The PLP argues for the reintroduction of relevant, contemporary industry awards as the primary instruments for setting terms and conditions of employment.  Enterprise or industry-wide agreements may be negotiated in addition to the awards.  Awards may be arbitrated and shall set rates of pay and conditions that reflect the current industry standard, and where bargaining does not occur or fails, the award rates will apply.

Common rule awards shall be arbitrated to set minimum terms and conditions of employment for all workers not covered by industry awards, to ensure that marginal sectors and the most vulnerable workers have effective protection.  This will also prevent unscrupulous employers from using “non-award” workers to maintain downward pressure on other wages and conditions. 

The present gap between men's and women's average earnings must be addressed through pay equity and equal employment opportunities legislation. There should be a process for the determination of pay equity issues within Awards and enterprise agreements.  All awards and agreements must be required to be non discriminatory in their nature and application.

Individual employment “agreements”, such as Australian Workplace Agreements, have no place in our industrial relations system.  Working conditions are a matter of collective interest, and the only purpose of such individual arrangements is to undermine the collective bargaining strength. 

Union Rights

Industrial bargaining must function fairly and freely. Workers must be able to participate fully in their own organizations, and unions must be able to organize freely. Union membership will be voluntary and the right of membership will not be impeded. Unions and employers will have the right to actively encourage union membership.

The structure of unions and union peak bodies should be reviewed to maximise democratic involvement by workers at workplace level and enhance access to representative positions.

Employers will be required to recognise a union if it has any members at the workplace.  Further, recognising that the benefits won by unions flow to all workers in the workplace, in any workplace where a union can demonstrate at least 50% membership, all employees must choose to either join the union or pay an annual bargaining fee to the union, equivalent to the union membership fee.

Unions must have right of entry to all worksites where they have reason to believe that their membership may cover the relevant workers.

The PLP will restore funding for trade union education and paid education leave. Legislation will recognize the rights of union delegates and the right of members to pay their union fees by wage deduction. A legislated minimum of four annual paid stop work meetings for union members should be established.

The right to strike is recognized as a fundamental right of workers and should be protected by industrial law. Strikes and other forms of industrial action will be lawful. The Trades Practices Act must be amended to remove penalties against workers and unions participating in solidarity action or taking industrial action “in concert”.  Common law penalties against industrial action must also be eliminated.

Industrial law must ensure that no worker can take another’s employment in the course of an industrial dispute. Lockouts during (or initiating) industrial disputes will be unlawful.

Industrial Democracy

Government must involve workers, employers and the community in broad consultation about important decisions affecting an enterprise or industry.

For instance a regional development programme must enhance community participation rather than centralised control. Industry and enterprise planning should also reflect these aims.

Worker participation is also essential to more democtatic decision making in business. One way this may work is through the establishment of Workers Councils involving  union representation. These Councils will enhance workers’ collective voice at the workplace level.

Industry planning must also reflect the interest of workers in the management of change and provide for the benefits of technology to be shared by all workers rather than result simply in redundancy for some and improvements for others.

An Independent Umpire

The Industrial Relations Commission shall be restored as an independent conciliation and arbitration commission. The resources of the Industrial Relations Commission shall be significantly boosted and new appointments made who will have the respect of the industrial parties. The requisite qualifications for commissioners will be reviewed. The Commission will make determinations of industry and common rule awards, national minimum standards, pay equity standards as well as oversee and enforce any bargaining processes. The powers of the Industrial Inspectorate will be enhanced.

Workers’ Compensation

The PLP supports the introduction of a national, universal, no fault workers’ compensation scheme.

Unfair Dismissal

Cost-free unfair dismissal procedures should be available for all workers irrespective of the size of the firm/organisation in which they work, and should allow financial compensation and/or reinstatement according to the wishes of the sacked employee. Casual, probationary, short term contract, labour hire and independent contractor workers should not be excluded from access to unfair dismissal procedures.

Vocational Education and Training

Education and training are important both to the individual and to the social and economic success of Australia. The PLP education policy promotes lifelong education for all. Part of that programme is improved vocational training and retraining.

At the moment many employers make no contribution to the ongoing development of skills through industry based training.  All businesses should contribute through levies within industries and sectors to apprenticeship and other industry based training. Government should provide the resources to maintain, update and expand a high quality TAFE system.

The structure of industry training should ensure that industry training bodies include representation from the recipients of education - the trainees and workers within the industry - and unions which are significantly represented in the industry. The management of Group Apprenticeship Schemes should be equally shared by employers and unions from the relevant trade. Such training will be paid at ordinary paid rates.

The provision of education and training should be a requirement of all regional development programmes.