Lots has been said recently in the press about enterprise agreement making and the approval process by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). In short, the numbers of agreements being made is down and approval times are “long”. The graph below, recently cited in an AFR article, demonstrates a possible link between approval times slowing and
Collective bargaining: the outlook
In yesterday’s blog, we commented on the state of play in enterprise bargaining in Australia.
So what’s the outlook for enterprise bargaining in Australia? Here’s the top 7:
- Collective bargaining remains unlikely to be the answer for productivity gains – as has been the case for some time. Nor will it deliver the across-the-board wages
The collective bargaining state of play (AKA risk management for employers)
A consistent theme in recent years for both employers and unions is that enterprise bargaining is broken.
The genesis of enterprise bargaining in the mid 1990’s lay in its potential to generate productivity gains at a time when workplaces were strangled by terms and conditions set for whole industries and occupations, divorced from the particular
Bargaining levers – a legal pendulum
Within eight days of each other Bill Shorten and ACTU head, Sally McManus, have called for changes to the enterprise bargaining regime which is a central feature of Labor’s own Fair Work Act. Whilst we will no doubt hear more on this these statements would be chilling to many an employer who regards the current
7 lessons for successful bargaining
Several years ago, the authors of this blog toured the United States to glean what Australian employers could learn from the US enterprise bargaining experience. This led to the widely reported “7 lessons from the US for successful bargaining”.
Continue Reading 7 lessons for successful bargaining
The long and the short of enterprise bargaining
Once again collective bargaining in Australia is a hot topic. Both the Prime Minister and Senator Abetz have bemoaned the making of ‘soft deals’ by employers.
Continue Reading The long and the short of enterprise bargaining