Often enterprise bargaining ends with a deal brokered in circumstances of crisis. Perhaps industrial action and a union media campaign are now viewed as too distracting or expensive. Perhaps management discontent with long negotiations has brought frustration to the fore, and an instruction to negotiators to “end it, get a deal, any deal”.
Continue Reading Successful enterprise bargaining – Move from being a “price taker” to a “price maker”

There were many important take-aways for employers in the aviation industry from the CAPA Asia-Pacific Aviation Summit that we recently attended. A couple are worth highlighting, as they also apply more broadly to Australian employers managing a rapidly changing competitive landscape within the current industrial relations framework.
Continue Reading Learning from a competitive aviation industry

Upon its inception in the 1990s, enterprise-based bargaining presented Australian employers with more opportunity than risk. Today the opposite seems to be the case. Indeed, a report produced by RMIT University’s Dr Steven Kates in August last year found enterprise agreement renewal to be a major source of concern (read “risk”) for 77% of employers. While the survey giving rise to the report was directed to employers in the  resources industry, there is no reason why a similar response would not come from the likes of  manufacturing, construction, logistics and even public sector employers.
Continue Reading Enterprise Bargaining: Risk and Strategy