Monday 21 November 2011

Fair Work Act may assist employers implement structural change

Paul Barry in Gillard's IR test: first Qantas, now the nurses union writes that the Fair Work Act might be tougher on unions than many people think.
According to Ron McCallum, Professor of Industrial Law at Sydney University, "Fair Work Australia will not arbitrate over how you should run your business."

This makes compulsory arbitration an attractive outcome for employers—so attractive that Qantas was prepared to lock out its workforce and ground its entire fleet to ensure it got there. "The reason why Qantas shut down the airline," says McCallum, "was that Joyce's advisers at Freehills would have told him that arbitration would bring an end to the industrial action but would not stop the strategy to shift jobs offshore."
The article then looks at how the Baillieu Government may be trying to "goad" the nurses into industrial action so it can seek compulsory arbitration and so get through cost cutting measures that would not be achievable through negotiation.

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