The easiest and best way out of the current industrial relations quagmire is as follows: Return IR to the states and even allow the two territories to have full IR responsibility on the proviso that they implement an opt-in opt-out individual contract arrangement whereby employers are free to negotiate with employees should both parties agree to do so. A minimum wage would/could be set by the state or territory and everything else worked out by the employer and employee. Such things as penalty rates, holiday pay, sick pay, long-service-pay, annual leave, leave loadings and the like would all be on the table and completely negotiable by both parties. A contract would be drawn up and be legally binding for a specific length of time. Private property laws in all states and territories may have to be beefed up to ensure any person in charge of a property has total and complete control over who enters that property - except of course police and fire personnel etc. Over time the states and territories which had the most flexible IR systems would become more productive, more competitive and eventually more wealthy. Those that clung to a higher minimum wage or restricted the use of contracts between employer and employee would go backwards - like South Australia and Tasmania have, even under the existing rigid regime. Such a new IR proposal would enable Abbott to go to the next election without the prospect of a nationwide union campaign against his government - simply because he could say that he was returning the powers the founding fathers had originally drawn up at the time of Federation. And competition and free-trade between the states and territories was an original goal of those who put the federation together and drew up the constitution.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 21:36:55 +0000
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