PIAA lashes Fair Work Commission

PIAA CEO Andrew Macaulay and director of government relations Mary-Jo Fisher have told MP’s the Fair Work Commission (FWC) is divided, partisan and dysfunctional, and needs fixing.

Fisher told 25 members of parliament that, “The system is broken, the government has sat on its hands for too long in the workplace relations sphere, it is time it got over its fear of the spectre of Workchoices.”

Fisher says the dysfunction has been building up over the last five to ten years.  She says, “The problem was finally brought to the fore with a scathing critique written by vice president Graeme Watson of the FWC. In our view his letter needs to be used to bring matters to a head with the government.”

“In the sense that if the government has not been rallying already, then it needs to. In the words of Watson in his letter: The workplace relations system is antibusiness and anti-employment.”

Macaulay and Fisher were notified of a recent incident involving the abandonment of the employment clause in the Graphic Arts, Printing and Publishing Award, illustrating many of the issues Watson raises.

They both met with employment minister Michaelia Cash to talk specifically about the FWC.

“We spoke to her on three levels, firstly, we spoke to her about the fair work act itself. We urged the government to progress implementing the recommendations of a recent report from the productivity commission, which shows a raft of recommended changes, we think the government should implement almost all of those.

“Secondly, we indicated to her the small business unfair dismissal code was due for an overhaul and finally, we put to her our concern about the dysfunctional working of the FWC."

[Related: PIAA demands energy fix]

Another MP they spoke to was Dan Tehan telling him the workplace relations system is not helping business, employment or productivity.

Fisher says they asked Tehan to support any changes the government might consider making over the FWC. They also spoke about retaining parallel import restrictions on books as McPherson Binding, a major regional employer with 400 staff is in Tehan’s electorate.

Macaulay and Fisher also had a chance to discuss with small business ombudsman Kate Carnell on helping small businesses, especially those in the printing industry.

“We focused on what the ombudsman do can do to help small business, talking about creating an single industrial award for small business,” Fisher says.

Both plan to go back to Canberra next month, to discuss the issue further. Appointments are in place to meet with a number of labor politicians. 

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