The boss of one of the country’s biggest employers had backed changes to Australia’s enterprise bargaining, labelling the current system “broken”.
Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott said workplace bargaining was flawed and disempowered workers.
Wesfarmers owns retailers such as Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks, and has more than 100,000 employees.
Mr Scott told The Australian on Friday he would be happy to share his views with others at next week’s jobs and skills summit in Canberra – where unions and big business are expected to clash on industrial relations.
“We think that enterprise agreements are a fantastic way, if they operate appropriately, to really help businesses adjust to the competitive forces they face to create value and then very clearly share that value with your team members,” Mr Scott said.
“It is a fantastic framework. Unfortunately, the framework is just broken at the moment.”
On Wednesday, the ACTU proposed changes to fair work laws, noting the enterprise bargaining system needed reforming and was failing some newer industries.
The peak body for unions called for more options for collective bargaining, including multi-employer or sector bargaining, which would allow multiple workplaces to make an agreement together.
ACTU head Sally McManus said people in care sectors, in particular, would benefit because it would allow workers at multiple businesses to band together to ask for higher pay and better working conditions.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has not endorsed the proposal, but said there would be a debate on changes to the enterprise bargaining system.
“[The system] is just not delivering that strong responsible sustainable wages growth that we need to see, which has been absent from our economy for the best of the decade,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
“We’re not naive about this issue being contentious.”
Mr Scott stopped short of backing a return to sector-wide enterprise bargaining.
“We now have a system, and everyone seems to understand this, that the enterprise bargaining system is broken. So there are various obstacles within the EBA that are stopping that happening,” he said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said sector-wide bargaining would “cripple families and small businesses”. He has labelled the union push a “throwback from the ’70s”.
“I want to see good outcomes, but the proposals for increased taxes, for a tightening of the industrial relations scheme … surely is not something that [Prime Minister Anthony] Albanese can entertain,” he said.
Dr Chalmers said working Australians had gone backwards under the current enterprise bargaining system while businesses were making large profits.
Recently released Australian Bureau of Statistics data for the June quarter showed pay packets were falling behind the rising cost of living.
The business community has broadly opposed the multi-employer bargaining proposal.
Business Council boss Jennifer Westacott said it was not the solution to slow wages growth, and that making the enterprise bargaining system “easier, more accessible and simpler” was the key to locking in more ambitious agreements.
Innes Willox, chief executive of Ai Group, also said the emphasis should remain on reforms to enterprise bargaining.
“We should definitely not subject them to a one-size-fits-all approach of sector bargaining and the prospect of damaging industrial action,” he said.
The draft agenda for the two-day jobs and skills summit also has skills shortages, sluggish wage growth and maintaining low unemployment on the agenda.
The tech industry and the ACTU have found some common ground ahead of the summit, calling for a new digital apprenticeship program, improved pathways to permanent migration for tech workers, and more work to attract women into the industry.
Australia’s migration program will also feature prominently at the summit, with the possibility of a rise in the cap for skilled migrants and movement on visa processing backlogs.
-with AAP
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