The Democrats and the Greens have made various noises about what they might do to the Coalition’s industrial relations reforms. The devil, of course, will be in the detail. No doubt the Coalition will have to engage in some compromise in some details. However, there is one Coalition proposal that the Democrats and Greens should accept. That is the Coalition’s plan to scrap the absurd notion of “”protected industrial action”.
Under protected action, the “”umpire” … the Industrial Relations Commission … does not have to require unionists to lift bans and other industrial action before they negotiate with an employer. It means that employees can still get paid while holding a gun to the employer’s head. We have seen dramatic examples in the ACT in recent weeks, notably employees sabotaging their employer’s ability to receive money. The rule should be if you do not work without bans you should not get paid.
Labor put the legislation in as part of enterprise bargaining. Enterprise bargaining reduced union power because whole industries could not be so easily threatened, so Labor gave the unions back some power through the protected industrial action. The result has been unionists have been able to inflict economic damage on employers without suffering economic damage themselves through loss of pay or having the umpire order them to work according to their contracts and awards.
Protected industrial action should be scrapped.