Employer and employer association matters in Australia in 2018

Abstract

For employers and employer associations, 2018 was in part a year of submissions to government inquiries, the 4-yearly modern wage review and the minimum wage review. Issues of numerical flexibility, including casual work, the gig economy and labour hire, also consumed much attention. It was also a year in which public discontent with the business world, particularly with big business, in relation to industrial relations and broader socio-political issues, and the questioning of its social licence to operate have escalated. In examining the major issues that concerned employers and their associations during the year, this article also discusses the pressures building for them in expressing and promoting their industrial relations agendas in response to a looming federal election, dynamic trade union campaigning and growing public discontent with the industrial relations system in its current form.

Employer and employer association matters in Australia in 2019

“…Scandals concerning pervasive employer underpayment of wages, sometimes called ‘wage theft’, have become increasingly evident in recent years (Barry and You, 2018; Thornthwaite and Sheldon, 2019) and continued during 2019. Wage underpayment affects very diverse sectors of the economy but appears most concentrated upon the most vulnerable workforce groups.…”

“…Associations continued to campaign strongly to remove new uncertainties in employer liability for casual employees’ redundancy and back-paid entitlements in the shadow the FWC’s 2018 Skene decision (Landau and Allen, 2019; Thornthwaite and Sheldon, 2019). As well, associations are concerned by the rising tide of class actions by legal firms, often backed by overseas litigation funders, to claw back claims for ‘unpaid’ entitlements – and on issues like definitions of employee versus independent contractors (Smith, 2019).…”

“…Similarly, AMMA (2019) argued that, while the Fair Work Amendment (Casual Loading Offset) Regulation, 2018 partially addressed employer concerns, it preferred a more permanent legislative solution. Taking a different path, the NSWBC launched its application to vary the community services industry award by inserting an intermediate ‘permaflexi’ category of worker between permanent and casual (McCauley, 2019a; Thornthwaite and Sheldon, 2019). NSWBC subsequently withdrew its application.…”

“…Furthermore, Labor had pledged a series of tax and other economic measures that prioritised the less well-off at the expense of (some of) the most affluent at a time when the reputation of business, in particular big business, was rapidly sinking under the weight of scandals. These matters, combined with public disquiet over Australian companies’ contribution to climate change, heightened challenges to the ‘social licence’ of business already evident during 2018 (Bartholomeusz, 2019; Thornthwaite and Sheldon, 2019).…”

Australian industrial relations in 2018: Inequality, policy stagnation and a brewing storm

“…As noted by Rawling and Schofield-Georgeson (2019) in their review of industrial legislation, the Australian Labor Party pledged at its December national conference to facilitate 'multi-employer collective bargaining'. On the other hand, employer associations were pushing for reform of the industrial relations system to one that encourages collaboration, is less complex and rigid, and less centralised (Thornthwaite and Sheldon, 2019).…”