Peter Strong: The Jobs Summit issues paper suggests small business representation at the event will be token at best

If we have learned anything over the last few days, it is that there should be no secret deals done behind closed doors and no unnecessary secrets kept by government. 

The upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit looks like it’s from the 1990s when small business was never a consideration.

Evidence strongly suggests that this summit will likely be a talkfest and do little to improve the lot of the 50.5% of Australians that are self-employed or work in the nation’s 2 million small businesses.

So, what happened to discussion on the needs of small business and the removal of workplace relations complexity in the lead up to the Albanese government’s Jobs Summit? A quick review of the agenda paper released by the federal Treasurer suggests that the critical focus on small business — the sector that employs more than half of Australian workers and therefore has the greatest potential to deliver productivity benefits and wage increases — has disappeared.

How could such a blatant oversight have occurred? The lack of a focus on small business makes me both suspicious and nervous about the possible outcomes from the Summit.

It could be as simple as the government has forgotten about the widely acknowledged ‘engine room of the Australian economy’. The only mention of small business in the paper is to apparently dismiss it as being irrelevant in the discussion around enterprise bargaining: “Only 2% of workers covered by agreements are employed by small business and bargained outcomes are higher for men than women on average.”

Or, perhaps it is more sinister? Has something been quietly agreed between the unions and the government behind closed doors? Is there an agenda to force small business people to bargain with unions when they employ someone?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised that the complexity facing small business employers would be addressed in this summit. Yet it isn’t on the agenda.

Not a single mention or even one that looks like a mention. Some may say that these issues can be raised during the process but political history tells us that when small business people needs are not specifically identified in policy discussions they are ignored in favour of the interests of big business and big unions.

So much for creating a dialogue that takes account of the proportional interest of all Australians. I guess that also means that representation from small business at the summit will be token at best. 

The facts are that small businesses between them employ about half the workforce — over 5 million people. They face very different issues from big businesses who have human resource managers and teams to manage the complexity.

Small business owners are not well placed to negotiate with unions. Nor should they be required to do so. The relationships between small business owners and their staff are like family and employee relationships have generally been very harmonious despite the significant complexity of the IR system that they are required to navigate.

Small businesses need an IR system that is simple to understand and apply. One that can be readily understood by a small business owner sitting around the counter with a small business employee without requiring an IR lawyer or a union representative to be present to decipher complex legislation. This requirement has been documented time and time again but has the Albanese government adopted a Tin Ear when it comes to incorporating this issue in its Job Summit?

By comparison, the former government’s Industrial Relations Working Groups of 2020/21 were very much focused on the needs of small business workplaces. They resulted in genuine agreement between small business representatives and the ACTU about the need for change, only to find it scuttled by the Senate. Now it appears that this agreement no longer exists and is no longer a focus for the new government.

It must also be noted that a simple workplace system with awards written in plain English that can be understood by a normal human being is a good thing for employers and workers alike. The only winners from complexity are those that make money or assume power because of that complexity — a group that is popularly known as the ‘Industrial Relations Club’. That Club consists of certain business associations, the unions, and elements of the legal profession.

Australia has the most complicated workplace relations system in the world, and one that gets in the way of small business productivity and wages growth. Yet the government with support of the unions — or perhaps it is the unions with the support of the government — risk making the system even more complicated by seeking to impose collective bargaining mechanisms on small business.

What is the real agenda? Is it to give unions control over the more than 900,000 small business workplaces? And at a time when small business owners are just getting off their knees after their businesses have been decimated by two years of a global pandemic only to be confronted by dramatic rises in the cost of goods and services needed to operate their business? 

We need to make the existing IR system simpler for small business, not harder to accommodate vested interests.

Bizarrely the importance of business — all businesses by the look of it — is not mentioned in the Treasurer’s Job Summit statement. The statement says: “Secure, well-paid jobs are a fundamental part of Australia’s social and economic fabric. Beyond enabling financial independence for individuals, fair pay and job security strengthen communities, promote attractive careers and contribute to broad-based prosperity.”

It fails to understand how a community functions and the vital role that small business plays in supporting the very heart of Australian local communities. 

There are more than 2.3 million self-employed people who also appear to have been overlooked in the government’s Jobs Summit Agenda. Why are the interests of these people not as important as the interests of big business (including their shareholders) and big unions?

Then we have the fact that the taxation system is not to be considered in this summit. That shows a lack of understanding of how interconnected the tax system is with employment and productivity.

It reinforces my concern that the upcoming Summit is just about providing political cover to make changes that meet the interests of unions, rather than any meaningful dialogues to explore productivity improvements that deliver benefits to business and employees alike.

The lack of focus on the majority of workplaces in Australia suggests that this summit will be a stunt.