Labor opens door to Fair Work tweaks as manufacturer Jeld-Wen locks out workers

The Gillard Government has opened the door to tweaking of the Fair Work Act, as a window and door manufacturer confirmed it was locking out hundreds of workers this morning after a dispute over pay.

A spokeswoman for Jeld-Wen Australia says talks are continuing with the 340 employees across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, but the lockout is planned for three days. Negotiations over a new certified agreement started in June, the company says.

The lockout follows a dispute between the company and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) over a pay rise offer of between 2.5% and 2.9% over three years.

While the CFMEU has accused Jeld-Wen of not “wanting to share”, the Australian Financial Review reports, the company’s Australia’s executive Nigel Woolley says it is “strongly committed to continue negotiating in good faith”.

Jeld-Wen, part of the large US company, is a sponsor of the St Kilda Football Club and was recently featured on the Channel 9 TV renovation show The Block. Its Australian operations include a glass processing factory in Victoria.

The lockout comes as Swan says people in the business community he respects have expressed concerns “from time to time about aspects of industrial relations and some of the frameworks” but very few want the Government to “rip away” the Act.

“They may come to us and say ‘there’s been a decision taken by Fair Work Australia over here, we think it may have some implications for reform in this area and we want to talk to you about that’. So there’s a variety of views across the sector,” Swan told reporters yesterday.

“The biggest boost to productivity that came in industrial relations systems in this country was the introduction of enterprise bargaining back in the early 90s and essentially we’re still with that framework and I believe it’s still is an important framework.”

While the Government plans a review of the two-year-old next year, there have been increasingly vocal calls for the act to be overhauled over the past few months, ranging from the Council of Small Business of Australia, to the Australian Industry Group, former BHP Billiton chairman Don Argus, and the Australian Retailers Association.

While their concerns have centered on the Act’s impact on productivity and flexibility, and whether it is too complicated for small business, others – such as economist Saul Eslake of the Grattan Institute – say it’s simply too early to measure how it has influenced productivity.

The Australian Council of Trade Union, meanwhile, has flagged a fresh look at the Act on the back of a survey of 42,000 union members which showed almost half of non-permanent workers were unhappy with their level of job security.

“Those responses may be legislative and it may be we’re looking to changes to the Fair Work Act. We may focus on the issue in our enterprise bargaining and we may look to tax reform,” ACTU president Ged Keaney says.