Labor agrees to multi-employer bargaining concessions as it pushes to pass legislation before Christmas

As Parliament’s Christmas break approaches, the federal government is optimistic that amendments to its industrial relations reform package, including tweaks to its multi-employer bargaining plans, could secure its support in the Senate.

The passage of Labor’s industrial relations omnibus bill through the Senate hinges on support from the crossbench, but key independents Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have both called for more time to assess its implications on the business community.

Labor hopes to pass the legislation before December 1, when politicians depart Canberra for the festive season.

But with eight sitting days left for the Senate in 2022, many of them crowded out by estimates hearings, the government has knuckled down on consultations with Australian business lobbyists to assuage concerns about the bill’s most contentious measures.

Groups involved include the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, which has suggested multi-employer bargaining streams could assist small businesses locked out of the enterprise bargaining system through cost and complexity.

The Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Australian Industry Group — all of which take a harsher view of multi-employer bargaining concessions — have also locked into discussions with the government in recent days.

Speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Agenda, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke said those consultations have already resulted in changes to multi-employer bargaining provisions.

“One of the concerns, which was a reasonable concern, was the concept that you could have in a multi-employer agreement, one employer where there’s a heap of staff, another where it’s much smaller numbers and effectively the bigger workplace, overwhelming the vote of the smaller one,” Burke said.

Changes to the legislation will mean a majority of workers in each business must push for the multi-employer agreement, instead of a majority of employees across a particular sector.

“It’ll be changed so that to be part of an agreement where you’re getting a majority of the staff, it’s employer by employer, where that’s counted similarly for industrial action, similarly to agree to an agreement,” Burke said.

Responding to calls from the Business Council of Australia to lift the multi-employer bargaining eligibility threshold from 15-person businesses to 100-person businesses, Burke said there “will be a conversation” before the legislation reaches the Senate.

Burke added that there are “some drafts going back and forth” regarding the ‘grace’ period offered to businesses before they fall under multi-employer agreements sought by their employees.

“To have a period where you can continue to negotiate is something where we are getting close on that,” Burke said, with the government chasing six months, rather than business group calls for a 12-month amnesty period.

While those changes are well and truly on the government’s agenda, Labor is yet to carve away the multi-employer bargaining measures from the broader bill, a move which could allow it to pass less contentious measures by the end of the year.

Speaking on ABC News Breakfast Monday morning, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government had a solid chance of working through its thorniest proposals.

“My experience is when you put a good case and we work through it logically and rationally, deal with their objections to things, we will come to a settlement on that, and I think we will do that with the IR laws,” he said.

After crossbenchers Lambie and Pocock expressed their misgivings over Labor’s proposed timeframe, Jones also defended the government’s plan to legislate its reform package as soon as possible.

“We got elected on a platform of doing something to get paid moving again and frankly I’m surprised at some of the voices that have been out there saying this is going to be the end of the world,” he said.

“It won’t, it’s a more efficient, effective way to get paid moving for low-paid Australians, and I have to ask, who could be against that?”