Why multi-employer bargaining is good for workers – and the nation
Recent federal industrial relations reforms will have a positive impact on the daily working life of millions of Australians.
One of the most fundamental examples is the reform encouraging more multi-employer bargaining. Simply put, that means bargaining where multiple employers – and their employees – are covered under the same enterprise agreement.
David Brear, General Secretary of the IEU Victoria Tasmania, says the significance of the reform for the IEU is “massive”.
“It will change the way members working together in our union can pursue further improvements. Instead of each workplace negotiating on its own, multi-employer bargaining means they can join forces and use their combined strength to secure better conditions for employees”.
Kylie Busk, IEU Victoria Tasmania Deputy General Secretary, says Australia’s outdated laws and focus on enterprise bargaining meant that every industrial action she’s been part of since 1997 had been “unprotected and unlawful”.
“While we’ve been able to deliver good outcomes for members, the restrictions have always been a major barrier to our work to advance wages and conditions for members in schools. They have led to negotiations for many IEU members have dragging on and on because employers hold out, delay and frustrate to save money and maintain the status quo.”
Addressing June’s Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) Congress, IEU Federal Secretary Brad Hayes echoed Kylie’s point.
“When members couldn’t take action for a multi-employer agreements, negotiations dragged on for years, as members were denied the right to strike, and employers could simply reject and delay”.
Brad introduced the Congress to member Janene Rox, a preschool teacher from Sydney to illustrate the practical benefits of the new multi-employer bargaining rights.
“My sector – early childhood education – is made up of thousands of small workplaces,” Janene said.
“Community preschools like mine rely on volunteer parents acting as the employer. As you can imagine, complex bargaining undertaken preschool by preschool is a daunting prospect for many volunteer employers; it can be a logistical nightmare.
“I’m fortunate that we have been able to negotiate an agreement at my preschool, with great support from the IEU.
“But we need to extend this success to every preschool and every early childhood education centre. New multi-employer agreements can go a long way to making this possible.”
In recent decades, Australia's policymakers have made it increasingly difficult for workers to negotiate for better wages and conditions. This has contributed to slow wage growth, many workers being stuck on insecure contracts, and the large gender pay gap.
Writing for AFR in 2022, Industrial relations academic Chris F Wright, said multi-employer bargaining would deliver better results for everyone – including business.
He said, “current laws make it too easy for businesses to opt out of enterprise bargaining and too hard for workers to negotiate new agreements”.
“Most OECD countries use multi-employer bargaining to set wages. Extensive international evidence highlights that co-ordinated multi-employer bargaining systems have a better track record on macroeconomic performance, employment outcomes and skill development than enterprise bargaining systems such as Australia’s.
“Although awards provide a minimum safety net, workers on average receive much lower pay under awards than bargained agreements. And unlike bargaining, awards cannot be used to negotiate productivity-based trade-offs.”
Wright cited the example of Denmark, where employers support multi-employer bargaining “because it delivers wages that are both fair and affordable, gives them more reliable access to skilled workers, encourages them to compete on innovation rather than by lowering labour costs, and removes the administrative burdens of negotiating agreements for each enterprise”.
“The rest of the world is moving towards multi-employer bargaining because it benefits businesses as well as workers. This is a once in a generation opportunity. Australia should embrace it.”
Australia, via a change of government, did embrace it, which is important for unionists, as Brad Hayes reminded the ACTU Congress.
“We’re always on the bargaining treadmill – the IEU negotiates over 800 separate agreements across the country.
“It’s a never-ending circuit of worksite after worksite, juggling multiple negotiations. No sooner have we bedded down a good collective agreement, than we quickly move on to the next.
“We are being spread too thin.
“It takes so much time to draft clauses, research claims, attend meetings, handle FWC paperwork – then, rinse and repeat across hundreds of worksites.”
Brad hopes the new bargaining regime will mean unions can spend more time ‘organising’ – recruiting more members and campaigning on their issues and lead to better rates of agreement coverage across the workforce.
“Teachers and school staff – including our 13,000 members in Victorian Catholic schools – will for the first time now be able to join together for a sector agreement, while retaining their full industrial rights.
“Negotiations for the first Supported Bargaining Agreement are underway by UWU, the AEU and IEU to cover 64 early childhood employers. Soon these 10,000 workers will have their first ever collective agreement.
“And as we speak, our WA and NSW Branches are pursuing new multi-employer deals in the Catholic and Independent school sectors.
“Multi-employer bargaining gives us the power to prioritise growth. We can consolidate resources to sharpen our focus on a smaller number of targeted negotiations.
“We can free up single-site bargaining resources to organise the thousands of free-riders who continue to benefit from our agreements.
“And combined with new delegates’ rights, we can use industry bargaining to build stronger delegate networks and distributed leadership models.”
Janene said her industry “really stood out” on the issue of collective bargaining.
“As well as the Supported Bargaining Agreement that will be finalised soon for thousands of childcare workers, my union has launched our ‘Unite for Change’ campaign for teachers left behind under the old broken bargaining system. We will use the new multi-employer process to win pay parity for teachers working across dozens of community preschools.
“The pay gap between preschool teachers and our primary school colleagues has reached ridiculous levels – experienced teachers in some preschools are copping a $30,000 pay cut compared to what they can earn doing the same job in a primary school.
“I’m sure you’ve heard about the terrible staff shortages in education – well, it’s only going to get worse, unless we confront these problems head on.
“It’s time to respect the vital work of all education workers. And pay them properly.
“Member strength through industry bargaining is a great place to start.”