Labor's IR Predicament

It was inevitable that the industry lobby would start loudly complaining about Labor's IR policy once details started to emerge. After all, the government's revamped AWA framework under Work Choices put all the power in the employers' hands when dealing with unskilled and disadvantaged workers. They were never going to let that go without a fight.

Perhaps Labor would have been better not to state they'd abolish AWAs. As suggested elsewhere, it may have been more sensible to just reintroduce the 'no disadvantage' test, as was the situation before Work Choices. Labor could have developed an even handed policy that allowed employees to decide which type of agreement they want and whether unions should be involved. The days of the old IR system have gone forever, for better or for worse.

That being said, the arguments put forward by the mining industry for the retention of AWAs is nonsense. Labor's proposed changes to the IR system is not a threat to the rampent mining boom. There's a labour shortage, the mining companies need employees and are willing to pay high wages and provide good working conditions to get them. This hasn't changed through mining booms over the past 30 years, regardless of whether the workers were under collective agreements or individual contracts.

Employer criticisms are not going to end soon, and Labor needs to fight hard to sell their policy. For a start, they should emphasise that employers organise themselves into associations to strengthen their bargaining position, while pointing out the same group's hypocritical stance of preventing employees from doing the same thing.

They should emphasise the difference between in demand workers in boom industries and those with less saleable skills who are the real victims of "Work Choices."

They should remind the electorate that good times don't last forever, and that employees working under AWAs have most to lose in a downturn.

They need to keep hammering the government about their refusal to release any information about the makeup of new AWA agreements.

Finally, they'll have to hope that the hostility regarding Work Choices in the eastern states more than offsets votes lost in Western Australia. It could be a close run thing.