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‘Fundamental reform’ is needed in Australia’s industrial relations system
The pandemic has brought a variety of employment issues to the surface, according to executive director of the Australian Institute of Employment Rights James Fleming.
Lauren Croft
Speaking ahead of the annual Ron McCallum Debate, hosted by the AIER on 18 November, Mr Fleming said that in addition to the online debate, the institute was also working on a book about a new workplace architecture post-pandemic.
“The pandemic has opened the door for some great new opportunities, not just in how we work, but how that work is organised and regulated. It has also highlighted some long-standing issues like low pay in feminised and essential jobs, precarious work and inequality,” he told Lawyers Weekly.
“During the pandemic, many people have had a taste of more family-friendly work arrangements and entitlements that are available in other countries like affordable childcare and the right to work from home. These and better unemployment support are now squarely on the policy agenda and are going to be hard to ignore in the future.”
Mr Fleming added that particularly with the success of JobKeeper over the last 18 months, there could be potential for the government to manage the economy on a bigger spectrum and provide a “universal safety net” in times of crisis.
“Time will tell whether this extends more generally, but there has indeed been a marked cultural change. The new normal will likely involve more capacity to work remotely and greater accommodation of family responsibilities,” he said.
“There have also been promising signs of greater potential for tripartite co-operation between business, unions and government in solving labour market problems than we have seen in many years, such as the co-operation we saw behind the development and support for JobKeeper. Australian workers will benefit greatly if that level of co-operation continues.”
However, the long-standing issues within Australia’s employment relations system are yet to be resolved, according to Mr Fleming.
“If anything, the pandemic has brought them to a crisis point, and there is going to have to be fundamental reform to our industrial relations system. These issues include stagnant wages, gender inequality and discrimination, precarious and insecure work, including in the growing gig economy, the decline of collective bargaining, as well as endemic workplace bullying and sexual harassment,” he said.
“We know casual and insecure work, for example, played a key role in the spread of the virus, and casual workers were the hardest hit by unemployment. Greater rights for precarious workers are going to be absolutely necessary to endure future pandemics – both to minimise infection and to keep the economy rolling.
“Increased remote working will bring its own challenges, particularly the collision of work and home life and the further fragmentation of the workforce, which will be a challenge both for unions and workers. A divide has opened up between those workers who are able to work from home and essential workers who are not. That is not fair.”
In addition to climate change and the disruption of the digital revolution, the pandemic has significant industrial relations implications for Australia. Mr Fleming concluded that if Australia continues to fall behind, the future workforce will require further training in order to keep up.
“It seems Australia is at serious risk of falling behind in the global economy. Many of the challenges we face are industrial relations ones. For example, how to increase productivity and skills and how to ensure fundamental standards like job and income security are extended to all workers in the face of the rise of non-standard work in the gig economy,” he said.
“Australia seems to be falling behind on all these fronts – with the late start to the vaccine rollout, with falling to worst in the world on action on climate change, and now we are poorly prepared for the massive structural changes in the economy coming with the digital revolution, particularly with the crippling of our universities and retraining capacity that we will need to train and retrain our workforce for future jobs.”
Lauren Croft
Lauren is a journalist at Lawyers Weekly and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Macleay College. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications and Travel Weekly. Originally born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling. She is also a keen snowboarder and pre-pandemic, spent a season living in a French ski resort.
