Hulls Rebuffs Gillard on Uniform IR System

Victorian Industrial Relations Minister Rob Hulls has delivered a rebuff
to Federal Labor’s moves for a uniform national industrial relations
system by legislating to impose on Victorian employers a wide range of new
obligations to customise work arrangements to suit the parental or carer
responsibilities of individual employees.

The obligations are imposed by the Equal Opportunity (Family
Responsibilities) Bill, which the government forced through Victoria’s
Upper House last week.

The move has occurred just days after Hulls boasted of “a new era of
co-operation in industrial relations” under wall-to-wall Labor
governments, claiming “we now have a window of opportunity to work
together to create a simple industrial relations system.” (Media Release
31 January 2008)

Obligations being imposed on Victorian employers include changing working
hours, letting employees work from home and rescheduling meeting times.

These obligations go far beyond equal opportunity or non-discrimination;
instead they impose particular working condition obligations on employers.
They implement by State legislation claims by the ACTU that were rejected
by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in 2005, saying they
were too complex and unfair to employers.

Victoria’s actions are in defiance of Federal Labor’s election promise to
establish a uniform national industrial relations system. In Forward with
Fairness, Federal Labor promised that:

“Under Labor, whether employees are working in Bundaberg, Bright or
Bunbury the same system of laws will apply.”

Now, Rob Hulls has given the two-finger salute to that election promise by
deliberating imposing new and different obligations on Victorian
employers, despite Federal Labor’s election win.

Putting these obligations in Victorian law also flies the face of specific
Federal Labor policy to deal with exactly the same matters on a nationally
uniform basis through the award system. Federal Labor’s Forward with
Fairness policy expressly provides for awards to set out standards on:

“2. The type of work performed, for example whether an employee is
permanent or casual, and the facilitation of flexible working
arrangements, particularly for workers with family responsibilities,
including quality part time employment and job sharing/”

By Victorian Labor persisting with its own set of laws, it risks putting
employers in breach of Victorian law for complying with awards under
Commonwealth law.

Hulls’ actions demonstrate the industrial relations turmoil and complexity
that Australians are likely to face in coming years under wall-to-wall
Labor governments, as each government seeks its own ways of pandering to
its union mates, regardless of the effects on employment, inflation and
true workplace flexibility for working families.