Restrictive and adversarial workplace laws pushing business expansion overseas.
At the recent Fair Work Summit 2011 I had the pleasure of speaking to a number of colleagues in the Human Resources and Industrial Relations arena. One topic of discussion interested me when a comment was made from one of the attendees that a number of large multinational companies with expansive australian operations, are actively seeking expansion overseas. Why? "Due to the restrictive, adversarial and employer-unfriendly Fair Work Act, and the increasing Union infiltration and impact on these businesses, they are actively assessing the risks of expanding their operations into countries such as New Guinea, Sierra Leone and several other African countries"....
If these rumours are true, and I personally can't see why they would not be, it really and truly calls in to question a number of factors.
Is the Fair Work Act 2009 an unsustainable piece of Industrial legislation?
What true consultation with business took place before the inception of the Act?
If the legislation changes has the damage already been done?
How much influence did the politically positioned trade union officials exert on the legislation during drafting?
The fear of significant impacts by trade unions on the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto, and other large multinational corporations, have obviously caused increased fear within these companies. The fear of a wind back in productivity, whilst wages costs continue to increase through industrial pressure applied by Unions.
Your thoughts?
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