“Make no mistake, the demand today by the ACTU secretary Sally McManus that workers need the unfettered right to strike in support of new multi-employer pay claims would take Australia back to the industrial chaos of the past,” Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
“The ACTU has finally confirmed they want the right to inflict massive industrial harm on the economy and the entire country at a time when the Reserve Bank is calling for wage restraint to take the pressure off interest rates and inflation and with many businesses only just emerging from years of hardship.
“Strikes in support of multi-employer agreements would cost jobs, destroy business confidence and be highly disruptive to the community. They would undermine enterprise bargaining and positive relationships between employers and employees. The ACTU proposal appears designed to force unwanted deals on employers regardless of whether they result in any real improvement to productivity or efficiency at the workplace.
“The claim that unions want the right to strike but would then rarely use that right is as preposterous as it sounds.
“Our economy is about to be severely tested by rising inflation, spiralling energy costs for business, rising interest rates and deteriorating international circumstances. In the interest of our national economic well-being, job retention and the creation and maintenance of a co-operative approach to workplace relations that many parties called for at the Jobs & Skills Summit, this poorly thought through proposal should not see the light of day,” Mr Willox said
