The Federal Government believes the worker lockout proposed by tugboat company Svitzer should not go ahead.
That is why we have intervened in the Fair Work Commission’s case to argue this action should be terminated.
The Commonwealth will be providing economic evidence to the Commission to demonstrate the significant harm to the national economy that would result if the company’s industrial action went ahead.
This whole dispute underlines the need for the Government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill to pass.
Under the current system the threshold required for the Fair Work Commission’s intervention in long-running industrial disputes like this is too high.
The Commission shouldn’t need to find that an action is going to wreck the Australia economy or endanger someone’s life before it is allowed to act.
Australians are sick of the disputes that go on forever and the Commission should have a general power to intervene when a dispute has become intractable.
The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will deliver this. It is urgent.
