“The disruption caused by the industrial action engaged in at Svitzer, which was first initiated by the Maritime Union of Australia and has been orchestrated over an extended period, provides a small taste of what is to come if the new bargaining laws are implemented as framed,” Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
“The inescapable reality is that the new Bill is designed to create more opportunities for unions to not only initiate industrial action such as strikes at a single enterprise, but to co-ordinate industrial action across groups of employers or even sectors.
“A big risk is that the laws could be used by unions in industries where they would have the capacity to cripple Australia’s already fragile supply chains in order to put greater pressure on employers. The Bill needs to be amended to ensure that this can’t happen,” Mr Willox said.
