Government moves on industrial relations

The Palaszczuk government has moved quickly to restore a fair industrial relations system for state government and local government employees.

On 7 May, the government introduced draft legislation to reverse some of the worst aspects of previous industrial legislation, and to provide a process to restore conditions to employees who have already had conditions reduced. The bill was referred to a parliamentary committee which was expected to report by 1 June, presumably so that legislation could be passed in the parliamentary sittings on 2- 4 June.

The bill will remove:

• the lists of non-allowable matters in awards and agreements that threatened, for example, class size targets, school-based management guarantees, professional development and workload provisions 
• the invalidation of clauses in existing awards and agreements that allowed the previous government to proceed without consultation to make state government employees redundant
• requirements for the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to give priority to the state’s financial position and wages policy in arbitrating, which saw ambulance officers and firefighters awarded only what the government offered (2.2 per cent p.a.)
• increased access to representation by lawyers in the IRC, which increased cost and delayed proceedings.

These are substantial changes that will fundamentally change award modernisation (which the QTU has referred to as award stripping), the enforceability of current awards and agreements, and what can be bargained in future enterprise bargaining. Although the effect on teachers was limited before the election, the importance of these changes for teaching and learning conditions cannot be overstated.

This bill does not reverse all the changes to industrial legislation. The LNP government made seven substantial changes to industrial legislation in less than three years. The timelines for bargaining, for instance, remain problematic.
The government has foreshadowed a more substantial “root and branch” review of the industrial legislation, but such a review takes time. The review itself would take almost to the end of the year, and the introduction of legislation into 2016. Independent MP Peter Wellington wants proper consideration of legislation, and who can blame anyone for wanting that after the past three years?

There are two implications in these circumstances. The first is the importance of these interim changes to legislation in removing the worst effects and allowing a mechanism for restoring conditions to employees affected by the previous legislation.

The second is the decision by the QTU to seek an extension of the existing EB agreement for an appropriate pay increase into 2016. Otherwise, the QTU would have to bargain at a disadvantage under unfair LNP legislation.

This bill follows other earlier positive actions by the incoming government.

An early message of reassurance from the Premier has been followed by a new employment security policy, which is in stark contrast to the wholesale sackings and casualisation of employment under the Newman government. The QTU has already raised the implications of the policy with the Director-General and has been assured that the department will be acting to maximise permanent employment in line with the policy. This, together with the changes contained in the bill, will assist in converting as many temporary teachers to permanency as possible.

The threat to the job security of principals and deputy principals through employment on contracts was removed with the election of the government. It was one of its first pre-election commitments in 2014.

On 17 March 2015, the government also halted the existing award “stripping” process before any further conditions could be removed from employee awards.

A policy on the role and rights of unions in the public service is also expected, as is a policy that will limit the contracting out of government services to exceptional and narrow circumstances.

Graham Moloney
General Secretary

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 120 No 4, 5 June 2015, p11