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Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW), Westfield Group (ASX:WDC) and Myer Holdings Ltd have warned that the federal government’s industrial relations regime is damaging the economy and could lead to job losses. That’s according to a report in The Australian.
The comments fly in the face of the Prime Minister’s assertions that she doesn’t encounter many businesspeople raising the Fair Work system as a frontline issue.
Woolworths says that constraints on labour flexibility add further strain on the sector. Westfield added that high labour costs will lead to an inevitable increase in prices of consumer goods.
Woolworths generated an interim net profit of $1.2 billion in the last half of 2010.
