Gillardan (Dead Duck) Swan (Goose )and Shorten (Goat) Hand picked Fair Work Australia panel came up with this and are now patting themselves on the back
A REVIEW of the Fair Work Act has found it has not led to a wages blowout nor has it dealt a blow to productivity or cut businesses' competitiveness.
When Labor abolished the Howard Government's Work Choices laws following the 2007 election, it also promised to review the new Fair Work system after its first years of operation.
Receiving about 250 submissions, the review, to be released by Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten in Melbourne today, has made 53 recommendations for changes.
Overall, the review panel of Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) board member John Edwards, former Federal Court judge Michael Moore and workplace relations expert Ron McCallum found the act was working as intended.
"In our view, the current laws are working well and the system of enterprise bargaining underpinned by the national employment standards and modern awards is delivering fairness to employers and employees," the report said.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. The report said the reviewers did not restrict themselves to just the Fair Work Act, but looked at other bargaining frameworks during the past 20 years including the coalition's Work Choices.
It noted that Work Choices had found "no political champion" since the Howard Government lost office in 2007.
"The option of returning to Work Choices was not seriously explored by any of the major stakeholders during consultations with the panel," the report said.
The report recommended that industrial bodies encourage more productive workplaces through promoting best practice in agreements.
In relation to pay talks on greenfields agreements, such as with new mining projects, the panel said a form of arbitration should be available "if the parties are unable to reach agreement within a suitable timeframe".
And Fair Work Australia (FWA) should be given the power to initiate compulsory conciliation when the parties have been unable to reach agreement.
Time limits for lodging unfair dismissal applications and for general protections claims involving dismissal should be 21 days and FWA should be given the power to dismiss unfair dismissal applications in certain circumstances.
Mr Shorten said the review showed the Fair Work Act was accomplishing its objectives.
"I'm heartened that the core conclusion of the panel is that our Fair Work laws are working well and as intended," he said today.
The government will now consult with industry, employees and their representatives, and the states about the panel's suggestions to improve the act.
"But nobody should be in any doubt that the review does not recommend sweeping changes," Mr Shorten said.
Mr Shorten said the review found the legislation had not had a negative impact on productivity.
"I am particularly pleased by this finding," he said.
The review's terms of reference asked the panel to check whether the laws were operating as intended and supporting the economy though improved productivity, while delivering fairness.
Mr Shorten said he had consistently emphasised workplace productivity improvements were primarily found at the enterprise level through collaboration and co-operation.
Those people who asserted that all the challenges of productivity could simply be wished away by changing external regulation failed to appreciate that the greatest gains could be found at enterprise level, he said.
Mr Shorten said the review panel did not recommend the reintroduction of statutory individual contracts.
Nor did it recommend limits to unfair dismissal laws, penalty rate cuts or "rostering that's all about the disregarding of interests of the people in the workplace, families in the workplace".
Mr Shorten said the review put pressure on the federal opposition to explain its workplace policy.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said the Coalition's policy would be "cautious" and "careful" and return the industrial pendulum back to the centre.
"Generalities around words like 'cautious' and `careful' cannot mask forever the lack of detail," Mr Shorten said.
He said workers wanted to know the Coalition's plans on unfair dismissal laws, penalty rates, rosters and family-friendly conditions.
"The Government has made it clear we are not up for changes to see Australians go backwards."
Mr Shorten said the panel had found that since the Fair Work Act came into force, "important outcomes such as wages growth, industrial disputation, the responsiveness of wages to supply and demand, the rate of employment growth and the flexibility of work patterns have been favourable to Australia's continuing prosperity".
But the report also noted concerns about productivity growth.
"The exception has been productivity growth, which has been disappointing in the FW Act framework and in the two preceding frameworks over the last decade," the report said.
Legislative changes could be introduced as early as the spring sitting of parliament, Mr Shorten said.
The Government will meet with state government industrial relations ministers in mid-August.
"We want to give them time to digest the review," Mr Shorten said.
While the minister said he wasn't "ruling in or ruling out anything specific", the government was not in the game of reducing people's conditions through regulation
