It has become fashionable to say that people are suffering from reform fatigue, that there has been too much change inflicted on us, and that it's time to take a breather in the pursuit of world's best practice in Australia.
Tiredness is not a reason for us to stop the change process. Fear of the complexity, obstacles and consequences of change, however, might be the reasons for many to be reluctant.
On the waterfront much needed reform was achieved despite the best organised union and political campaign of opposition ever marshalled in this country. But those were special circumstances. The waterfront was a national disgrace and Patrick was left with no other option but to tackle the problem head-on if it was to survive.
But what happens to small and medium-size businesses without deep pockets? Let's assume we have a mythical CEO who decides he has no choice but to dramatically change the way he does business. This means a reduction in staff and a change to the work practices of those who remain.
His first call should be not to a human resources professional but to a lawyer specialising in industrial relations. Why? Because the labour market is regulated. We have deregulated markets in goods and services, finance and currencies. We have, for the most part, removed tariffs and trade impediments. We persist, however, with the ridiculous notion that the market for our own human skills and effort should be determined by some legal bureaucrat we will probably never meet.
Implicit is the idea that, somehow, this person with whom we have had no contact knows and can negotiate better what we want than we can ourselves. That is the fundamental proposition advanced by those in favour of regulation, namely the Labor Party, the Democrats and most of the minor parties. It didn't work in the Soviet Union and it isn't working here either. In other words, our desperate CEO is not allowed to do what makes economic sense.
If his business is in an industry which ACTU secretary Greg Combet quaintly calls "highly organised", our CEO will need to obtain agreement from the unions. If not, he can expect dire threats followed by industrial action, accompanied by a union-run publicity campaign aimed at damaging his business. If he resists the strikes and bad publicity, he can expect calls to his customers urging them to stop using his company due to its "poor industrial relations record". If his company is listed, he can expect phone calls from institutional investors expressing concern about his company's "anti-union stance".
There will also be a legal campaign launched against the business in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission or the Federal Court. If our CEO is doing a merger, he will fall foul of the transmission of business laws. These laws act like a virus in that they can transmit bad work practices from one business to another. If not done properly, a takeover can result in the unproductive arrangements of the business which is in trouble being transmitted to the more successful business.
Our mythical CEO is now potentially fighting in court on three fronts: the AIRC, defending a huge unfair dismissal action; the Federal Court, on a charge of breaching the freedom of association provisions of the Workplace Relations Act; and a transmission of business case, which could result in his business inheriting the work practices that helped send his competitor under.
His share price will have been trashed and he spends his day going from lawyers' offices to courtrooms to media interviews.
His board is unhappy, to say the least, and our CEO has probably lost sight of what he was trying to achieve in the first place. His family and friends will be starting to worry about his health or sanity.
There have been countless attempts to reduce the complexity and cost of the industrial and employment laws in Australia and this federal government has done much to implement change. But the sad fact is that the labour market reform debate today is absurdly unbalanced.
Australia needs labour market reforms to ensure average companies with average managers dealing with average problems can strive every day for success over mediocrity. To use language which has some currency today, Australia desperately needs labour market reforms, not for the elites, but for the battlers.
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