Recognising and bargaining with the other bargaining representatives for the agreement The AWU believes that these requirements help facilitate bargaining negotiations and, where concerns exist that good faith bargaining requirements are not being met, that there are appropriate measures in place for the FWC to act. The AWU is struggling to understand on what basis any changes to these requirements would be necessary, with only a very loose reference being made by the Inquiry to a general debate on the issue during the 2012 Review. Individual Flexibility Arrangements The AWU is not clear what the alleged problem is that the Inquiry is seeking to resolve through its work in relation to IFAs. As noted by the Inquiry, 90% of employers do not have a single IFA with many employers having not heard of IFAs, whilst evidence suggests that most employers do not use IFAs “the because they see no need for them (51%) or have had not request from an employee (33%)”. Less than 1% of employers think IFA provisions are too inflexible. When faced with such statistics, the AWU is surprised that the Inquiry is not instead considering whether IFAs are in fact obsolete and, therefore, still necessary. More worryingly, the Inquiry seems to be intently focusing on how to facilitate the uptake of IFAs but has completely overlooked many concerns that currently exist around IFAs, which have emerged following the in 2011. FWC’s survey Firstly, most IFAs are initiated by employers, not employees, and of particular concern many employees were required to sign them as a condition of – getting or keeping their job. Not only is the latter a breach of the Act, but as many as half the employers who used IFAs were found to take this approach.
Recognising and bargaining with the other bargaining representatives for the agreement The AWU believes that these requirements help facilitate bargaining negotiations and, where concerns exist that good faith bargaining requirements are not being met, that there are appropriate measures in place for the FWC to act. The AWU is struggling to understand on what basis any changes to these requirements would be necessary, with only a very loose reference being made by the Inquiry to a general debate on the issue during the 2012 Review. Individual Flexibility Arrangements The AWU is not clear what the alleged problem is that the Inquiry is seeking to resolve through its work in relation to IFAs. As noted by the Inquiry, 90% of employers do not have a single IFA with many employers having not heard of IFAs, whilst “the evidence suggests that most employers do not use IFAs because they see no need for them (51%) or have had not request from an employee (33%)”. Less than 1% of employers think IFA provisions are too inflexible. When faced with such statistics, the AWU is surprised that the Inquiry is not instead considering whether IFAs are in fact obsolete and, therefore, still necessary. More worryingly, the Inquiry seems to be intently focusing on how to facilitate the uptake of IFAs but has completely overlooked many concerns that currently exist around IFAs, which have emerged following the FWC’s survey in 2011. Firstly, most IFAs are initiated by employers, not employees, and of particular concern – many employees were required to sign them as a condition of getting or keeping their job. Not only is the latter a breach of the Act, but as many as half the employers who used IFAs were found to take this approach.
sub0074-workplace-relations.docx