MORE casual staff, more expense, more paperwork and more confusion was how the Federal Government’s new Fair Work Act was summarised by one local business owner.
Another business owner said not many businesses would agree
with the new industrial relations system.
Last week employers and employees became subject to a new national workplace relations system that replaced the Howard Government’s controversial Work Choices legislation.
Local business people have not greeted the new system with much warmth.
John Lamont from Nowra Chemicals said he did not see any benefit at all in the new system for company like his that already had a reputation of doing the right thing by its staff.
He said what would end up happening was businesses would start employing more casuals to make sure they got the right staff.
What this meant to casual workers, according Mr Lamont, was that getting a home or car loan would be harder.
Then there are all the hidden costs.
The red tape involved on the changeover will cost a business like Nowra Chemicals something like $10, 000.
Mr Lamont added some workers might fear the changes and might think there would be some sort of negative impact on them.
He felt it would have been better for the industrial relations system to be left alone.
Shoalhaven Business Chamber President Tony Emery said not many businesses would agree with the new industrial relations system, particularly the unfair dismissal section.
“Businesses value their employees and want to keep them,” he said.
However, if a worker was not doing the right thing, Mr Emery said a small business should have the right to terminate their employment - if the termination was needed.
Mr Emery said the relationship between an employer and employee was one built up with mutual respect but if the two parties had their differences then they should be able to simply go their separate ways.
He thinks the new system is
one-sided.
Mr Emery did not think governments had a role in things like dismissals, believing minimum wages and conditions were some of the areas governments should focus on.
Bomaderry Bowling Club secretary-manager Garry Wilbraham said rather than getting the government involved, differences between an employer and employee should be sorted out between the two parties.
He thought an employer should have the right to dismiss someone who was not doing the right thing, but added a worker should also be able to come to work without fearing their job would be terminated.
Bomaderry Bowling Club employs over 116 people and, according to Mr Wilbraham, was doing well without the new industrial relations act.
He said in an area like the Shoalhaven a business’s reputation was important.
He would hate to think his club had reputation as being a bad place to work.
Mr Wilbraham said he did not need any government guidance to make sure his staff were happy.
“A friendly and happy work force will create a friendly and happy business,” he said.
At Bomaderry Bowling Club collective bargaining was favoured and there were no Australian Workerplace Agreements.
But salaries and conditions were being eroded, according to unions
PRESIDENT of Unions Shoalhaven, Tim Montgomery, said Work Choices needed to be dismantled because unscrupulous employers could take advantage of the situation.
Mr Montgomery said under Work Choices low paid workers, in particular, were forced onto workplace contacts where they had to take less pay and had things including penalty rates and overtime entitlements taken away from them.
Unions Shoalhaven knew of local cases where workers had their salaries and conditions
eroded away.
Mr Montgomery said some workers were told they had to take or leave the conditions, and with unemployment so high many people had to accept what was being offered.
He accepted an employer had the right to dismiss a worker who was not doing the right thing.
He added the new system had avenues where the rights of the employers were maintained.
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