Paul Guerra

Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chief Executive

On 26 May 2020, the Prime Minister announced what could be the biggest single game-changer for our industrial relations system in decades, when he invited business and unions to sit down together to fix problems with the Fair Work Act 2009.

This is not WorkChoices II. The Prime Minister is challenging employers and unions to cooperate to ensure our industrial relations system better supports the jobs Australia needs to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This means fixing well-known problems with our industrial relations laws – and delivering a more practical, job supporting, business supporting, industrial relations system.

Victorian Chamber members are the forefront of working with this legislation every day, and with more than 100 modern awards and more than 1,000 minimum wages, know how hard it can be to be sure you are doing the right thing, or to try to innovate and improve your business.

My team works with members to navigate this complexity, but we are also working behind the scenes to make things much simpler and clearer for both employers and employees.

At the upcoming employer and employee discussions being led by the Attorney General Christian Porter, Victorian employers will be represented by ACCI -our national network and Australia’s largest and most representative voice for business.

The Morrison Government is setting up five separate working groups to review key areas of the industrial relations system, with employers and unions challenged to work together to come up with agreed changes for the future. The five working groups will focus on:

• Reforming modern awards to become clearer and simpler and clearer for Chamber members to understand and apply in Victorian workplaces.
• Ensuring agreement-making is more attractive and accessible to employers and their employees.
• Delivering clearer rules for casual employment, including overcoming the uncertainty and liabilities created by the WorkPac, Skene and Rosato decisions.
• Addressing concerns with the enforcement of awards and minimum wages, and the ramifications of when people are not properly paid.
• Ensuring large resource projects have access to reliable life of project agreements.

Both union and employer concerns will be on the table, and we can expect some give and take, but the Victorian Chamber, through ACCI will be looking for overall positive changes that make it easier and more rewarding for you to do business and employ in Australia.

We will also be looking to deliver a framework that genuinely allows you to innovate, and to make your enterprise more productive and competitive to help you come out of the pandemic as a growing, profitable, sustainable business.

Real stories from real enterprises help us argue for the changes our members need.

I am very keen to hear your priorities, experiences and stories, on a confidential basis. My team will be in touch over the coming months. In the meantime, if you have feedback about the industrial relations system and your experience with it that you are happy to share with VCCI, you can do so by clicking on the link below.

Submit your feedback and
experiences here