Abbott and the unions

In a Jekyll and Hyde act, Tony Abbott's attack-dog persona as Leader of the Opposition, became Mr Nice-Guy as soon as he hit the election trail. The sexism and homophobia (almost) disappeared behind a "dad and daughter" routine alongside support for his lesbian sister. He even had a better parental leave scheme than Labor, though closer examination indicated the taxpayer rather than employers would wear the ultimate cost. The economy was a mess, but by taking away a couple of nasty taxes (carbon and mining), the Coalition would save Australia. The country would be open for business.

What about the workers, then? Where in this beguiling scenario could anyone find industrial relations? While a number of employer groups made no secret of their anti-union agenda, not hesitating to call on the Coalition to take up their proposals, there was relative silence during the campaign. But Abbott had, over the years, left many clues as to what he had in mind if he were ever to gain power again. After all he was the Minister for Industrial Relations responsible for setting up the Cole Royal Commission into the Building Industry, the $60m Commission that triggered the formation of the anti-union Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

Long signalled were changes to the company registration laws specifically targeting unions with increased penalties, restrictions for the Fair Work Commission and the reinstatement of the full provisions of the ABCC (only lightly modified under Labor). Just some of the other Coalition targets were the public sector, penalty rates, increased use of 457 visas and individual contracts, Gonski, Labor's tertiary education cuts and wage rises for low-paid child-care workers. All impacting most on workers.

Since the election a range of think tanks, the latest being the Grattan Institute, have provided the rationale for the government to break their election promises and slug workers – make 70 the retirement age, put a GST on fresh food, force housing debt on pensioners who own their own home – and the like. The government itself has established a number of enquiries, headed up by known right-wing ideologues, to give them cover to break their election promises. In effect the Business Council of Australia has been handed the review of the public sector. The Productivity Commission has a range of investigations under way now including a review the Fair Work Commission – and the Act it operates under, presumably with the intention of stripping it of any pro-worker "bias".

Although the Coalition claims its proposed changes to workplace laws are about bringing the industrial relations area "back to the sensible centre", in fact the real goals have nothing to do with creating a more moderate industrial relations regime. Instead it is primarily about economic questions – profit share and productivity. Under the Howard regime, for example, construction productivity fell away significantly, especially under WorkChoices and during the period of the ABCC. It revived somewhat under Labor and Fair Work, but not to the earlier pre-ABCC levels. At the same time, however, most importantly for employers, the income share of national GDP going to wages dropped, while profit share increased. Also the Howard regime oversaw productivity rises surge ahead of wage rises. It continued under Labor and Abbott is determined to see this pattern continue.

According to Greg Jericho, a regular industry commentator, productivity isn't necessarily the main driver in the employers' industrial relations agenda. "For business groups, if they're honest, the IR battleground is not really about productivity, but profit – and who gets the share of it." He adds that since 2002 "the labour share of income in the construction industry has fallen from around 75 percent to 70 percent" and there's no doubt employers would like to see it fall further.

Whether it's productivity or profit, or a combination of the two, there's no doubt that there is a lot at stake with considerable government and industry investment in upcoming infrastructure and mining projects. The mining boom maybe over (ABARE report 27.11.2013) but there is still a lot of wealth to be made from the production phase.

A strong union movement could gain benefits for their members from this economic growth. And while the CFMEU's report The Australian Resources Boom: Sharing the Benefits published this month concludes that workers have not benefited from the first phase of the mining boom, it should be no surprise that the Abbott government is determined to constrain unions before they can make any attempt to benefit their members out of the production phase, where a combination of mining and transport will be crucial to profits.

I am going to focus now on three areas where the "new management" of Tony Abbott has set its sights. Federal public sector workers, the Registered Organisations Act amendments and the ABCC legislation.

While cuts to the public sector may not have the buzz factor of taking on the blue collar unions, "small government" is a key plank of Coalition politics. In Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales there have been major job cuts and reorganisation of government departments. Tens of thousands of workers have lost their jobs, with almost no resistance from the unions and many public services sent out to the private, profit-making sector. In this they are following the neoliberal politics of the Tory government in the UK with its "New Society" model.

Amongst Tony Abbott's first moves was to confirm thousands of job cuts in the public sector, including big cuts to scientific research body, CSIRO. Instead of redundancies as the union, the CPSU, had predicted – a drawn-out process costing millions, the government announced temporary or contract workers would not have their contracts renewed. Full stop. No cost to government. It is estimated that this will cut around 14,000 jobs, the majority of them women. On top of this, the new government is overseeing Labor's "efficiency dividend", a regular device of governments where an arbitrary percentage cut in departmental funding claimed to be the result of earlier and projected productivity improvements. It inevitably means job cuts and in this round is predicted to cut another 14,500 jobs.

And barely a word from the unions. The most Nadine Flood from the CPSU could say is that cuts to the Tax Department would hamper tax returns and impact small business, while government services depended on an efficient Tax Office. Members jobs it seems came a poor second, with the union limiting itself to seeking discussions with the tax office, among others, about how to minimise job losses and where the axe would fall.

Next is an act most workers would have had no idea had any relevance to them and their unions, the Registered Organisations Act.

Eric Abetz, the new Industrial Relations Minister had earlier spearheaded an attempt to amend this act during the Rudd/Gillard government. Using examples such as the scandal enveloping the Health Services Union (HSU), the Coalition claimed that they would amend the laws to make sure unions were subject to the same penalties as business. One can only assume he didn't mean companies like James Hardie which have escaped sanctions for far worse crimes against workers than the HSU.

However it is clear that all of the changes to the RO Act are targeted at unions. The Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) to be established will have powers similar to those of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, royal commission-style powers to produce documents and demand people answer questions or face jail terms. In practice, the amendments could see union officials face fines of up to $340,000 and jail of up to five years, up from civil fines of $50,000 for organisations and $10,000 for individuals.

One of the main purposes of changes to the RO Act appears to be to take the powers of the Fair Work Act to discipline unions and place them in, what the government describes as, a "less biased" body. Claims by Eric Abetz and others that the FW Commission was unable to deal with the corruption accusations against the HSU are fuelling this change. It will be able to commence legal proceedings and refer possible offences to prosecutors, a power that was taken away from the FW Commission under Labor's changes. Auditing, right to look at membership records, committee of management minutes and so on will all be housed within the ROC, as well as the power to cancel the registration of an organisation.

The government also spells out in its Explanatory Memorandum that the ROC will place limitations on the right to freedom of association, the right to the presumption of innocence and the right to be free from self-incrimination.

But that is okay it seems, because, the government argues, the ROC's powers are subject to judicial, parliamentary and administrative oversight. The Explanatory Memorandum writes: "The bill is compatible with human rights because, to the extent that it may limit human rights, those limitations are reasonable, necessary and proportionate."

Similar laws in NSW and Queensland are currently under legal challenge and it can be expected unions and other bodies will challenge these changes to federal law.

At the same time, the government is pressing ahead with its promised changes to the ABCC. Now called theFair Work Building and Construction Inspectorate, Abbott signalled some years ago that he would reinstate the full powers of the ABCC "We will re-establish the ABCC and finish the job…The law must be supreme, no one is above the law."

Given the law, as the current FWA outlines, outlaws just about any industrial action outside a prescribed bargaining period and can even make action during that time illegal, there is almost no possibility of unions escaping its penalties. As well activities such as the right of union officials to go onto the job, actions over OH&S and other basic rights were effectively prohibited under the original ABCC laws. While the law was modified under the Gillard government, easing some of these strictures, Abbott wants full reinstatement.

Rather than wait for next July the government is already shifting some of the functions of the BII to the ROC, changing other functions through regulation and reinstated two previous ABCC Commissioners, known for their support of Coalition goals in this area. There will also be the imposition of a federal government code of conduct for the building industry which penalises companies considered to have too "union friendly" agreements. The code of conduct severely restricts what wages and conditions are negotiable on site. It may however hit a snag, as the Victorian Code of Conduct has recently, with the Napthine government facing a $53,000 fine for breaking workplace laws by threatening not to use Lend Lease on the new Bendigo Hospital project.

In particular the powers to investigate underpayment of wages and the like will go to the Fair Work Ombudsmen. The purpose of this is "free resources to investigate illegal activities". There are also suggestions of bringing in police to examine "unlawful activity" in the industry. Not it might be thought, the activities of building companies such as Leightons, but clearly industrial action by workers deemed illegal in the Catch 22 provisions of the law.

As the CFMEU's Dave Noonan commented on news of the government's proposed changes: "The record shows that the first ABCC was a $135 million dud. Despite its coercive powers it failed to uncover any major illegalities… What taxpayers got for their money was a bureaucracy that targeted construction workers." It neither investigated the crime of underpayments nor sham contracting, nor any of the other well-known criminal behaviour of companies in the industry.

But what was truly criminal about the previous ABCC is that under its watch deaths on construction sites rose to nearly one a week. In other words Abbott's message to construction workers was "drop dead".

Both Bill Shorten and the CFMEU have promised to fight the Abbott government's "ideological war on working Australians every step of the way, including in the building and construction industry". It will take every union gearing up to defend the wages, conditions and civil liberties of workers to beat these new laws and a government determined to "finish the job" as Tony Abbott has promised.