Wage pressure danger lurks on both roads

This is multi-employer bargaining (though others might call this collusion). Even more worrying, the document goes on to state that: "Fair Work Australia may also facilitate multi-employer collective bargaining for low-paid employees or employees who have not historically had access to the benefits of collective bargaining." In this case, there can be no dispute: even Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard agree that this is multi-employer bargaining.

The implementation plan released in August is largely silent on these matters. We have been told that industrial action in pursuit of industry-wide agreements will be proscribed, but this still leaves plenty of room for voluntary arrangements between employers. Further, we have to at least worry about the possibility of some employers being roped into these new voluntary industry-wide deals against their will. These are exactly the sorts of collective arrangements that the PM was presumably referring to in his speech.

Overall, the differences between the two parties on workplace relations seem a lot less than either is prepared to admit. For both parties the main vehicle for the determination of wages and conditions during the next term of office will be enterprise agreements. The main issue in my mind is to what extent will Labor allow multi-employer agreements to develop.

I can only reiterate something I wrote in 2001: "Any return to a system where multi-employer agreements dominate has the potential to generate wage claims in many sectors of the economy that are not matched by improvements in productivity. This, in turn, would be met by a tightening response from the Reserve Bank - effectively putting a brake on economic growth."