FED:Govt silent on compulsory arbitration

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2011
FED:Govt silent on compulsory arbitration

CANBERRA, Dec 8 AAP - Federal Workplace Relations Minister Chris Evans will not be
drawn on whether a review of labour laws could lead to the return of compulsory arbitration.

An independent review of the Fair Work Act begins early next year.

Employers are concerned compulsory arbitration will wind back the clock.

Senator Evans would not speculate on the review's findings other than to say it would
be independent and evidence-based.

"There's a lot of rhetoric in this field, a lot of ideology, a lot of false claims,"

he told ABC Radio on Thursday.

The minister declined to predict how much change might come from the review but said
Labor was committed to the principles of the Fair Work laws.

The ALP national conference last weekend changed the party's policy platform to include
a requirement for enterprise agreements to provide for last-resort arbitration.

Senator Evans said the recent Qantas scandal had put attention on the use of arbitration.

"People are rightly focused on whether a dispute has to get to the stage of a lockout
of employees before arbitration is required," he said.

"It's something the Fair Work review ought to look at."

Meanwhile BHP chief Marius Kloppers has publicly criticised the Fair Work Act.

Labor's industrial relations laws had made workplace negotiations more complicated
and it was easier for workers to strike, he told The Australian Financial Review.

BHP has been subject to six months of industrial action at its coking coalmines in Queensland.

AAP lpm/rl/jmt

KEYWORD: WORKPLACE

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