The national carrier Qantas has become the first major company to confirm it will attend Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s upcoming jobs summit, as the federal government seeks to bring businesses and the union movement together over the national skills crisis and workplace reform.
A Qantas spokesman confirmed the national carrier’s attendance at the September meeting, which will be limited to 100 participants. Retail giant Coles and transport giant Uber also expressed a desire to attend the event.
Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas, which will have a seat at the government’s touted job summit.Credit:Michael Quelch
Along with addressing Australia’s 500,000 job vacancies, an overhaul of the enterprise bargaining system will be central to the summit’s agenda, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers saying the ability of employers to apply to cancel workplace agreements was a reason behind slow wage growth.
“I certainly think it’s an issue. I mean, the tearing up of agreements has been a problem in our industrial relations architecture for some time,” Chalmers told ABC radio on Tuesday, after the Australian Council of Trade Unions called for the issue to be addressed.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar called on the ACTU to explain why its proposal to restrict terminations should only impact employers, and not also unions, while the Australian Industry Group’s Stephen Smith said only a handful of contested terminations existed.
University of Sydney industrial relations researchers, Associate Professor Stephen Clibborn and Dr Alex Veen, said less than 1 per cent of Fair Work applications to terminate agreements were in the context of a bargaining impasse.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the broken enterprise bargaining system is one reason for low wage growth.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“These applications were, however, commonly resolved in the employers’ favour,” they said.
Just 100 attendees will be invited to Parliament House over two days from September 1 to contribute to Labor’s skills and workplace agenda. A spokesperson for Coles supermarkets, which employs 120,000, saying the organisation “would be pleased to attend … and to contribute to these important discussions.”
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said he looked forward to the summit addressing the link between productivity and wages growth, and reviving the enterprise bargaining, among other topics.
“As the country’s largest private sector employer, we see the Jobs and Skills Summit as a welcome opportunity to tackle critical challenges facing the economy,” he said.
Uber, which will be at the centre of the government’s move to legislate basic protections for gig workers, has confirmed it is also angling for an invite, with a spokesperson said platform work “makes a significant contribution to the economy.”
Albanese said on Tuesday no attendance list had been finalised.
Plugging the skills shortage has become the most pressing issues for employers, with industries across the economy feeling the squeeze in a historically tight labour market, prompting calls for the government to temporarily lift the annual migration cap.
Qantas has been plagued by flight delays and cancellations, lost baggage and lengthy wait times for customer service calls, with chief executive Alan Joyce attributing the airline’s woes to staff illness due to COVID-19, supply chain issues, and the restart of the industry following lockdowns.
“There are resource constraints across the whole supply chain of airports, airlines, catering across manufacturers and supply parts,” Joyce previously told 6PR radio.
However, Transport Workers’ Union national secretary Michael Kaine said Qantas should not be offered a seat at the summit until it offered the ground staff whose work it outsourced last year their jobs back.
“Until that point, Qantas’ participation must be limited to explaining the ways in which they have taken a lead role in circumventing and breaking laws which has led to the current airport crisis – in order that we learn as a society how to do precisely the opposite,” Kaine said.
Qantas has lodged an appeal with the High Court after it lost a bid before the Federal Court to overturn a ruling that its decision in 2021 to outsource thousands of jobs was in breach of the Fair Work Act.
Joyce, who is also facing industrial action from Qantas engineers over a pay dispute, has said the airline was challenging the decision “because fundamentally, we don’t agree with it.”
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