Enterprise Bargaining: The BCA's Report on Industrial Relations Reform

Abstract

The Business Council of Australia's report on industrial relations argues that the major barrier to the competitiveness of large Australian firms is the centralized system, which hosts a fragmented structure of awards and unions that is out of touch with the requirements of corporate management and inconsistent with employee needs. We examine the various elements of the research underlying the Business Council report and show that the report's conclusions are either not supported by the evidence or greatly overstated. A shift towards unregulated decentralized bargaining, as favoured by the report, would probably yield less benefit than the present direction of reform through the award restructuring process within the context of a centralized framework. We conclude that the report diverts attention from the many factors that will determine the future competitiveness of Australian firms and that it serves as a warning about the limitations of sponsored research.