The NRA, which has been vocal about its criticism of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill, surveyed its members about their response to the bill and the results indicated it has little support among the majority of small businesses that make up the membership, representing more than 60,000 stores across Australia including businesses in the retail and fast-food sectors.
In late October, NRA interim chief executive Lindsay Carroll said such wide-reaching reforms should go through the normal parliamentary process including proper scrutiny of the legislation by the relevant committee.
“There is absolutely no need for the Government to ram this Bill through with such indecent haste,” Ms Carroll said.
“These proposals will have very widespread and detrimental impacts on employers, which will almost certainly result in business owners reducing their staff or cutting back hours.
“It defies logic to think that Governments can keep making it harder and harder to employ staff and think that it won’t affect the way business owners respond.
“The only reason to rush the passage of the Bill with such haste would be to avoid proper scrutiny and debate over the likely impacts of these changes.
“If the Government was confident in the merits of its reforms, it would not be afraid to answer questions and hear the concerns of employers.”
The NRA said retailers rely on the efforts of their staff for their success. Particularly for small businesses and this success is a partnership between business owners and those they employ.
“We expressed deep concern that the multi-enterprise bargaining provisions of this Bill will cause irreparable damage to workplace relationships in many small businesses across the nation,” Ms Carroll said in a statement.
“It will pit business owners and their staff against one another, fighting battles that are not of their making and that they are not able to resolve within their own enterprises. This is a recipe for industrial and economic discord on a scale not seen in Australia in living memory.”
The survey also revealed that 24.6 per cent per cent of NRA members said they did not understand the bill.
“In our view, the overall impact of the Bill will be to take Australia backwards by several decades — back to before the bold and visionary Accord of the 1980s and the subsequent drive towards genuine workplace bargaining that recognises the individual circumstances and needs of each business and its employees,” Ms Carroll continued.
“The Bill was rushed through the House of Representatives last week but through effective advocacy, we are hopeful that crossbench Senators hear the National Retail Association’s strong calls for the multi-enterprise bargaining provisions to be omitted from the Bill to allow for deeper consultation and consideration of these significant reforms.”
