Award Simplification – will employers’ prayers be answered?

By ACIRRT/CPD

Tony Abbott is seeking to further reduce the list of allowable matters, as part of his attempts to simplify awards and decentralise bargaining. The changes also seek to restrict the role of the AIRC in applying awards to small business.

It attempts to remove skills based classifications from awards, and could undermine the benefits that these classifications have delivered to the industry. Skill based awards have resolved a number of efficiency and productivity concerns held by employers. Demarcations have been reduced considerably. The attempts to remove skill classifications come at a time when apprenticeships face a crisis of numbers and skill development and quality control is a growing problem in the industry. The removal of industry wide skill based awards will not help.

(CDP Workplace Intelligence, December 2002)