An interview with Senator Jane Hume has revealed the Opposition's plans to scrap legislation that would result in workers having fewer rights. Melissa Marsden reports.
SHADOW MINISTER for Finance, the Public Service and Shadow Special Minister of State Jane Hume has signalled plans to dismantle the Right to Disconnect legislation.
In an interview with Insiders host David Speers on Sunday, Hume suggested the laws designed to ensure workers are not exploited stalled productivity.
Right to Disconnect laws permit eligible employees to refuse employer or third-party contact outside of working hours in some circumstances.
The Same Job, Same Pay legislation addresses pay disparities and ensures that employees performing the same or substantially similar roles are remunerated equally, irrespective of their employment status.
Boasting a “productivity agenda”, Hume announced that the opposition would “look at multi-employer bargaining”, reducing productivity and competitiveness.
Hume said:
“The first priority is making sure we have a productive economy with an industrial relations system that is flexible for employees and employers.”
According to Treasury’s 2021 Intergenerational Report (IGR), labour productivity (LP) has contributed more than 80% of the growth in Australia’s living standards, measured by real gross national income (GNI) per person, over the last 30 years.
However, the reversal of productivity gains observed during the COVID-19 pandemic has been blamed on a 3.7% decline in labour productivity.
On this premise, government legislation introduced after COVID-19 cannot be blamed for the economy’s stagnation.
Claiming that “this Government has an anti-productivity agenda,” Hume attacked the Government and union movement for their industrial relations platform:
“Red tape is seeing our economy go backwards by 6.3% in the past two years.”
However, statistics show that when people are less economically stable, they also spend less money, which impacts the business's bottom line.
A 2023 survey by the Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work found, on average, employees reported they performed 5.4 hours of unpaid work in the week of the survey, equivalent to 16.9% of total working hours.
Hume said:
“But we want to make sure people get their pay rises... but you cannot have pay rises without corresponding productivity or you have inflation.”
The Australian Productivity Commission found that for 95% of the labour force, had Australia been able to maintain productivity growth from 1995 to 2023 at the 2.2% average level seen in the 1990s, then real annual average incomes would today be $25,000 higher.
However, a 2017 report published by Curtin University found Australians are more likely to report greater satisfaction with their job security and work flexibility.
Just over 40% of Australian workers reported being ‘very satisfied’ with their job security and 36% with their flexibility to balance work and non-work commitments.
Based on this, the increased flexibility gained due to the COVID-19 pandemic should have increased productivity.
Increased flexibility is only one marker of productivity; however, it is questionable how doing unpaid work after hours (of which electronic communication between employer and employee is included) increases wages.
Long work hours may impair personal health, jeopardise safety and increase stress.
National data from the past two decades shows people are taking significantly more time off work due to incapacitating mental health conditions, with the cost of poor workplace mental health on the Australian economy being $39 billion in lost participation and productivity each year.
Australians who have a good relationship with their employer or are economically stable are much more likely to have the bargaining power to negotiate fair work hours and conditions.
Hume states:
“The Right to Disconnect laws are unnecessary and can be negotiated between an employer and employee.”
However, this highlights precisely what the legislation seeks to achieve.
Among the things that will determine whether a refusal is unreasonable are the employee’s role, circumstances, method and reason for the contact, how much disruption it causes them, and whether they are compensated for being available or for working additional hours.
Whilst it may seem simple for workers to negotiate for these conditions, evidence suggests that about 13% of employees work very long hours in paid work, above the OECD average of 10%.
According to a study of almost 10,000 Australian employees, 59% say their workloads are inappropriate.
According to the Australian Financial Review:
‘The study also found that workers with higher workload levels reported lower job performance, “signalling a drop in performance as an indicator of having too much to adequately deal with”.’
Undoubtedly, the cost of living, wage stagnation and impaired work-life balance are all factors that contribute to declining productivity and economic stability.
Scrapping worker safeguards is likely to do little to improve economic morale.
Melissa Marsden is a freelance journalist and PhD candidate at Curtin University. You can follow Melissa on Twitter @MelMarsden96.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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