January 18, 2012.
WORKPLACE Relations Minister Bill Shorten says the timeframe for the Fair Work Act review is not too quick - despite employers having less than a month to have their say.
He lashed out at the opposition's criticism of the timetable, saying interested parties had known the review was coming for two years now.
An expert panel conducting the review released a background paper and timetable for the submission process today.
Written submissions are due by February 17, ahead of a cut-off for supplementary submissions on March 2, with the panel due to report back to government by May 31.
The panel is planning discussions and roundtable meeting with all key employer and employee representatives and has promised all views will be heard.
Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz says the short timeframe does not give people time for comprehensive consideration of their submissions.
He believed the process was skewed to those involved in representational groups and ignored a majority of non-union workers and small employer.
But Mr Shorten said people should be prepared for the review since it had been on the cards for the past two years.
He pointed out there would be an opportunity to make secondary submissions responding to other parties as well.
"It's not as though workplace relations is secret business conducted in a black box," he said in a statement today."Interested people have known about this for some time."
Mr Shorten said the opposition was trying to have things both ways."The federal opposition usually like to say we review too much and now they complain this one is too quick," he said."They should determine their poison and stick to it."
The Australian Industry Group, which has been vocal in saying Australia's international competitiveness is falling due to industrial relations constraints, welcomed the panel's discussions paper.
Chief executive Heather Ridout said the questions raised in the paper were useful as far as giving some focus to the review.
Her group intends to make a formal submission.
No comments:
Post a Comment