The MCA has called for an urgent meeting with Opposition leader Kim Beazley seeking the ALP’s reconsideration of the proposed workplace relations reforms.

MCA chief executive Mitchell Hooke said the proposed reforms were ill-conceived and potentially detrimental to the long-term viability of the Australian minerals industry.

“Australia will only maximise the benefits of the current minerals boom if the industry continues to improve labour and capital productivity and international competiveness,” Hooke said.

He said the current resource boom reflected the need for an industrial relations system that promotes mutually beneficial direct relationships between employers and employees.

“The MCA is deeply concerned by the ALP’s proposal to abolish Australian Workplace Agreements, reinvigorate collective bargaining, strengthen the Awards system, and reposition unions as an external third party in negotiating workplace terms and conditions.”

Beazley recently released findings from a Labor caucus taskforce investigating the WorkChoices laws, which travelled around regional areas and cities, talking to people about the effects of the Federal Government’s industrial relations laws.

“It’s clear from our inquiries to 20 electorates across Australia that WorkChoices is unfair,” the taskforce said.

Hooke said the meeting with Beazley would put forward the mineral industry’s position and discuss the need for continued reform, not regressive changes.

He said Labor’s plans to reform the new laws would negatively impact the people the Opposition purports to represent.

“The impressive transformation of the minerals sector over the last decade is in part due to flexible workplace laws transforming work practices, pay and conditions, and productivity in the minerals industry,” Hooke said.

“The MCA believes the proposed reforms will create uncertainty and divisiveness in the workplace, and potentially increase aggravation between employers and employees.”