Peak industry body Master Electricians Australia (MEA) has called comments on multi-employer bargaining ‘crocodile tears’ that do not reflect the industry landscape.

In response to the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) backing multi-employer deals with provisions to simplify right-to-strike laws, General Manager of Advocacy Jason O’Dwyer said it could see the return to the days of industry-wide strikes and secondary boycotts that plagued the country and destroyed businesses.

“Easier right-to-strike laws simply means a ‘tools down and walk off’ right to strike. If we are to look at genuine multi-employer bargaining, the threat of wildcat strikes and the days of ‘out the gate for eight’ is not an incentive that the broader industry will accept nor enter into.

“Even the employers that support a better position for employees is adversely affected by the action of union or other employers. Which is why, to maintain fairness, MEA supports prohibitions on industrial action.

“To reach genuine industry bargaining means having good faith bargaining in an environment where the threat of wildcat strikes is not on the table. Both sides have to make concessions in an agreement.”

Mr O’Dwyer said multi-employer agreements have been a feature of the industrial landscape for the past 30 years.

“In Queensland and New South Wales, I have seen employers engage in multi-employer agreements in which the ETU branches vehemently opposed genuine bargaining on a broader basis.”

Jason O’Dwyer is available for interview. Please phone The SAS Group on 07 3221 9222 or 0467 792 013.

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