Productivity remains a slogan in the industrial landscape in 2015, as the Productivity Commission`s investigation into the Australian industrial relations framework intensifies and the bill is debated in Parliament. What is employment productivity? In this article, we look at the idea promoted by this bill and share ideas for employers to negotiate businesses in 2015, particularly where there is an appetite to question the contributions that companies can make to the overall efficiency and productivity of their businesses. An agreement between an employer and a union that provides for an increase in wages for a moderate increase in productivity. To reach such an agreement, productivity negotiations are needed to find a compromise between the wage increase demanded by trade unions and the increase in productivity demanded by employers. The Fair Labour Commission has carried out a research project to study the provision of resources for those who wish to develop enterprise agreement clauses that can contribute to productivity in the workplace. As part of this project, all employers, workers and their representatives were asked to designate clauses on enterprise agreements that they consider to be innovative or that improve productivity. Should the legislation ever pass the Senate, the Fair Work Commission should be satisfied that improving productivity in the workplace was discussed during negotiations on an enterprise agreement for the agreement to be approved. This means that the Commission can refuse approval of the agreement if an employer does not bring ideas to the negotiating table to improve productivity measures. It does not go so far as to impose real productivity improvements as a precondition for FWC approval. In 2012, a full-bench FWC described productivity as “the measure of quantities or quantities of advances and outflows, not the cost of purchasing these inputs or the value of the production produced,” and found that “the concept is totally different from production prices and input prices, including labour prices.” However, it is invaluable to have the right people to get in touch with union officials. Challenge these union representatives to identify real productivity initiatives that could work in your workplace – after all, they spend a lot of time working in a number of employers and sectors! Having someone who knows the rules of engagement and understands the beliefs and values of the representative can save a lot of time and money and often avoid unnecessary headaches for businesses. From: Productivity Agreement in A Dictionary of Business and Management ” From our point of view, any discussion of productivity in the workplace cannot be useful in a negotiation framework without a dialogue on the relative cost-effectiveness of output quality.
In other words, the concern to improve productivity in enterprise bargaining should be achieved with the aim of obtaining general economic benefits for the employer, whether by determining the effectiveness of labour costs or by determining productivity gains in labour delivery, in order to offset agreed wage increases (or other conditions).