Workplace relations scheme needs tweaking

The Federal Government has asked the Productivity Commission to look at how it can improve Australia’s workplace relations framework. The current framework is very restrictive for businesses like those in tourism and hospitality who need to operate in a 24/7, highly competitive global marketplace. The National Tourism Alliance will be asking the Commission to improve workplace regulation to open up opportunities for both businesses and employees in tourism and hospitality, across the whole country. Around 90% of 280,000 tourism and hospitality businesses in Australia are small businesses, and about half are in regional areas. Improving workplace regulation will boost these businesses’ ability to grow and bring prosperity to their communities. These businesses already employ one million people across Australia, or one in 12 employees, and could employ a lot more. Small businesses also carry a disproportionate regulatory burden which affects their ability to grow and employ people, so we ask the government to cut workplace red tape to encourage growth and innovation in small businesses. Workplace regulation compliance for conditions of employment and employing workers is complex and time consuming for SMES. Businesses are not trying to avoid their obligations; the issue is that the complexity in finding information, understanding what is required, and preparing the information is imposing huge costs in time and stress on small business people. In the service-oriented tourism and hospitality sector, the compliance burden can be a disincentive to employing staff and is a serious constraint to growth. It can also affect service quality. Another good reason to improve the workplace relations framework is that what’s good for tourism is good for the whole economy. For what every dollar tourism earns directly in the Australian economy, it value adds an additional 92 cents to other parts of the economy. Another reason to improve the employment framework is to ensure the industry can deliver high quality customer service at the times customers expect it, and that’s 24/7 in tourism and hospitality. Under the current workplace restrictions, it is difficult for businesses to deliver the service levels needed on a 24/7 basis because the cost of doing so is prohibitive. And tourism is by nature a highly labour intensive service industry, so it needs reforms to workplace regulation to ensure that it remains competitive in a global market. Let’s not forget that in regional areas, tourism and hospitality businesses are also affected by seasonality, as well as a smaller pool of available labour. The restrictive workplace relations framework makes it difficult to find workable solutions.

Small businesses carry a disproportionate burden’ regulatory