Most Australians support multi-employer bargaining proposal

Half of Australians approve of the Labour Party’s industrial relations bill and believe that it is key to getting wages moving and handing power back to employees.

Among the proposed changes in the new legislation, also known as the “secure jobs, better pay” bill,  is allowing workers from across different workplaces to collectively negotiate pay rises. Known as multi-employer bargaining, this won support from 62% of respondents to a poll by the Guardian. It is expected that multi-employer bargaining could boost Australian workers’ pay by 1.6%, or A$1,473 (US$997) in the first year for a worker on the average full-time wage,

Overall, the bill was largely supported by Australians, with just 27% of respondents who participated in poll agreeing that the bill “gives too much influence to unions and will be bad for the economy and businesses”.

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When asked about the individual measures, the poll found majority support for strengthening the power of lower-paid workers to negotiate pay rises (72%), strengthening laws to close the gender pay gap (70%), and giving employees more power to have flexible work conditions, such as varied hours or working from home (66%), according to Guardian.