Businesses in Australia prioritise immigration and skills policy

Immigration, an improved skills policy and simplified collective bargaining have emerged as employers’ top three demands for the upcoming Labour government’s jobs summit.

The summit, likely to be held by September, could also pave the way for reforms such as wage theft legislation and action on union demands about insecure work, say experts, according to The Guardian. 

Labour leader Anthony Albanese described the summit when he first proposed it last year as a chance to “identify barriers to full employment, tackle job insecurity and create a new agenda for national productivity”.

Albanese, who is now Australia’s Prime Minister, suggested that the forum would bring unions and businesses together to discuss “how we can lift wages, lift profits, without putting pressure on inflation, by lifting productivity”.

“The employment summit is also an opportunity to recognise the central role that upskilling of the existing workforce can play in lifting work satisfaction, productivity and real incomes,” said Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox.

READ: Australia’s job mobility reaches highest level in a decade

“There are a lot of big issues to discuss at the jobs summit like skills and immigration and we are up for that,” said Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus.