Workplace Relations Ministers' Council communiqué

The meeting of the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Council (WRMC) in Brisbane on 23 May 2008 represented an historic watershed in cooperative federalism in the workplace relations area.

In an important step towards a national workplace relations system for the private sector, the ministers unanimously endorsed a set of principles that will guide the development of governance arrangements for a stable, uniform national system.

The principles reaffirm the ministers’ February 2008 endorsement of ‘Forward with Fairness’ as providing the basis of a modern, fair and flexible workplace relations system. Through the principles, all governments commit to a national workplace relations system built on several key pillars including a strong safety net of minimum standards, collective bargaining at the workplace level, protection from unfair dismissal and fair and effective remedies through an independent umpire.

In addition to addressing the Commonwealth government’s substantive workplace relations reforms, the ministers also welcomed the government’s recent announcement of a process of extensive consultation with industry stakeholders to replace the Australian Building and Construction Commission with a specialist building and construction division of the inspectorate of Fair Work Australia after 31 January 2010. These consultations will be undertaken by a former judge of the Australian Federal Court, the Hon Murray Wilcox QC.

The meeting also marked an historic commitment by the ministers to occupational health and safety (OHS) reform with their in-principle agreement to the Intergovernmental Agreement for Regulatory and Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety (IGA). This will be the first time that cooperation between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments on the harmonisation of OHS legislation has been formalised.

The ministers also noted COAG’s decision to bring forward by 12 months the implementation timetable for the harmonisation of OHS legislation, one year earlier than the Commonwealth government’s original election commitment. The panel reviewing the national model OHS laws will be publishing an issues paper shortly after their initial extensive consultations.

It was agreed by all of the ministers to replace the Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC) with a body which will have tripartite representation and will be jointly funded by the Commonwealth, states and territories. Legislation to establish the body is expected to be introduced into the Federal Parliament in June to enable it to commence operations in the last quarter of 2008.

The ministers also endorsed a number of national standards and codes declared by the ASCC including the National Standard for Manual Tasks; the National Code of Practice for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders from Performing Manual Tasks at Work; the National Code of Practice for Precast, Tilt-up and Concrete Elements in Building Construction; and the Amendment to Schedule 2 of the National Model Regulations for the Control of Workplace Hazardous Substances [NOHSC: 1005 (1994)].

The Annual Report on the ASCC Business Plan 2006-2007 and the National OHS Strategy and the ASCC Business Plan for 2008-09 were endorsed by the ministers, while progress reports on the Australian Forum of Explosives Regulators and the review of the Comcare self-insurance workers compensation scheme were also noted by the ministers.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, MP, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations (Cth); The Hon John Mickel, MP, Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations (Qld); The Hon John Della Bosca, MLC, Minister for Industrial Relations (NSW); The Hon Rob Hulls, MP, Minister for Industrial Relations (Vic); The Hon Michael Wright, MP, Minister for Industrial Relations (SA); The Hon David Bartlett, MHA, Minister for Workplace Relations (Tas); The Hon Jon Ford, JP MLC, Minister for Industrial Relations (WA); Mr Andrew Barr, MLA, Minister for Industrial Relations (ACT); and The Hon Delia Lawrie, MLA, Minister for Public (NT).