The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has attacked Labor’s planned crackdown on labour hire companies, claiming it will reduce its flexibility and make it less globally competitive. From The AFR:
The Minerals Council of Australia is urging Labor to temper a planned crackdown on casualisation and labour hire, warning that the industry relies on workforce flexibility to remain globally competitive…
“We want to work with them [Labor] so they understand that our industry is not there trying to take advantage of workers,” chief executive Tania Constable said.
Labor hire is at the pointy end of Australia’s migrant wage rort. Recall what the parliamentary inquiry into establishing a modern slavery act said:
Committee view
9.146 The Committee recognises that recent Commonwealth, state and territory inquiries have highlighted the role that unscrupulous labour hire companies play in contributing to the exploitation of migrant workers…
9.150 While the Committee acknowledges that a labour licensing scheme is no ‘silver bullet’ to stopping exploitation and modern slavery, it considers that taken together with the Australian Government’s existing measures and the recommendations of this report, it will assist to improve protections for migrant workers…
Recommendation 48
9.152 The Committee recommends that the Australian Government establish a uniform national labour hire licensing scheme, consistent with recommendations by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and the Senate Education and Employment References Committee. This licensing scheme should incorporate random audits and unannounced inspections of labour hire firms to ensure compliance.
In short, the MCA is talking its own book here and must be ignored by Labor.
