‘The moment they come in’: Unions line up targets of IR changes

“We will use the new laws to stop Qantas cannibalising itself,” he said.

“The moment these new powers come into effect, the TWU will fight to lift pay and conditions for labour hire cabin crew and freight workers at Qantas.”

Unions can file applications for orders after royal assent, expected in the new year, and any orders take effect from November at the earliest. Applications can include multiple labour hire entities at the one workplace.

Qantas and BHP’s Operation Services – which is specifically named in the legislation’s explanatory memorandum – are the major targets of the laws.

However, United Workers Union secretary Tim Kennedy, a key proponent of the changes, expected the laws to play out strongest in warehousing and logistics, manufacturing, and food and beverage processing.

While the UWU has secured labour hire pay clauses at warehouses used by major supermarkets like Woolworths and Coles, Mr Kennedy said there were still many employers and sites that had resisted.

“There are significant holdouts around the place and they are the reason we have raised this as a policy issue for the Labor party since 2014,” he said.

“While not the majority it’s material enough to distort the labour market in a way that doesn’t work for everyone.”

However, the UWU is likely to be selective about the sites it pursues as he said applications are “going to take up quite a lot of union resources”.

Labor’s crossbench deal was a “fantastic win” and had been an issue the union had been pushing for decades, said Matt Journeaux, the Australian Meat Industry Employees Association federal secretary.

“I wouldn’t think there are any meat sites in Queensland that pay labour hire more than what the EBA is,” he said.

But now that the laws have passed the union may not even have to make an application.

“I suspect most employers will just comply and not wait for the union to have a win by taking them to the Fair Work Commission”.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union secretary Steve Murphy, whose union is expected to target BHP’s labour hire arm for maintenance workers, said he was already seeing the effects of the laws on employers.

“Just recently, Downer, a major rail manufacturer in NSW, terminated its on-site agreement with a labour hire company that it owned and operated in order to undercut wages,” he said.

“Closing loopholes that allow for wage theft and exploitation sends a clear signal that this kind of business model is done – the cost of doing business is to pay workers properly.”

Recruitment Consulting and Staffing Association chief executive Charles Cameron, who argues the laws will tie firms up in complexity, says public school teachers and local government were likely to face a “lot of activity”.

“There have been a number of procurement firms that have tried to drive down labour hire rates in local government. everything from customer service through to grounds service through to general business support,” he said.

While union clauses on labour hire pay are common in commercial construction, the Master Builders Association predicts unions will use the laws to rope in areas of the building industry that don’t have such deals.

“This essentially legislates jump-up clauses, which is seen in some EBAs in the commercial sector – a measure that was previously banned under the building code due to anticompetitive behaviour,” CEO Denita Wawn said.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Farrow said the laws would help achieve real wage growth for his members.

“The labour hire exploitation model is a cancer which started in the mining industry but soon infected other areas of the economy like agriculture, aviation, construction and many others,” he said.