RETAILERS have warned of unprecedented union interference in the small business sector, after failing to win support for their campaign to sign thousands of companies to non-union agreements before the start of new workplace laws yesterday.
The Australian Retailers Association had urged up to 5000 members to strike five-year non-union deals with their employees before today, to avoid higher wage and compliance costs it claimed would result from the operation of the Fair Work Act, The Australian reports.
In contrast with the luxury hotel sector, which struck 40 agreements covering 5000 workers over the past six weeks, the retail body admitted "you could count on one hand`` the number of non-union deals reached.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow said it was "despicable that some employers, including those in the hotel industry, had been using the dying days of Work Choices to lock low-paid workers into inferior pay and conditions for up to three years``.
Ms Burrow said workers in the retail sector "fortunately`` did not fall for the trap. "It is outrageous that businesses would think of doing this to loyal employees at a time of great economic and employment uncertainty,`` she said.
ARA spokesman Phil Barresi said most of the association`s members were either not aware or did not understand the changes associated with the Fair Work Act.
"We really wanted them to focus in on what the impact of the bill would be on the small retail sector,`` he said.
"There is going to be an increased presence by the union movement. There is going to be collective bargaining that is going to be forced upon businesses.
"We are worried that the Fair Work Act will have ramifications for retailers who have probably never ever met a union official in the past and, all of a sudden, they can be confronted with a negotiating environment which is totally foreign to them.``
Mr Barresi was the federal Liberal MP for Deakin during the term of the Howard government. He lost his seat at the 2007 election but will re-contest the seat at the next federal election after recently winning preselection.
He said the uptake of non-union agreements had been "very, very low``.
"I think part of the reason is just simply that retailers have really failed to understand the complexity of the legislation, and the changes that were going to take place,`` he said.
"Retailers have been so focused on making the dollars, that issues such as industrial relations and the changes to the bill have been a secondary issue.
"In the last couple of weeks, there has been a greater level of interest but ... it`s all a bit late now.``
Unions said the association had tried to "squeeze the last bitter drops out of the Work Choices lemon`` by seeking to rip employees off by about $100 a week.
Read more on this story at The Australian.
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