Albanese named the promised employment summit as being high on his reform agenda during his first parliamentary press conference as prime minister on Monday:“I thank those people in the business community and in the trade union movement for the discussions ... about the way that that can be progressed.”
The better-off-overall test (BOOT) – a key workplace system safeguard that ensures workers don’t go backwards during pay negotiations – requires each individual worker to be better off under the terms of any new enterprise agreement than under the industry award for it to be passed.
During the election campaign,Albanese accused Scott Morrison of putting workplace conditions “up for grabs” when the then-prime minister revived his commitment to the Coalition’s shelved industrial relations package,which included changes to workplace bargaining that Labor and unions argued would lead to some staff being paid less.
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Former industrial relations ministerMichaelia Cash last month ruled out changes to the BOOT,despite employer groups pursuing revisions that would allow EBAs to be ratified if they have majority workforce backing,and the scrapping of entitlements deemed unnecessary for most workers.
During last week’s National Press Club address,Albanese reaffirmed his opposition to changing the BOOT,saying “you only remove the better-off-overall test if you don’t want people to be better off overall”.
But the Business Council of Australia,Australian Industry Group and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry confirmed on Monday they would resurrect their push to simplify the BOOT during the summit.