RETAILERS are being urged to lock their staff into five-year contracts that unions claim could cost workers up to $100 a week.
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The Australian Retailers Association, in a mass email to its 5000 members, warns that the Rudd Government's proposed workplace laws will impose standards that could increase incomes in the retail sector by 14 per cent.
The email encourages retailers to lodge workplace agreements, using the current Work Choices laws introduced by the Howard government, before July 1. "Warning, Warning, Warning!" the message says. "Act now to avoid an increased wage bill. Can your business afford a 14 per cent increase in wage bills? Lock in five-year workplace agreements NOW to avoid costly compliance with new legislation."
Under the new Fair Work Australia laws, employers will have to provide what the association says are "superior conditions than the current minimum entitlements". These include a "better off overall test" and 10 new National Employment Standards, which will be the minimum basis for all workplace agreements.
The Minister for Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, has warned retailers that any attempt to get around the new laws will be short-lived. "From January 1, 2010, the Government's 10 legislated National Employment Standards and modern award wage rates will apply to all employees and will override inferior conditions in agreements."
About 1.5 million people work in the retail sector and the ACTU believes that with improvements to casual loadings, penalty rates and new pay scales coming in over the next few years, shop assistants could earn up to $100 a week more in the future.
The ACTU secretary, Jeff Lawrence, said the retail sector had not changed its attitude since the last election and was attempting to prolong the life of Work Choices. "It's consistent with what happened leading up to the last election, when some employers attempted to get staff onto agreements in case there was a change in government," he said.
In the two weeks before the election, and the fortnight following, Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank tried to get staff to sign Australian Workplace Agreements before they were abolished on January 1, 2008.
Mr Lawrence also said the retailers were being encouraged to use a template agreement, which amounted to an employers' version of "pattern bargaining", where common wages and conditions prevail across an entire sector.
The association's executive director, Richard Evans, said his organisation was only suggesting "standard clauses" for non-union collective agreements.
"It is incumbent on us to get the best deal for our members," Mr Evans said.
"There is a lot of uncertainty about the new laws. The association is doing its job advising members to act now to minimise compliance costs."
He also denied the guidelines for collective agreements had been drafted by the association's director of employment relations, Phil Barassi. Mr Barassi is a former federal Liberal MP, who lost his Victorian seat at the 2007 election, after it was targeted by unions in the anti-Work Choices campaign.
