Claims that the Fair Work Commission is dysfunctional and holds an anti-business bias are unfounded and wrong, according to the independent industrial relations expert Andrew Stewart.
The commission’s vice-president, Graeme Watson, announced his surprise resignation on Monday and launched a scathing attack on the commission in a letter copied to the employment minister, Michaelia Cash.
“There is an increasing understanding in the business community that the Fair Work Commission is partisan, dysfunctional and divided,” Watson wrote.
Watson, who has been a member of the commission since 2006, said it had become clear the workplace system was “actually undermining the objects of the Fair Work legislation”.
“I do not consider that the system provides a framework for co-operative and productive workplace relations and I do not consider that it promotes economic prosperity or social inclusion. Nor do I consider it can be described as balanced.”
The comments were seized on by business and Coalition figures, including the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Tony Abbott, who said they demonstrated the need for change in Australia’s industrial relations framework.
But Stewart, a professor at the University of Adelaide, rejected claims of dysfunction and bias.
“Generally speaking, these are views that cross any political divide,” Stewart said. “The idea that you’ve got a divided commission with one faction in charge, which is making anti-business decisions, well no, that’s clearly wrong.”
“The great majority of the commission’s members do exactly what they’re appointed to do, that is set aside their previous background and make decisions as impartially and professionally as they can,” he said.
Stewart has worked closely with the commission, which asked him to conduct a major research project on equal remuneration claims. Stewart also advised the federal government on the drafting and structure of fair work legislation, and is president of the Australian Labour Law Association.
He said Watson’s letter should be used to further the debate on improving unfair dismissal laws and scrapping of the commission’s mandatory four-yearly award reviews – issues previously raised by the Productivity Commission but not acted on by the federal government
“I don’t think there’s any evidence that the commission is dysfunctional,” Stewart said. “Talking to many members of the commission, as I do, there are certainly a handful of members who are considered out of step with their colleagues.
“And I’m talking about members who have been appointed by both Labor and conservative governments but that’s always been the case.”
Watson is a former Freehills lawyer who represented Patrick Stevedores in the 1998 waterfront dispute. The commission’s president, Iain Ross, is a former Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant national secretary.
The Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox, said Watson would be a big loss to the Fair Work Commission.
“[His] knowledge of business, his understanding of the imperatives of business competitiveness, his knowledge of the law and his practical and fair approach will be sorely missed,” Willox said.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO, James Pearson, said urgent repair was needed so business could be more confident in hiring and retaining workers.
“It is becoming increasingly clear to everyone involved in workplace relations that our system needs repair,” he said. “Unfair dismissal, the application of general protections, agreement making and rules for the taking of industrial action are good places to start.”
In a statement, Ross said he had been informed Watson had written to the governor general tendering his resignation with effect from 28 February.
“I thank the vice-president for his service to the commission and wish him well in his future endeavours,” Ross said.
The employment lawyer Josh Bornstein said the commission would be “better for [Watson’s] departure”.
It is not the first time Watson has issued such criticism. In 2012, he condemned the narrow, union backgrounds of commission members and in 2014 he called for 20% cuts to Sunday penalty rates in hospitality because the basis of such rates was “archaic”.
Abbott said the resignation was unprecedented.
“[This] shows that the FWC [Bill] Shorten created is pro-union and anti-jobs,” Abbott said.
Labor’s employment spokesman, Brendan O’Connor, questioned the government’s silence on the resignation.
“Although it’s customary for Tony Abbott to attack institutions that don’t ascribe to his extreme views, it’s up to Malcolm Turnbull to repudiate them, or we’re left to conclude that Mr Abbott is saying what the government is thinking,” O’Connor said.
The Liberal senator and former workplace minister Eric Abetz said he hoped Watson’s resignation prompted some “culture change” in the commission.
Abetz said the former Labor government had “stacked and packed the commission with union cronies” and the Australian workplace system would be poorer for Watson’s departure.
