Business plot to curb union power

Big business is plotting to use Australian Workplace Agreements as Trojan Horses to cut union power if Labor wins, The Australian Financial Review reports.

The Democrats will stop Labor from abolishing AWAs in the Senate if they hold the balance of power. If not, the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and BHP Billiton are among those planning to put workers on non-union collective deals.

Labor's IR policy has come under heavy fire from business groups, especially the promise to remove limits on the number of allowable matters in awards and re-empower the Industrial Relations Commission.

New figures from the Office of the Employment Advocate show an upswing in new AWAs signed in mining, retail and manufacturing.

"It's absolutely vital for our future that we do not return to a mindset that centralised wage fixing takes over the management of labour," said BCA chief Hugh Morgan. "Can you imagine, in a sporting analogy, that there should be an intervening party between players on the football team and the coach captain and management intervening to say that football boots should be a different colour?"

Sorry Hugh. But football players aren't stupid. They're in a union too.