The Fair Work Act Review is an opportunity lost and does very little to help the electrical industry, says the peak Australian industry body the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA).

NECA chief executive officer James Tinslay says, “We are extremely disappointed with the Fair Work Act Review and believe it’s a lost opportunity.

“It does little to help the Australian electrical industry which is primarily made up of small to medium sized businesses.

“To succeed in today’s challenging economic climate these companies need to be highly flexible and mobile and they require a high skills base.

“The Productivity Commission should have carried out the review rather than using a panel. The panel’s ability to review the Fair Work Act was fairly constricted whereas if the review had been carried out by the Productivity Commission it would have led to greater opportunities to review core elements of the Act.

“There is nothing in the review which helps smaller businesses grow and tackle the problem of higher labour costs.

“We urgently need better workplace regulation to improve productivity and competitiveness and to tackle union problems experienced by employers.

“We disagree with the claim that productivity has not been badly affected by the Fair Work Act. Our members are telling us that higher labour costs and speculative union activity have taken their toll especially given the general down-turn in the construction industry.

“The Government needs to act now to tackle these problems. Doing nothing is not an option and will lead to a further downturn in productivity and more business failures in this tough economic climate.”