The Fair Work Amendment Bill has recently been the subject of controversy in the real estate and construction industries.
As residential construction has been rather stagnant in recent months, showing no growth in the residential construction industry for the March 2013 quarter, conditions have obviously been far from ideal for the housing sector.
For this reason, Master Builders have stepped out to call on the government to abandon the Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013 for the meantime, as it is too close to election time in already unstable conditions.
Wilhelm Harnisch, chief executive officer of Master Builders, claims that the bill should be set aside or reconsidered once all of the government's amendments have been properly assessed.
"The Bill puts the cart before the horse, creating enforceable laws about bullying without a fully developed code of practice to help ensure compliance with the law," said Mr Harnisch.
"For government to proceed with anti-bullying measures when its own code of practice is not complete and the public comment period on the draft does not end until 15 July 2013, is poor policy.
The Fair Work Amendment Bill would affect real estate in Australia and the residential construction industry through the issues it covers such as flexible working, changes to hours and rosters, maternity leave, extra remuneration, bullying and harassment, and productive workplace relations.
While these are good changes and improvements to make, Master Builders believes that it with such unease currently in the industry, it is the wrong time to be stirring the pot until things have settled and been fully combed through.
"The Fair Work Amendment Bill was considered by two parliamentary committees. It is very poor process to bring in amendments which so radically alter the Fair Work legislation without proper scrutiny," said Mr Harnisch.
