Less than two months remain until Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s crucial jobs summit, and with only 100 seats available, businesses all over Australia are fighting for a place at the prized table.
The jobs and skills summit, which will take place on September 1 and 2 at Canberra’s Parliament House, aims to address Australia’s serious labour shortage in numerous industries, as evidenced by the half-million job openings, as well as the potential revision of the enterprise bargaining system.
The national airline of Australia, Qantas, has confirmed it will attend, thus at least one of the seats has already been taken, despite the hopes of many businesses and unions.
Major unions have previously expressed some opposition to Qantas attending the meeting due to their track record of outsourcing labour.
Coles and Woolworths, two enormous retailers, have also indicated a want to participate.
According to a Woolworths representative, the company is prepared to “tackle crucial problems” in the economy.
The spokeswoman stated, “We look forward to the summit discussing the relationship between productivity and salaries growth and restoring the business bargaining system.”
As the largest employer in the private sector in the nation, we view the Jobs and Skills Summit as a welcome opportunity to address significant economic concerns.
Coles declared that it “would be delighted to attend the employment summit and to contribute to these crucial conversations.”
The Sydney Morning Herald claimed that Mr. Albanese has not yet finalized the summit attendee list.
According to Robert Potter, national secretary of the Australian Services Union, “the job summit is a timely chance to explore the measures needed to address structural issues undermining Australian workers’ living standards.”
According to Mr. Potter, “workers have experienced rising living expenses and declining incomes over the previous ten years, making it harder and harder to make ends meet.”
We require an industrial relations structure that improves pay and working conditions while also investing in our skill-development and training programs, Mr. Potter continued.
He stated that in order to increase productivity and ensure that the benefits of our economy are distributed more fairly, we must “follow the high road to economic growth, rebalancing the system and building a stronger, more inclusive workforce.”
According to Tim Kennedy, national secretary of the United Workers Union, there are three challenges that require immediate addressing.
This includes the “disgraceful gender pay gap that must be addressed once and for all” as well as “wage stagnation in the backdrop of significant rises in people’s cost of living while corporate profits surge.”
The “ongoing challenge of insecure labour that fuels inequality and uncertainty for millions of workers and families across the country” was a third problem.