10 October 2019

Seeking to justify his union-busting, Orwellian-titled Ensuring Integrity Bill, Scott Morrison claims, “These are the same bans that apply to company directors who break the law.” Anthony Forsyth, professor of workplace law at RMIT, says that is a blatant falsehood; the legislation “would allow court-ordered disqualification to be sought against a union official on much wider grounds than those available for company directors. An employer could seek to have an official removed because they have been involved in a technical breach of the protected industrial action rules under the Fair Work Act, but a union could not seek disqualification of a company director who had breached the same legislation by, for instance, presiding over the underpayment of workers. Disqualification could also be sought because a union official had breached the proposed ‘fit and proper person’ test. There is no fit and proper test for company directors…”