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However, the government and unions say the bill makes it harder to strike by imposing a mandatory conciliation period before industrial action can take place, and giving the Fair Work Commission greater powers to intervene in drawn-out disputes.
Svitzer is trying to scrap its current enterprise agreement with seafarers, an action the government is also trying to make more difficult under the bill so applications to terminate pay deals cannot be used as a bargaining tactic.
Svitzer will lock out its employees from Friday in response to industrial action.
Willox warned there was a risk the laws could be used by unions to cripple supply chains to put greater bargaining pressure on employers, saying “the bill needs to be amended to ensure that this can’t happen”.
Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association chief executive Steve Knott said the ports dispute “offers a glimpse into Australia’s future” under the proposed laws.
Maritime Union of Australia assistant national secretary Jamie Newlyn on Monday described the lockout as a “massive escalation of the simmering industrial conflict” between the Danish–owned Svitzer and its workers and accused it of “throwing Australian supply chains into disarray”.
Svitzer has said that from Friday, no shipping vessels would be towed in or out of 17 Australian ports it serviced in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
The company’s Australian managing director, Nicolaj Noes, told ABC television on Tuesday the lockout was the “only real response” it had against the unions.
One part of the agreement Svitzer wants to scrap is the ability for union delegates to sit in on job interviews.
Burke told 2GB radio station on Tuesday he did not know why Svitzer had agreed to that in the first place.
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“I don’t understand why that one’s there. But it is only there because the employer has previously agreed to it. So the company would know why they agreed to that,” Burke said, adding the dispute was an example of why he wanted to give Fair Work greater powers to intervene in deadlocks.
He said he was hopeful the bill, which passed the lower house last week, was only weeks away from being passed in the Senate.
“You know, I wish the company could just pause and take a breath and wait for those laws to be in place,” he said.
Business groups, the opposition and some crossbenchers have criticised the government for rushing the bill through parliament, with some calling for it to be split so the more contentious elements can be debated further.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter here.
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