Deputy Premier and Industrial Relations Minister Jarrod Bleijie has introduced sweeping changes to Queensland's industrial relations laws that he said "mirrored as much as possible the Fair Work legislation."
The bill would allow the minister to terminate protected industrial action if satisfied there is a sufficient public interest justification, including where the action threatens life, personal safety, health or welfare, or risks significant damage to the state's economy. It would also require at least three working days' notice for protected industrial action.
Mr Bleijie said the powers would be used in "extraordinary situations" and would not remove the right to strike. "The striking ability is still there. We've kept arbitration. We've kept conciliation," he said.
This year Queensland Rail and seven unions spent months negotiating in the Fair Work Commission, with protected industrial action and a maintenance backlog resulting in reduced services and frequent delays for commuters. Mr Bleijie said he wrote to the federal industrial relations minister to intervene. "There was some militancy there," he said. If the rail situation had been a state rail issue under state laws, he suspected the government would have "absolutely" intervened. "There was too much disruption to commuters," he said.
Mr Bleijie said the proposed laws "essentially mimicked" federal laws introduced by Julia Gillard's government in 2009.
The state's industrial relations jurisdiction covers around 383,000 workers. The remaining estimated 2.66 million workers are covered by the Fair Work Act 2009.
The legislation follows an independent review of the state's industrial relations laws. Reviewers received written submissions from 97 stakeholders, representing employers, unions, workers, insurers and other key interest groups. The report made 104 recommendations, and the state government accepted 75 of them in full.
The proposed changes would also require employment to be the "major significant" contributing factor for psychological injury claims. Mr Bleijie told state parliament that accepted psychological injury claims had increased by almost 268 per cent over the past decade, including more than 76 per cent in the past five years.
Queensland's peak union body said the proposed changes would make it harder for frontline workers to access support for psychological injuries. Queensland Council of Unions General Secretary Jacqueline King said psychological injuries can have more than one contributing factor.