Dave Oliver, AMWU National Secretary, will today tell employers at a manufacturing roundtable in Canberra that starting another war over wages and conditions will only continue Australia’s productivity decline.

Mr Oliver will attend the Manufacturing Roundtable in Parliament House, Canberra today, along with the Prime Minister, Industry Minister, CEOs and industry experts.

Employer groups have recently been spruiking a return to IR policies which lower workers’ rights, under the cover of ‘productivity’ and ‘flexibility’.

“The first step to improving real productivity is understanding how unproductive another battle over cutting wages and conditions will be,” said Mr Oliver.

“The Howard Government caused business and unions to waste five years in an ideological battle over IR while productivity actually went backwards. In the end, we ended up back where we started.

“If business groups want to start that battle again, it will be back to the trenches and we won’t get anywhere for another five years. That would be a tragic outcome.

ABS figures show multi-factor productivity fell - 0.3% each year during the cycle from 2004 to 2008, coinciding with the introduction of WorkChoices.

Mr Oliver will tell business it should focus on the outstanding issues raised in the last major report into Australian management, Manufacturing Matters in Australia: Just how productive are we?

The report, based on an international study done by the London School of Economics and consulting firm, McKinsey & Co, found that “the top 27% of Indian and Chinese manufacturers are better managed than half of Australian manufacturing firms”.

“All the research shows that the biggest productivity gains could be made by focussing on improving the skills of managers.

“That’s the debate business and the Gillard Government need to be focussing their energy on. Unions look forward to getting back to these issues and delivering real productivity that benefits both workers and businesses.”