could be forced together to negotiate staff pay deals, with Ramsay Health Care’s top finance executive Martyn Roberts saying “the practicalities ... are going to be quite challenging”.
The uncertainty wrought by the reform comes on top of the financial pressures facing the CFOs, with Mr Gianotti warning that 2023 would be “slightly tougher” than 2022 and Mr Roberts saying the economy was set for a “more bumpy” year. He said “it’s always a concern” how employers can manage multi-employer bargaining when there were differences in how they ran their businesses, for example.The CFO of freight giant Aurizon, George Lippiatt, agreed the sticking point in the reforms for many companies forced to engage in multi-employer bargaining would be whether they were comparable to others in the industry.
He was “not concerned about it” because “we think our terms and conditions are actually our competitive advantage”, but warned others could struggle. Nearly 4000 of Aurizon’s 5000 staff are covered by enterprise agreements.