The AMWU will challenge ear implant manufacturer Cochlear in Fair Work Australia over its failure to engage in good faith bargaining with its workforce.

Cochlear process workers have repeatedly, over many years, expressed a fundamental wish to bargain for a collective agreement through the AMWU, said NSW Secretary Tim Ayres.

Yet in two years of bargaining with AMWU representatives the company has shown no will to reach an agreement. Cochlear will not even agree to include basic conditions in a collective agreement, like an annual pay increase, hours of work or a classification system.

“Cochlear management has been blatantly saying that the Fair Work laws only require them to sit down and talk to us – not to reach an agreement.

“Their real agenda is to cover all conditions in individual contracts, which means they would be unenforceable and subject to change at any time. Cochlear workers want and deserve some security in their jobs and their work conditions.”

The parties have taken part in conciliation in Fair Work Australia, however the company would still not budge in its hostility towards reaching a fair agreement, said Mr Ayres. 

“AMWU members at Cochlear have shown enormous courage and determination in pursuing their right to a collective agreement,” he said. 

The AMWU will apply to Fair Work Australia for a good faith bargaining order on the grounds Cochlear is not meeting the requirements to bargain in good faith under the Fair Work Act.

Cochlear is a good example of why the Fair Work laws should be amended to allow for last-resort arbitration when agreement can’t be negotiated, said Mr Ayres.

“Cochlear is making a mockery of the good faith bargaining provisions. Qantas can force an arbitrated outcome by grounding an airline; but the Cochlear workers have no power to trigger arbitration.

“If an employer refuses to bargain in good faith, there must be some remedy to that. Cochlear workers have been waiting long enough for an outcome all Australians have the right to expect – a fair collective agreement.

“If the current industrial laws can’t deliver that, then the laws need to change.”