Lees-Galloway IainHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): At the risk of repeating myself I will once again address the question of union access. The member Scott Simpson raised concerns about union officials entering the workplace in a fashion which is unsafe and creates undue risk in the workplace. I remind members again of section 21(2) in Part 4 of the Employment Relations Act which states A representative of a union exercising the right to enter a workplace—(a) may do so only at reasonable times during any period when any employee is employed to work in the workplace; and (b) must do so in a reasonable way having regard to normal business operations in the workplace; and (c) must comply"—must comply—"with any existing reasonable procedures and requirements applying in respect of the workplace that relate to—(i) safety and health; or (ii) security." Additionally union officials have to make themselves known to the employer. They have to provide identification if that is requested from them. So I am absolutely certain—as I've said I think three or four times now in this debate—that that provides the right balance so that union members are able to get access to their official when they want to get access to their official. If they ask for their official to come in and deal with a situation in the workplace the union official has the ability to access the workplace but that is balanced with the very fair and reasonable right of the employer to have control of their workplace. I think the combination of the existing Act and that question of reasonableness—that's a word that's been in the Act since the year 2000. It is something which employers and employees have been able to work easily with for 18 years if not more. So I don't accept the member's points about "reasonable". Hon Scott Simpson: So why the change? Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: We're not changing the question of "reasonable"; what we're saying is that union officials should be able to access the workplace when their members want them to be able to come on site and we've balanced that by saying that where there is no collective agreement where there is no ongoing union presence—in that situation union officials have to seek the consent from the employer. Mr Simpson rightly said "Shouldn't it work like this? Shouldn't it be that the official calls up and says 'Hey when's a good time for me to come in? I was thinking maybe 10 o'clock on Thursday—is that around about smoko? That's a good time to come in.'?" That's the way it operates in the vast majority of times. Certainly when I was a union organiser that was the way I operated. You've got an ongoing—Hon Members: Oh! Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —enduring relationship with the employer. Oh what a surprise—read my bio. When I was a union organiser that's how I would operate. I would contact the employer I'd let them know that I was coming and you have an ongoing relationship with the employer as a union official. It's not some one-off thing where you just charge into a workplace and cause mayhem and disappear again. You've got to have an ongoing enduring relationship with that employer and that's why it is important to treat each other with respect and to deal with things in an open and communicative manner. Of course there will be examples where the employer is not keen to work in that way and that's why we need to have the strength of the law to give people that opportunity so that union members have their freedom of association upheld and the right to get access to their union official. I hope having discussed this a number of times now that that addresses for members the question of union access."