Greater clarity is needed on how good faith bargaining should be approached under the new Fair Work Act if our workplaces are to fully contribute to lifting the nation’s productivity growth.

The BCA discussion paper, Embedding Workplace Collaboration: Good Faith Bargaining, is the second in a series of discussion papers exploring more collaborative approaches to workplace relations. The first paper discussed dispute prevention.

The paper calls for the federal government to consider a code of practice to provide formal guidance on what the good faith bargaining requirements in the new Fair Work Act should entail.

Without this it could take several years of experience before the new laws deliver the workplace productivity benefits envisaged by the government.

Embedding Workplace Collaboration: Good Faith Bargaining