I'm pretty interested in the way we are being bludgoened into joining the Electrical Bargaining Council.

The Labour Relations Act states that if over 50% of an industry is registered with its bargaining council, agreements of the bargaining council are binding on unregistered participants in the industry.

This implies that membership of the bargaining council is voluntary, ie a choice by the company.

However, we are being told that if we have employees we have to register with the bargaining council???

By my understanding, being registered means we are entitled to have input into bargaining council decisions. But the real question here is why would a small electrical company want to be registered?

Big companies I can understand, but small companies - what are the benefits?

And is all this talk of "must register" actually legitimate?