Parties all talk on IR: academic LABOR has attacked the coalition's industrial relations plans as a "Pizza for Penalty Rates policy" that attacks the rights of unions. The opposition says recent changes to the government's Fair Work Act are "booby trapped," and will allow unions to "invade the lunch room of every workplace in Australia." Director of the University of Sydney Workplace Research Centre, Professor John Buchanan, says the rhetoric from both sides on industrial relations is just political posturing. "I don't think there is terribly much difference (between Labor and the coalition)," he told AAP. Unions were an "easy whipping boy," particularly in the wake of the HSU scandal involving former Labor MP Craig Thomson, he said. Meanwhile, claims Tony Abbott's IR plans amount to a return of the unpopular Howard-era Work Choices regime were "totally unhelpful." "Work Choices in its original formulation was an attack on unfair dismissal rights and awards," he said. The coalition is not going anywhere near that. While industrial relations is unlikely to be as central to the 2013 poll as the 2007 Work Choices campaign, it will still play a part. Both Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott have done their utmost to calm critics of their workplace plans - the prime minister seeking to persuade business with his productivity pact involving the unions, and the opposition leader telling workers "that they can trust their future in our hands." Electorally, industrial relations is always going to be the Achilles heel of the coalition, and as in the lead up to the 2010 poll, Mr Abbott has been at pains to say there would be no return to Work Choices. Releasing the opposition's policy in May, he pledged not to tinker with the existing regime of unfair dismissal laws and penalty rates, and said there would not be a return to unpopular Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) introduced by the Howard Government. Instead, there would be a push for greater use of individual flexibility arrangements (IFAs). The move was described as a "Pizza for Penalty Rates policy" by Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten, despite IFA's being introduced by Labor. Mr Abbott also pledged to stamp out union corruption, impose restraints on union right of entry, and reinstate the Howard-era construction industry watchdog the Australian Building and Construction Commission ABCC). Professor Buchanan said it was this attack on unions, and the return of the ABCC, that was the major difference between the two parties. He accused the coalition being "extraordinarily doctrinaire" in targeting unions. "Problems of right of entry probably affect, and I'll be generous here, three per cent of the workforce," he said. We're not talking about flagrant abuses of right of entry. The Government pushed through its own reforms to the Fair Work laws in the final week of parliament, which stopped short of giving unions compulsory arbitration powers, but still rankled business. Under the changes, victims of workplace bullying will be able to take their cases to the Fair Work Commission, penalty rates would be enshrined in law, unpaid parental leave provisions improved, and unions given the power to hold lunchroom meetings. "It will allow them to invade the lunch room of every workplace in Australia," opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz claimed in parliament. The laws had been rushed through parliament he said, to booby trap everything "on the way out," he said. But Professor Buchanan described the changes as "marginal." "They are so relatively insignificant to the operation of the Australian labour market, I haven't bothered to internalise them," he said. On returning to the prime ministership, Mr Rudd immediately began wooing business put offside the Fair Work changes, which they say give unions too much power. Mr Rudd said the government saw the Fair Work Act as representing a "reasonable balance for the future," but flagged changes as part of his proposed productivity pact. We must continue to examine any unintended rigidities arising in the labour market. Kevin Rudd has also been keen to distance himself from the alleged "class warfare" of his predecessor Julia Gillard - manifested in Labor's crackdown on the 457 foreign worker scheme.