A few readers might have seen that the AHRI used a co-sponsored report recently to make some very odd comments about how the Fair Work Act is hampering workplace flexibility.

The AHRI joined with the Society for Human Resource Management to hire the Economist Intelligence Unit to undertake a “a global assessment and benchmarking tool that would show the capacity of national economies to perform effectively and efficiently within workplaces that were fair, equitable and flexible places in which to work”.

A summary of their Global Index of Workplace Performance and Flexibility appeared in The Australian and The Australian Financial Review last week.

The AHRI used the report as evidence that Australia was lagging productivity and IR flexibility and some of the blame was leveled at the Fair Work Act.

I know this is going to sound naïve, but when did the AHRI start politically campaigning against Government legislation? The last time I looked, the human resources industry was engaged in its mission of balancing the strategic needs of employees and management.

The Economist Intelligence Unit used a bizarre methodology to try and create a survey that analyses workplace productivity in countries as diverse as Botswana, Uganda and Tanzania and then compare their workplaces with those in Australia, Italy or Ireland. It’s a big ask.

For some reason, according to the EIU, in workplace productivity Germany lags below Italy and Ireland - which I’m sure is news to the Germans.

In the survey Australia loses marks on “policy and regulatory framework” because of our high manufacturing wages. Compared to who and what exactly does that mean? We get ticks for having a strong education system but brickbats for apparently not being very open to global trade and competition. What? We’re one of the most highly deregulated and strongest trading nations in the world.

The AHRI report is very odd and completely out of character.