Industrial Relations Reform

8/9/2019 Industrial Relations Reform

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Barbara Pocock

Brotherhood of St Lawrence Conference, Tuesday 11th October 2005University of Melbourne


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The Howard Industrial Plan:

A 20 year old vision, unfit for a21st Century working family:Anti-family and unfair


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The measures: a weaker safety netm inim um pay rate and classifications4 weeks Annual leave10 days Personal/carer s leave

12m onths Parental leave38 ordinary hours, annual average

AWAs override agree m ents and awards

The Case of Billy/Bettina


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The measures: Tilts bargainingy Fair pay Co mm issiony weak unfair dis m issal protectionsy More anti-collective than US lawy AIRC neutered


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AIRC and work/familyy Maternity leave (1979)y Adoption leave (1984)y Parental leave (1990)y Carers leave (1994/95)y Right to refuse unreasonable overti m e (2001)y Right to request part-ti m e em ploy m ent (2005)

All opposed by coalition and e m ployersHow will any new advances be m ade?


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O verall Impacty Low paid workers will be lower paidy $44 lower if govern m ent had had its way since 1996 AWAs

on take it or leave it basis for new e m ployees or onprom otion etc

y

Collective agreem

ents and awards irrelevant overtim ey Union access to workers m ore li m ited and difficult

y (eg 24 hours written notice and reason, only once every 6 m onths forrecruit m ent, no entry if covered by AWAs, individual worker whoseeks help fro m union will be identified to boss, no chance to checknon- m em bers paid correctly, co m plex ballots for industrial action)


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Impacty Widening wages dispersiony Sam e workers, different ratesy Tougher for the weaker

y young peopley people returning to worky casualsy working carersy imm igrants

y

Profit not productivity y Even good bosses are forced to co m pete on cutprice wages and conditions


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Impact on workers and families?y Shift to AWAs, and stripped back awards will increase:

y hours of worky unsocial working ti m ey wage inequality y the working poor


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The evidence: AWAs and payy Pay levels and pay rises are lower for workers on

AWAs (Peetz 2005)y Even though workers on AWAs, work longer

hoursy And have less access to penalty rates for

unsocial hours and overti m ey

AWAs m uch m ore likely to reduce or abolishpay for working overti m e, nights or weekends


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AWAs and payy wom en on AWAs paid 11% less than wo m en on

collective agree m ents in May 2004y Casuals on AWAs lower by 15%,y Perm anent part-ti m ers by 25%.y These are all groups with disproportionate

responsibilities for fa m ilies


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AWAs: less family friendlyy In 2001 12% of all AWAs had any work/fa m ily m easures

y 2004 DEWR report:y only 8% of AWAs had paid m aternity leave (10%

collective agree m ents)y 5% had paid paternity leave (7%)y 4% unpaid purchased leave

y

Those who need itm

ost, get it least:y 14%m ore m en than wo m en on AWAs had any fa m ily leave in their AWA


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Time: A critical work and familyissue

QuickTime and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.


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U nsocial time and familiesy 64% of Australian e m ployees already work either

som etim es or regularly outside standard ti m esy Consistent body of international evidence finds that

unsocial work tim

e affects social and fam

ily tim

e(Strazdins et al, 2004)y Evening and night work is especially stressful for

parents, increasing depression, affecting sleep andreducing parental responsiveness to children

y Positive associations between shift work and m aritaldiscord and divorce


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N ight work and familyy N ight work co m bined with parenting is m ost har m ful

for m arital stability (Presser 2000; US study)y N ight working parents have two to six ti m es the risk of divorce co m pared to those working standard dayti m e

hoursy Trans m ission effects to children


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U nsocial hours and carey All kinds of unsocial routines (weekend,

afternoon, evening and night) can disrupt fa m ilies

and reduce parent-child tim

ey Such parents spend less ti m e reading, playing andhelping children and are less satisfied with thetim e available with children

y Many parents co m pensate by taking less ti m e forthe m selves


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N ew research: effects on childreny Recent analysis of Canadian data by Strazdins et al

(2004) shows that children of parents who work

non-standard hours arem

ore likely to haveem otional or behavioural difficultiesy Independent of socio-econo m ic status and

childcare usey Other kinds of disadvantage can co m pound this

effect


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Long hours of worky International research about health & long hours

(Spurgeon, 2003)y

Increases risk of m ental health proble m sy Increases risk of cardiovascular diseasey Adverse effects on fa m ily relationships


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Inequalityy Inequality a m ongst wage earners has increasedin recent years

y A growing body of international research

suggesting that inequality is bad for societiesand fa m ilies (Wilkinson 2005)

y More unequal societies: violence, poorercomm unity relations and worse health.


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A family unfriendly,unfair agenda

y With very negative consequences for the lowpaid,young and disadvantaged

y

Will createm

ore pressures inm

any fam

iliesy for children and other dependentsy for relationships

y Long lived social consequences for inequality andunfairness

Documents

Industrial Relations Reform