Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Leading Australian Business
AIRC Industrial Dispute Resolution Conference
– International Perspectives
Melbourne – 3 October 2007Peter Anderson
ACCI Director – Workplace Policy
• Australian peak council of employer organisations
• Lead employer voice in national policy, conciliation and arbitration
• International representative of Australian employers on labour matters (e.g. IOE, ILO, CAPE) and trade matters (BIAC-OECD, ICC, CACCI)
ACCI
Content
• Australia’s dispute record
• Types of disputes
• Dispute subject matters
• Mechanisms for resolution
• Business objectives
• Disputes and arbitration
• Disputes and conciliation
• Disputes and mediation
• Disputes and bargaining
• Disputes and International Standards
Australia’s dispute record
• strikes historically low
• 0.8 days lost / ‘000 employees
• last 12 months – reduced 243,000 working days lost to 88,400
Types of disputes
• human resource disputes / conflicts (individual)
• rights disputes (usually individual)
• interest disputes (collective and individual)
Dispute Subject Matters
• higher wages / wages owed
• hours / rosters
• leave
• people /management
• workloads
• promotion / transfer
• discipline
• termination
• redundancy
• discrimination
• outsourcing
• health / safety
• unionism
• privacy
• insolvency
Mechanisms for Resolution• courts / judicial bodies• arbitrators• conciliators• mediators• industry dispute panels• corporate grievance processes / panels• informal internal processes• direct human relationships• negotiation / bargaining processes• strikes• government regulators / agencies• the labour market
Business Objectives
• efficiency, relevance, practicality, non intrusiveness, not self creating
• appropriate dispute resolution (contrast – alternative dispute resolution)
Disputes and arbitration
• compulsory arbitration abolished (except dismissals)
• not resulted in increased disputes
• voluntary / private arbitration provided for
• compulsory conciliation abolished (except
dismissals)
• not resulted in increased disputes
• voluntary / private conciliation provided for
• involves notion of mediation
Disputes and conciliation
Disputes and mediation
• government sponsored system of private mediation
• limited utility
Disputes and bargaining
• cultural shift – enterprise focus
• ongoing internal forums, committees
• driven in part by health and safety dialogue
• recognition of ‘independent facilitators’ for
collective bargaining
• recognition that a ‘negotiated agreement is
to be preferred to an imposed solution’
• recognition of representative organisations
Disputes and International Standards
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Leading Australian Business
AIRC Industrial Dispute Resolution Conference
– International Perspectives
Melbourne – 3 October 2007Peter Anderson
ACCI Director – Workplace Policy