industrial action

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Are we in the beginnings of a cyclical upswing in industrial action in Love me tender - option 3Australia? And if so, what does it mean for those involved in competitive tender processes?

Data from the ABS indicates that the last spike in industrial disputes occurred in September 2012, with around 110,000 working days lost. The sense that there may be another spike coming correlates with the enterprise agreement life cycle, as enterprise agreements typically expire after 3 or 4 years. Many businesses are currently engaged in, or planning for, negotiations for the next round of agreements. 
Continue Reading Love me tender – how IR is a key point of difference

ColourIn 1993, the Keating government passed laws to move Australia towards a “system based primarily on bargaining at the workplace, with much less reliance on arbitration at the apex” (Laurie Brereton MP, Minister for Industrial Relations, 28 October 1993).  The embrace of enterprise bargaining instead of industry-wide, centralised wage fixation was to be the end of a creaking “Australian settlement” that had been overtaken by modern values and economic reality.

Enterprise level bargaining has undoubtedly been a positive move away from the system that preceded it.  Nevertheless, over 20 years since its introduction, an observer might feel skeptical about the promise of agreements that would be tailored to the needs of individual workplaces and their employees, under which “employees and employers alike can and will benefit”.  
Continue Reading What lies beyond enterprise bargaining?

Often enterprise bargaining ends with a deal brokered in circumstances of crisis. Perhaps industrial action and a union media campaign are now viewed as too distracting or expensive. Perhaps management discontent with long negotiations has brought frustration to the fore, and an instruction to negotiators to “end it, get a deal, any deal”.
Continue Reading Successful enterprise bargaining – Move from being a “price taker” to a “price maker”

Recent months have seen a number of prominent protests in Australian cities with visible union involvement. For example, since June, we have seen the CFMEU protesting outside the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption, steelworkers protesting at the Port of Melbourne, and large union-organised protests against the federal budget in state capitals.
Continue Reading Protest action – employees walking off the job

Upon its inception in the 1990s, enterprise-based bargaining presented Australian employers with more opportunity than risk. Today the opposite seems to be the case. Indeed, a report produced by RMIT University’s Dr Steven Kates in August last year found enterprise agreement renewal to be a major source of concern (read “risk”) for 77% of employers. While the survey giving rise to the report was directed to employers in the  resources industry, there is no reason why a similar response would not come from the likes of  manufacturing, construction, logistics and even public sector employers.
Continue Reading Enterprise Bargaining: Risk and Strategy