Ken Purdham
Bachelor of Arts History & Politics
Diploma of Professional Writing & Editing
In my view, unionism is a belief. It’s the standing together in collective strength for the good of everyone because the voice of many is more likely to be listened to than the voice of the individual. Unions are no more than people standing together in an organised way. As organisations they provide an educated element to a cause, a technical resource and an order of working people. As such unions put forward compelling arguments that the individual may not otherwise be able to. But it’s the standing together of the many that gives strength to the voice of the people. Without that strength, the voice more often than not, is ignored.
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The Circles of Industrial Relations
Within these economic and social changes, labour problems arose such as long working hours, monotonous and dangerous work, low wages, and abusive supervisory practices causing the threat of social instability. There was a need for the complex interrelations between employers, employees and the state. These interrelations became known as industrial relations.
In Australia, Masters and Servants Acts were put in place with laws designed to regulate relations between employers and employees. (1845) These acts required obedience and loyalty from servants to their employer. Infringements were punishable before a court of law, with the threat of a jail sentence of hard labour.
Unions had already begun to form in order to negotiate with employers, but it wasn’t
until the mid 1850-
The Shops and Factories Act was introduced in 1873, the first in Australia, aimed
at controlling the physical conditions in factories and limiting the hours of female
workers. It was largely ineffective, and its failure was the subject of an 1882-
However, during the depression of the 1890s, industrial power swung back to employers. They began to wind back the gains that unions had made on behalf of their members over the previous years. Starting with the shearers and Melbourne maritime disputes, employers inflicted catastrophic defeats on the trade union movement. Membership was decimated and unions found it hard to negotiate, that was if they could get employers to negotiate at all.
State politicians began to look at compulsory conciliation and arbitration. If employers refused to negotiate with unions, then the law could provide a mechanism for unions to access an independent tribunal. If an agreement couldn’t be reached then the tribunal, an independent party, could impose a settlement on both sides.
After the federation of Australia, a federal arbitration court was established (1904) and the concept of industrial awards was introduced. The Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration operated with jurisdiction to hear and arbitrate interstate industrial disputes, and also to make awards which would fix wages and conditions within an industry. In 1907 the Arbitration Court, led by Justice Henry Bournes Higgins determined that there should be a basic wage capable of supporting a man, his wife, and three children to "live in frugal comfort".
The problem for the Capitalist economic model was that industrial awards and a basic wage were forms of protectionism, and in direct opposition to free market principles.
In 1936 British economist John Maynard Keynes, published new economic theory which became a model that the world began to embrace and known as Keynesianism. Keynes argued that the economy was suffering from an inadequate demand for goods. In short, full employment would create a demand for goods and, therefore, economic growth. Countries including the U.S. Britain and Australia put in place programs known as the ‘New Deal’ that included Government intervention through legislation to create full employment.
Keynesianism, combined with a production boom created by World War II, fostered a period of economic growth and accumulation during this epoch of capitalism. Within this new economic boom, the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was able to arbitrate with employees, employers and Government for the introduction of a 40hr working week. (1948)
Then in 1956 the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration was declared
invalid by the High Court of Australia which said that the judicial power of the
Commonwealth couldn’t be vested in a tribunal that also exercised non-
Nevertheless, throughout the majority of the 20th century, the industrial courts and industrial awards provided an industrial relations structure that supported both employers and employees. They could negotiate within with a legal framework in a court that would arbitrate and could still determine an outcome should the parties not be able to agree.
However, by the 1970s, inflation was getting out of control, caused, it was argued,
by a wages-
But in accord mark three the Government dropped wage rises in line with price rises
and introduced award restructuring and multi-
In 1991 the Government introduced enterprise bargaining into industrial relations and in 1992 the concept of casual labour, defined as work that doesn’t attract annual leave or sick pay was introduced. A casualised labour enabled employers to increase or decrease its workforce as production levels required.
In 1993 enterprise bargaining became the centrepiece of the Australian industrial relations and shifted the IR landscape from that of a national structure provided by the awards, to that of workplace agreements negotiated between employers and employees or their representatives. The Arbitration Commission would only be involved as a mediator and in award changes with a safety net that said no employee should be worse off from a new agreement.
In 1996 a new government introduced a new industrial relations act that restricted awards to twenty items that could be negotiated and provided for a system of individual contracts known as Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). It also introduced legislation that restricted union activities.
That government IR legislation made it illegal to take industrial action not sanctioned
by the industrial court. Any industrial action sanctioned became known as protected
action. It had to be proven by the employees or unions that negotiations had broken
down and 72hrs notice had to be given to the employer before it was taken. The penalties
for any non-
As industrial relations entered the 21st century, the Government sought to control enterprise bargaining by legally outlawing certain agreement clauses that could be fought for and won by employees and unions. As unions came up with innovative strategies to improve or protect wages, conditions, training and representation, the Government would legislate to outlaw such innovations. It became an environment of legal jousting.
In 2004 the Government took control of both houses of parliament meaning it could push through legislation without any effective opposition. It introduced legislation it called WorkChoices. Awards were reduced to five national employment standards and a further five minimum standards with no standard needed to be met for an individual agreement. So, there was no safety net against which the individual agreement had to be measured; an employer could offer an agreement – ‘take it or leave it.’
The legislation also provided a closed industrial court to try any worker or worker representative who it deemed had broken its industrial law. It also created a ‘Task Force’ to seek out any, so called, law breakers. That court denied a worker the right to legal representation, and mandatory jail sentences for anyone who refused to attend the court or stayed silent within the court or revealed what happened within those court proceedings.
In 2007 a change of government dropped the WorkChoices reference, introduced the
Fair Work Act and replaced the industrial court with one it named the Fair Work Commission.
Industrial awards were reduced to122 awards, which set out 10 national employment
standards and a further 10 minimum standards to be included in awards, which became
a re-
In 2010 another change of government re-
Since then the casualisation of the workforce has escalated, alienating many employees
from collective bargaining. And out of that casualisation, a GIG economy has been
created; that is a labour market characterized by the prevalence of short-
Economic-
In 1907 the minimum or basic wage was enough to provide a frugal living for a family of five. Now, in 2022 the average National minimum wage is $772 per week. Rent is averaged across Australia at $500 leaving $222 to pay for a family of five to live on week by week. Those statistics show a single person would need at least two casual jobs to make ends meet.
And so it is that the circle of industrial relations continues, shaped by the economic models of the day.
Note: what I left out of this essay is reference to the two royal commissions into union corruption as they were simply an ideological attack on unions rather than the cut and thrust of industrial relations.
Industrial relations came out of the Industrial Revolution having always been shaped by the economic models and the politics of the day.
The industrial revolution occurred between 1760-