Australian Unions Research Articles

Was Federation Uniting or Dividing? The Impact of the Customs Union of 1901 on Australian Trade Relationships

The paper examines data on intra‐Australian trade and Australian international trade before and after the establishment of an Australian Customs union at Federation in 1901. The paper infers from these data that the Federation customs union cannot be simply summarised as ‘nationalising’ of Australian trade relationships. Internal trade ties did not unambiguously strengthen outside of Victoria. And while there is evidence that Victoria and New South Wales did redirect exports from the rest of the world to the rest of Australia, the data also indicate that the smaller states actually strengthened their exports to the rest of the world, perhaps as a resort in the face of a customs union that was a benefit to the larger states and not themselves.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2017

In 2017, Australian unions faced ongoing membership decline and new institutional constraints, but emerged reinvigorated from a change in leadership and a policy re-set. Many unions faced a hostile environment for bargaining, with protracted negotiations in key sectors, attended by robust industrial action at times. The decline in union members and collective agreements reached a crisis point. A surprisingly diverse collection of individuals expressed concerns that the system of enterprise bargaining was not producing outcomes that were fair or economically sustainable, with some questioning whether the system had created the level playing field its architects had envisioned, as well expressing growing unease that reforms intended to constrain unions were undermining the original objective of the legislation. Heading into 2018, unions and the Australian Council of Trade Unions were seeking a political and legislative solution to the seemingly entrenched industrial difficulties they face, campaigning around the theme ‘change the rules’. Without significant change in the system, it is difficult to see that the coming years will see any change to these dominant patterns.

‘Second to None in the International Fight’: Australian Seafarers Internationalism and Maritime Unions Against Apartheid

The participation of trade unions in the anti-apartheid movement is a subject which arguably merits more attention. This article brings into focus a group of unionists whose activism against apartheid was in the forefront of key initiatives. Drawing on new research the argument recounts the role of Australian seafarers on the international stage, particularly its association with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), and shows how knowledge of events in South Africa passed from the WFTU to educate the union membership. By the 1980s, Australian seafarers were taking the lead in bringing European unionists together in united action to enforce the United Nations' embargo on oil supplies to South Africa by founding a new organization, the Maritime Unions Against Apartheid (MUAA). Reconstructing these events demonstrates two aspects of significance: the growing importance of monitoring shipping as an anti-apartheid strategy coordinated and led by European unions, which we point out relied on ships’ officers and crews for knowledge, and the breaking down of the ideological divide between the WFTU and the anti-Communist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) working together in the MUAA. The article contributes new understanding of connections between anti-apartheid activism and its Cold War context.

Law, Politics and Ideology: The Regulatory Response to Trade Union Corruption in Australia

Corruption has emerged as a significant problem within Australian trade unions over the last decade. It came to public prominence from 2011, with the emergence of details of corrupt conduct by senior officials of the Health Services Union. The then Labor Government responded with legislative amendments in 2012 to strengthen the financial management and disclosure obligations applicable to union office-holders. After considering those developments, this article focuses more closely on the Coalition Government's regulatory response to union corruption, including its policy commitments for the 2013 election, the findings and recommendations of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption (2014-15), the Fair Work Registered Organisations Amendment Act 2016 (Cth) and the further reforms to union regulation that the Government now seeks to implement. The article seeks to establish the extent of the problem which these various measures are intended to address, and to determine whether they are simply part of an 'ideological attack' on trade unions. It is concluded that although ideological motives cannot be discounted, the holding of the Royal Commission and the resulting legislative initiatives of the Coalition Government have for the most part been necessary to increase standards of governance and accountability within Australia's unions.

Indian Seamen and Australian Unions Fighting for Labour Rights: "The Real Facts of the Lascars' Case" of 1939

In 1939, the outbreak of war prompted strikes by Indian seafarers across the empire. This article traces events in Australia as Indian seafarers asserted their labour rights and in doing so contest...

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the player development manager role in Australian professional sports

Emerging evidence within the context of athlete mental health and well-being has pointed towards the benefits of creating holistic support programmes that assist athletes with a myriad of issues. In this study, the role of player development managers (PDM) within Australian professional sports, and the club environment in which they work was examined. Guided by an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach, this qualitative study explored the lived experiences of 13 PDMs from the Australian Football League, cricket and rugby union. Analyses revealed four higher order themes related to the player development role including PDM role, individual qualities, support services and club environment. As the first study of its nature, the findings provide a platform for future investigations of player development to enrich our understanding of how the role assists professional athletes to navigate the challenges associated with a sporting career.

The Predictors of Unmet Demand for Unions in Non-Union Workplaces: Lessons from Australia

In this study, we examine the predictors of unmet demand for unions in non-union workplaces, using theAustralian Worker Representation and Participation Survey(AWRPS). Unmet demand is defined here, as those employees in non-union workplaces who would be likely to join a union if one were available. We argue that this is the first study in Australia to examine the predictors of unmet demand in non-union workplaces, and, that this is an important line of inquiry given a rise in non-union workplaces and never members in Australia, alongside declining union density and membership numbers. Drawing on three strands of existing literature, namely the individual propensity to unionize, the rise and characteristics of non-union workplaces and alternative forms of representation, and, managerial responsiveness to employees and unions, we develop and test four hypotheses.Our results show, controlling for a range of personal, job and workplace characteristics, that there are two significant predictors of the willingness to join a union in non-union workplaces: perceived union instrumentality (Hypothesis 2) and perceived managerial responsiveness to employees (Hypothesis 4), whereby employees who perceive that managers lack responsiveness are more likely to want to join a union if one were available.These results show that unions must try to enhance their instrumentality in workplaces and could be more effective in recruiting if they targeted never members. The results also show that unions need to have some gauge (measure) of how responsive managers are to employees, and that they can leverage poor responsiveness of managers for membership gain and the extension of organizing. In the final analysis, an understanding of the predictors of unmet demand for unions in non-union workplaces has implications for Australian unions’ servicing and organizing strategies, and for their future growth prospects.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2016

In 2016, Australian unions faced a mix of new and enduring challenges. A re-elected Conservative federal government made life difficult for unions, maintaining its hard-line approach to public sector bargaining and passing new laws to intensify regulatory scrutiny of union governance and tactics. Unions continued to secure wage premiums through enterprise bargaining, but the longer-term decline in the level of agreement-making and the number of workers covered by enterprise agreements continued. Disputation rose, although less than half of all disputes were caused by enterprise bargaining. Concern over ongoing membership decline saw unions explore and experiment with organisational reforms and initiatives as new, ‘union-like’ actors entered the field. However, our analysis of longer-term membership developments across union types suggests the outlook is alarming for all but those unions focused on occupational identity.

Community in Credit Unions: Has banking regulationimpaired CSR in Australian Customer Owned Banks?

This paper presents a sector scan of a sample of Australian Credit Unions and Mutual Banks to examine the CSR reporting from the perspective of the three pillars model proposed by vanOorschot, de Hoog, van der Steen and van Twist (2013). It is argued that the pillar requiringco-operatives to ensure activities which ‘aim for change’, should promote increasing adoptionof CSR. The paper theorises that regulatory requirements imposed in Australia on all bankinginstitutions carry a higher proportional cost to the customer owned banking sector than theshareholder based commercial banks. This consumption of the limited financial resourcesavailable in this sector of banking services, are inhibiting regional Customer Owned Bankingproviders, as co-operative organisations, to fulfil the required co-operative principle to instigatechange for the betterment of communities. This failure could signal the demise of some entitiesin the jurisdiction of Customer Owned Banking.

To Pay or Not Pay: Directors' Remuneration and Insolvency Risk in Credit Unions

This study examines the effect of directors’ pay on insolvency risk in member-owned organisations, such as credit unions. This research uses a unique setting of Australian credit unions, where a significant shift is observed from a traditional volunteer board nature to one that compensates directors, to test the hypotheses. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of the remuneration of board members and other board governance and credit-union specific factors that are expected to affect credit unions’ probability of insolvency. The main finding is that remuneration packages for credit union directors tend to decrease insolvency risk, measured by the accounting-based Z-score measure, only when directors are paid more rather than less. This study provides important insights into the ongoing global debate on whether or not to remunerate credit union board members and their relationship with risk-taking behaviour in the context of cooperative financial institutions.

Indian Seamen and Australian Unions Fighting for Labour Rights: “The Real Facts of the Lascars' Case” of 1939

In 1939, the outbreak of war prompted strikes by Indian seafarers across the empire. This article traces events in Australia as Indian seafarers asserted their labour rights and in doing so contested their exploitative working conditions as “lascars” or the seagoing equivalent of shore-based indentured “coolie” labour. While the Australian government responded in ways that reinforced the “coolie” status of Indian seafarers, the Australian labour movement, most notably the maritime unions, threw their support behind the strikers. The Seamen’s Union of Australia and Waterside Workers’ Federation provided material aid, funded the strikers’ legal costs and, significantly, challenged official and media representations of the Indian seafarers as “coolies” with explanations of their exploitative conditions as “workers.” This action was significant because western seafarers’ lack of support has been seen as contributing to Indian seafarers’ difficulties in challenging their working conditions and status as “lascars.” Showing how Indian and Australian workers together resisted labour categories and fought for political rights complicates prevailing views of the relationship between Australian unions and Asian workers and demonstrates a consistency with the earlier internationalism of Australian maritime unions identified by previous historians.

Injuries in Australian school level rugby union

Injuries in Australian school level rugby union

The Impact of Union Amalgamation on Membership

In 1980s and 1990s, Australian trade unions tried to combat declining influence and membership numbers by amalgamating with other unions in the same or related industries. Much has been written on union mergers, but little on how these affect the membership. This article aims to contribute to the literature of the impact of mergers and amalgamations on members but studying just one union, The West Australian Locomotive Engine Drivers, Firemen’s and Cleaners Union (LEDU; 1898-1999). In 1993, the three federal railway unions—the Australian Railways Union (ARU), the Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees (AFULE), and the National Union of Railworkers (NUR), and one bus and tram union, the Australian Tramway & Motor Omnibus Employees Association (ATM)—amalgamated to become the Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union (RTBU). The LEDU reluctantly joined the RTBU in 1999. This article examines rank and file reaction to the initial proposals and ultimately to becoming part of a larger union, covering workers with many different interests. The article concludes that, irrespective of whether or not amalgamation was inevitable, given the circumstances in Western Australia at the time, its impact upon the rank and file membership was devastating.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2015

For Australian unions, 2015 was a difficult year. Union membership and agreement-making continued to decline, and unions faced intense scrutiny from the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption and the Productivity Commission's inquiry into workplace relations. The protection of local employment standards and the exploitation of migrant workers were at the core of prominent union campaigns. In the federal public sector, as in parts of private industry, unions faced protracted negotiations with employers. In some states, unions enjoyed a more favourable climate under Labor governments. Ahead of the forthcoming federal election, unions refocused on grassroots campaigning in marginal electorates as the prospect of legislative reforms to industrial relations looms large.

Ed Blissett, Inside the Unions: A Comparative Analysis of Policy-making in Australian and British Printing and Telecommunication Trade Unions

Ed Blissett, <i>Inside the Unions: A Comparative Analysis of Policy-making in Australian and British Printing and Telecommunication Trade Unions</i>

Trade Union Ambivalence Toward Enforcement of Employment Standards as an Organizing Strategy

Trade unions in Australia have long played an important role in the enforcement of minimum employment standards. The legislative framework today continues to recognize this enforcement role, but in a way that is more individualistic and legalistic than in the past. At the same time that the law has evolved to emphasize the representation and servicing role of trade unions, the Australian union movement has sought to revitalize and grow through the adoption of an “organizing model” of unionism that emphasizes workplace-level activism. This Article explores how these seemingly opposing trends have manifested themselves in the enforcement-related activities of five trade unions. Considerable diversity was found among the unions in relation to the extent to which and how the unions performed enforcement-related activities. However, all five unions spent significant time and resources on monitoring and enforcing employer compliance with minimum standards and saw this work as a core part of what they do. The case studies suggest, however, that the way in which this work is undertaken within unions and by whom has changed significantly in recent decades. While there was evidence that enforcement work was used tactically by unions in certain cases, this was largely on an ad hoc basis and there was little indication that the enforcement work was integrated into broader organizing objectives and strategies. Overall, the unions were ambivalent, if not skeptical, as to the capacity for enforcement work to grow unions through building workplace activism and collective strength.

Report: Australian Unions Win Landmark Accident Make-up Pay Case

Report: Australian Unions Win Landmark Accident Make-up Pay Case

Report: Australian Unions Win Landmark Accident Make-up Pay Case

Since the 1970s, the significance of make-up pay has fluctuated depending on the adequacy of weekly payments available under state workers’ compensation legislation. From the 1970s through to the latter part of the 1980s there was an, uneven but, upward trajectory in weekly payments and their duration. Since then the general trend has been in the opposite direction, reflected in the winding back of entitlements and the widespread use of step-downs in weekly payments. In the wake of these setbacks, accident make-up pay remains an issue of significant relevance for the Australian labour movement. The reason is not hard to find. In New South Wales and Victoria, for example, injured workers receive no more than 80 percent of their average pre-injury earnings if unable to return to work within 13 weeks. A stepdown of this magnitude equates to a pay cut of 20 percent - a high price to pay for being injured at work and particularly so for low paid workers. Elsewhere in Australia, step-downs are not always as harsh or, where they are, come into force at a later date. The continuation, however, of accident pay provisions as an enforceable collective bargaining entitlement was brought into question by the award modernisation process which commenced in 2008. The stated aim of the modernisation process was to review and streamline Australia’s national industrial relations system. One of the crucial aspects involved was the extent to which existing entitlements remained relevant and should be incorporated in modern awards. In the case of accident pay provisions, employer groups argued for their exclusion from modern awards whereas unions and the federal Labor government sought to secure their inclusion. When the new system came into place in January 2010 over 1500 pre-existing awards had been reviewed and transformed into 122 modern awards. Accident pay was included, but only as a ‘transitional ’ provision to be reconsidered as part of a four yearly review of modern awards scheduled for 2014. Fair Work Safety Nets and Workers’ Compensation Laws A key aspect of the Fair Work Act (FWA) and the modern awards system involves the requirement to ‘provide a fair and relevant minimum safety net of terms and conditions’. The ACTU argued that inclusion of accident pay provisions into the relevant awards was consistent with, and necessary to achieve, this objective. The emphasis placed on the safety net objective in the FWA was particularly pertinent for low paid, award reliant, workers who are most likely to experience substantial financial disadvantage were this entitlement to be removed. The industrial relations tribunal examined the evidence for and against workers’ compensation step-downs for the first time and ruled to protect entitlements available to injured workers INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 18 Volume 23 Issue 1 2016 KEVIN PURSE is with Central Queensland University’s Appleton Institute in Adelaide, South Australia, and has an extensive background in Work Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation policy I n August 2015 a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission, Australia’s national industrial relations tribunal, handed down a decisive judgement upholding the principle that accident make-up pay provisions should continue as an entitlement available to injured workers under 37 modern industrial awards. The unanimous Full Bench decision supported an application by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the country’s peak union organisation, despite vigorous opposition major employer groups along with the federal Liberal/National coalition government and its New South Wales counterpart. Accident make-up pay provisions have been an important component of many industry awards and enterprise agreements in Australia. They are designed to offset the financial hardship of ‘stepdowns ’ - phased cuts in income replacement payments for injured workers - contained in Australia’s predominantly state based workers’ compensation laws. Accident pay provisions operate on the principle that if a worker suffers a work related injury the employer is obliged to make up the difference between his or her pre-injury wages and income replacement payments paid by the workers’ compensation insurer. Typically, make-up pay provisions apply for periods ranging from 26 to 52 weeks, by which time the vast majority of injured workers have returned to work. Accident Pay and Modern Awards Accident...

Considerations for the performance requirements and technical specifications of soft-shell padded headgear

Laboratory and epidemiological research in Australian football, rugby league and rugby union has demonstrated that commercially available soft-shell padded headgear is currently ineffective in reducing the risk of concussion. However, modified headgear studies have demonstrated that significant improvements in impact energy attenuation performance are possible with small design changes, such as increases in foam density and thickness. A literature review of the design, performance and use of headgear in Australian football, rugby league and rugby union was conducted. A total of 23 articles were identified using primary and secondary search strategies, which included epidemiological field studies, laboratory impact test studies and studies investigating the behaviours and attitudes of players. The results of the review were synthesised and used to identify injury reduction objectives and appropriate design criteria. The need for a headgear standard was identified and performance requirements were discussed, which drew upon human tolerance and sports-specific head impact exposure data. Usability and behavioural issues, which require consideration during the design process, were also assessed.

Evaluating the organising model of trade unionism: An Australian perspective

AbstractTo mark the 20th anniversary of the Australian union movement’s Organising Works programme, this article introduces a symposium discussing potential ways forward for unions. It overviews research regarding the challenges of union organising and renewal, both in Australia and internationally. It provides a broad historical perspective on the origins and progress of the grassroots Organising Works agenda initiated by the peak union bodies, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Unions NSW. It explores how trade unions can best generate and sustain their spirit of mobilising and organising, while also ensuring the institutional legitimacy they require to effectively represent workers. Unions have had to manage the tension between two dynamics of trade union growth – the sense of movement involved in mobilising workers, and the institutional stability and legitimacy needed to represent workers. Unions have faced both the need to confront global capital restructuring through their own restructuring, and the need to renew and maintain a strong and democratic community base. To do so, they have built new networks and campaigning approaches, in order to organise an increasingly diverse and insecure workforce and build strong community links.