FED: Unions losing role in pay, conditions, study finds

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-1999
FED: Unions losing role in pay, conditions, study finds

A university survey's found unions are losing their traditional role and power base -
control over pay and condition claims.

Flinders University Professor MARK WOODEN says the number of Australian Workplace
Agreements being struck directly between employers and their employees is steadily increasing.

Professor WOODEN, from the university's National Institute of Labour Studies, says the
highest rate of increase is taking place in the workplaces with the strongest union presence.

He says this indicates that union members are losing confidence in their unions, and that
employers are taking a strong role in marketing individual agreements.

Evidence collected from over 450 workplaces in September last year found that 30 per cent
operated individual agreements with their non-managerial workforce.

And almost 60 per cent expected the use of individual agreements to increase during the
next five years.

The study also found that individual agreements are more common where the employees are
highly skilled, have full-time jobs and work in white-collar occupations.

Comment is being sought from the ACTU.





Introduced by the coalition government in 1997, Australian Workplace Agreements are
individual contracts set without the intervention of third parties such as unions.

AAP RTV ag/er/rat/jn

KEYWORD: AWARDS (MELBOURNE)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.