Industrial Relations Reform: Social and Economic Dimensions

1. Industrial Relations Reform: Social and Economic Dimensions Barbara Pocock Brotherhood of St Lawrence Conference, Tuesday 11th October 2005 University of Melbourne

2. The Howard Industrial Plan:A 20 year old vision, unfit for a 21st Century working family: Anti-family and unfair

3. The measures: a weaker safety net minimum pay rate and classifications 4 weeks Annual leave 10 days Personal/carer’s leave 12 months Parental leave 38 ordinary hours, annual average AWAs override agreements and awards The Case of Billy/Bettina

4. The measures: Tilts bargaining • ‘Fair pay Commission’ • weak unfair dismissal protections • More anti-collective than US law • AIRC neutered

5. AIRC and work/family • Maternity leave (1979) • Adoption leave (1984) • Parental leave (1990) • Carers’ leave (1994/95) • Right to refuse unreasonable overtime (2001) • Right to request part-time employment (2005) All opposed by coalition and employers How will any new advances be made?

6. Overall Impact… • Low paid workers will be lower paid • $44 lower if government had had its way since 1996 AWAs on ‘take it or leave it’ basis for new employees or on promotion etc • Collective agreements and awards irrelevant over time • Union access to workers more limited and difficult • (eg 24 hours written notice and reason, only once every 6 months for recruitment, no entry if covered by AWAs, individual worker who seeks help from union will be identified to boss, no chance to check non-members paid correctly, complex ballots for industrial action)

7. Impact… • Widening wages dispersion • Same workers, different rates • Tougher for the weaker • young people • people returning to work • casuals • working carers • immigrants • Profit not productivity • Even good bosses are forced to compete on cut price wages and conditions

8. Impact on workers and families? • Shift to AWAs, and stripped back awards will increase: • hours of work • unsocial working time • wage inequality • the working poor

9. The evidence: AWAs and pay • Pay levels and pay rises are lower for workers on AWAs (Peetz 2005) • Even though workers on AWAs, work longer hours • And have less access to penalty rates for unsocial hours and overtime • AWAs much more likely to reduce or abolish pay for working overtime, nights or weekends

10. AWAs and pay • women on AWAs paid 11% less than women on collective agreements in May 2004 • Casuals on AWAs lower by 15%, • Permanent part-timers by 25%. • These are all groups with disproportionate responsibilities for families

11. AWAs: less family friendly • In 2001 12% of all AWAs had any work/family measures • 2004 DEWR report: • only 8% of AWAs had paid maternity leave (10% collective agreements) • 5% had paid paternity leave (7%) • 4% unpaid purchased leave • Those who need it most, get it least: • 14% more men than women on AWAs had any family leave in their AWA

12. Time: A critical work and family issue

13. AWAs will see more control of time by employers • 54% of AWAs do not provide penalty rates • 41% don’t provide annual leave loading • 41% don’t provide allowances • 34% don’t provide paid annual leave • 28% don’t provide paid sick leave • 25% don’t pay extra for overtime

14. Unsocial time and families • 64% of Australian employees already work either sometimes or regularly outside standard times • ‘Consistent body of international evidence’ finds that unsocial work time affects social and family time (Strazdins et al, 2004) • Evening and night work is especially stressful for parents, increasing depression, affecting sleep and reducing parental responsiveness to children • Positive associations between shift work and marital discord and divorce

15. Night work and family • Night work combined with parenting is most harmful for marital stability (Presser 2000; US study) • Night working parents have two to six times the risk of divorce compared to those working standard daytime hours • Transmission effects to children

16. Unsocial hours and care • All kinds of unsocial routines (weekend, afternoon, evening and night) can disrupt families and reduce parent-child time • Such parents spend less time reading, playing and helping children and are less satisfied with the time available with children • Many parents compensate by taking less time for themselves

17. New research: effects on children • Recent analysis of Canadian data by Strazdins et al (2004) shows that children of parents who work non-standard hours are more likely to have emotional or behavioural difficulties • Independent of socio-economic status and childcare use • Other kinds of disadvantage can compound this effect

18. Long hours of work • International research about health & long hours (Spurgeon, 2003) • Increases risk of mental health problems • Increases risk of cardiovascular disease • Adverse effects on family relationships

19. Inequality • Inequality amongst wage earners has increased in recent years • A growing body of international research suggesting that inequality is bad for societies and families (Wilkinson 2005) • More unequal societies: violence, poorer community relations and worse health.

20. A family unfriendly, unfair agenda • With very negative consequences for the low paid,young and disadvantaged • Will create more pressures in many families • for children and other dependents • for relationships • Long lived social consequences for inequality and unfairness