Right to strike in Australia threatened again

In December, a record percentage of Australians aged between 15 and 64 were employed, and the month had the most number of people working full-time for the past five years. But while such figures would previously lead to wages and household income growth, workers are still waiting, though. Despite the improved profitability of companies in 2017 and the strong rise in employment, the evidence is that low wage growth will continue. Companies know the current industrial relations system is in their favour, and they are more than happy with the current level of low wage growth.

In the recently released Australian Industry Group 2018 Business Prospects report, rather than bemoaning the poor growth in wages, Australian CEOs actually championed it.

The Fair Work Commission suspended the proposed 24-hour strike scheduled for Monday by Sydney and NSW train drivers because it was “threatening to endanger the welfare of part of the population” and would “cause significant damage to the Australian economy or an important part of it.”

The apparent ease with which employers can have industrial action suspended further curtails the right to strike.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, said on Thursday, it means “the basic right to strike in Australia is very nearly dead”.

Employees can strike only:

• With other employees of the same employer for an agreement to cover that enterprise
• During a bargaining period after the expiry of an old agreement
• For rights that can be put into an agreement, not other legal or policy measures even when they directly affect workers
• For their own rights, not in sympathy with other workers through secondary boycotts
• In isolation, not through pattern bargaining to achieve common agreements across multiple employers or supply chains.
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