September 23, 2002
In a new report on Australia, produced to coincide with the 23-25 September WTO review of that countries' trade policy, the ICFTU has condemned serious violations of workers' trade union rights, even including incidents of violence against trade union activists. The report also highlights the seemingly intractable problem of discrimination against women and indigenous people in the country.
According to the ICFTU-affiliated Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), unemployment amongst indigenous people is around six times the national average, and their earnings are only half those of other Australians on average.
The report highlights continuing discrimination against women, citing two recent studies which estimate the gender pay gap -the difference between average male and female earnings- at between 66% and 85%. According to the report, gender segmentation in the labour market "remains a substantial problem in Australia."
Australia has one of the worst records of any OECD country in this respect, "with large concentrations of female workers in jobs which have a narrow skills base in casual work." There is also a growing concentration of women in home-work, where regulation of wages and conditions of employment is at best poor. The report also points out that "there are indications that the position of women, indigenous people and migrant workers is worsening."
In terms of trade union rights, although Australia has ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, numerous pieces of federal government legislation significantly undermine the application of international labour standards on freedom of association and collective bargaining, although some progress has recently been made in bringing laws in the individual states into compliance with ILO standards. These laws deprive workers of effective protection against exploitation, and undermine the position of employers which behave responsibly. They have also given rise to sustained criticism from the ILO for Australia's violation of the core labour standards concerned, including for using the maintenance of trade and commercial activity as a justification for violating workers' basic rights.
One such piece of legislation is the Workplace Relations Act, which provided for the making of enforceable individual agreements called Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). The establishment of AWAs, taken in conjunction with a range of other provisions of the Act, among other things, restrict the rights to strike, limit redress and compensation in cases of unfair dismissal and constitute a clear contravention of ILO Convention No. 98.
Companies have been taking advantage of this and other legislation to try to de-unionise workplaces and stop workers joining unions. In just one example, the Australian multinational BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary), which has since become BHP-Billiton, active in the steel, iron ore, coal, oil and gas sectors sought to use the new legislation to force its employees at an iron ore plant in Western Australia to abandon collective agreements in favour of individual contracts. Because the majority of employees were keen to retain the collective agreements, the union staged a series of sit-down strikes in BHP's Australian plants.
At the Newman site, pickets were attacked during the night by baton-wielding police, with a number of arrests. Meanwhile, at BHP's Port Hedland factory, 80 police were used to disperse pickets. Among those arrested was Gary Wood, Western Australia branch secretary of the CFMEU (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union). He was later released on bail on the condition that he did not return to the picket lines. In another incident, a unionist from the AMWU (Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union), John Mossington, was run over by a BHP car and had to be hospitalized.
"The Australian Federal Government has shown a determination to undermine trade unionism, even pushing companies to deprive their workers of union protection," explained the report's author, Collin Harker, "these actions, coupled with legislation which actively discriminates against unions and their members, put Australia near the bottom of the class in terms of workers' rights in the OECD."
* Editorial note: This report evaluating Australia's adherence to internationally-recognised core labour standards is part of a series produced by the ICFTU since the Ministerial Declaration adopted at the first Ministerial Conference of the WTO (Singapore, December 1996) and re-affirmed on November 4, 2001 in Doha, by which all WTO members stated their commitment to respect core labour standards. It is submitted to the WTO trade policy review board.
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