Trade Unions and the Workplace Relations Act

Abstract

We examine early evidence concerning the impact of the Workplace Relations Act on union structure and membership, and on union strategies regarding their core objectives of improving wages and conditions and protecting workers' rights. The object of the Act may be to provide a framework for cooperative workplace relations, but the purpose is to weaken unions, through: removing union preference; making it easier for employers to decollectivise employment relations; diverting union resources; encouraging fragmentation; and threatening the financial viability of unions. Union membership has continued to decline, though fragmentation effects have to date been limited. Changes to the roles of arbitration and awards, and provisions regarding sanctions and industrial action have affected union behaviour. The Act has had some unintended consequences as a result of the maritime union's innovative legal strategy in the waterfront dispute, but this dispute also underlined the gaps in the protections afforded by the Act and its weakness in guaranteeing freedom of association.