‘WORKER CONTROL’ IN THE AUSTRALIAN OIL INDUSTRY

Abstract

Institutions of the state, in the form of industrial tribunals, were in the past entrenched in the development of the detailed labour process in Australian workplaces. This paper explores a case where the NSW Industrial Commission came to actively structure the contours of the effort bargain at a NSW oil refinery in the late 1970s. Importantly the activities of the tribunal influenced the deliberate choices of management and workers at the refinery resulting in a particular type of conflict taking shape at this workplace. There emerged a set of polarised industrial tactics centred on the assertion of ‘workers control’ by the operator's union and moves to restrict this control by company management. These tactics provided limited scope for genuine co-operation between management and workers at this workplace. The presence of the industrial tribunal was not merely a mediating factor in the development of these industrial tactics and consequently the particular nature of conflict that emerged. Rather the New South Wales Industrial Commission came to be an important determinant in shaping conflict and co-operation at the refinery. The evidence from this case suggests that, in particular places at particular historical moments, the activities of the state actively structure the detailed labour process and the contours of conflict at work.