Experts tip disputes to increase as working days lost to industrial relations rise to seven-year high

The number of industrial disputes, days lost to industrial action and employees involved in disputes all lifted over the September quarter according to new official figures, and experts expect disputes to continue to rise as enterprise bargaining agreements roll over in 2012.

The figures showing the number of working days lost to strikes were the highest in seven years have been described as a “wake-up call” for the Government by Australian Industry Group chief Heather Ridout.

The Government, which will review the Fair Work Act next year, points out that the figures were boosted by public sector protests against the O’Farrell Government and the rolling over of EBAs. It adds that it’s difficult to draw hard and fast conclusions about the Fair Work Act from just one quarter.

But Seamus Burke, partner in workplace relations at Middletons law firm, agrees with Ridout that the figures are likely to continue to rise.

“I’d suggest they’d be no diminution in the increase,” Burke says.

He says the numbers reflect the impact of the problems associated with the Act, particularly around negotiation and enterprise bargaining agreements.

Burke says because the Fair Work Act can’t bring the parties to bear by way of arbitration in a timely manner, it increases the likelihood of disputes – and the length of disputes.

He adds there is business appetite for arbitration, and the upcoming review of the Act will likely look at whether there should be an “earlier intervention process to bring parties to account where negotiations are not going to result in an agreed position.”

“The issue is whether employers are actually securing productivity increases,” Burke says.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, working days lost in the September quarter reached 101,300 – well above the 24,000 days lost in the previous September quarter, and the previous quarter’s figures of 66,200.

There were also 66 disputes in the September quarter, up from 53 in the previous quarter.

But for the year ended September 2011, the number of disputes was 197 – 36 fewer than the year ended September 2010.

The ABS figures, released yesterday, also showed that the number of employees involved in industrial disputes in the September quarter was 66,400, well up on the previous quarter’s figures of 14,700.

And the number of working days lost soared in the year to September 2011, with 214,400 working days lost compared with 144,100 in the year to September 2010.

Education, health care, training and social assistance and coal mining were standout sectors for industrial disputes, as was New South Wales.

New South Wales was the hotbed for industrial action, accounting for 52%, or 52,900, of working days lost for the quarter. It also had the highest number of working days lost per thousand employees (16.8) for the quarter.

Education, training, health care and social assistance accounted for 49%, or 49,200, of the days lost.

Coal mining had the highest number of working lost per thousand employees (155.8) for the quarter.

The number of disputes has fluctuated over the past few years, peaking at 69 started in the December 2009 quarter and dipping as low as 31 in the March 2011 quarter.

For 2011, the number of disputes started has risen steadily from 31 in the March quarter, to 43 in the June quarter and then 53 in the September quarter.

Ai Group chief Heather Ridout says the “industrial scene is deeply worrying”.

“It is particularly worrying because of its growing adverse impact on the flexibility and performance of key industrial sectors at a time when we need to be increasing our flexibility and responsiveness,” Ridout said yesterday.

“It has been several years since we have seen so much industrial action taken against multi-national companies and in the public sector. There is a significant lag in the ABS industrial dispute statistics and I expect the next report will confirm a further deterioration in the industrial environment.”