Industrial disputes hit nine-year high

Australian workplaces have recorded their worst industrial disruption in nine years, with 55,100 working days lost as disputes doubled during the critical September quarter.

Workers from Queensland’s Building Trades Group, the CFMEU, electrical trades, Australian Manufacturing Workers and plumbers unions protest outside in Brisbane. Picture: NewsWire.

The number of industrial disputes doubled in the September quarter to a nine-year high of 87, with the amount of working days lost surging to 55,100, the highest since mid-2022.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows construction, manufacturing, postal, transport and warehousing were the industries where the most working days were lost, although the rate in construction fell 3800 from the June quarter to 9600 in the subsequent three months.

The number of days lost in the September quarter almost doubled from the 28,500 recorded in the June quarter, while the total days lost for the 12 months to the end of September was 151,300, up 21,800 compared to the previous year.

The 87 disputes that occurred in the September quarter, up 43 from the previous quarter, was the highest for a three-month period since 2016.

The 55,100 working days lost was the highest since June 2022, while the 41,800 employees involved in the disputes was also a three-year high.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the data was not surprising and in line with reports from employers that disruptive union activity had stepped up over the past year.

“The current industrial relations system is unfortunately set up to encourage and create workplace conflict,” he said.

“Union rights to enter workplaces and interfere in hitherto harmonious workplaces inevitably mean that disputes have risen. Sadly, you reap what you sow.

“Increased disruption is another hammer blow to productivity, competitiveness and investment.

“Recent union threats to increase pressures on businesses over working entitlements, push multi-party bargaining and pursue excessive wage increases are simply a recipe for more workplace conflict and less output for businesses.”

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said workers only went on strike when they had no other option to win fair pay and conditions.

“Today’s industrial action figures continue to show that this only happens rarely,” she said.

“The majority of improvements in workers’ wages and conditions are negotiated between workers, their unions and employers.”

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox says employers are reporting that disruptive union activity has stepped up over the past year. Picture: AAP

Master Builders Australia cautiously welcomed the fall in the number of days lost in construction, but said the rate remained well above what had been typical in recent years.

MBA chief executive Denita Wawn said the right balance must be struck between ensuring appropriate workplace conditions with the need to improve productivity and the livelihoods of small and family businesses, which were 98 per cent of the industry.

“At the end of the day, this is 9600 days of lost productivity during a housing crisis when we suffered a 61,000-home shortfall during the first year of the Housing Accord,” she said.

“This is pushing home ownership even further out of reach for more Australians.”

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth said, through a spokesman, that industrial action was down under the Albanese government “because we’re bringing people together through a co-operative workplace relations system”.

“In the last quarter of the former Coalition government there were 128,000 days lost to industrial action – we’ve reduced those numbers significantly, with the latest quarterly figures down 57 per cent from that,” he said.

Opposition industrial relations spokesman Tim Wilson said the “full consequences of Labor’s laws to favour the flow of union cartel kickbacks instead of real wage increases and improved standards of living is flowing through in these numbers”.

“Labor’s focus has been to promote conflict and complexity where workers lose but unions win,” he said.

“It’s why our focus is on simplification and harmony where employers and employees have incentives to co-operate.”