Building strikes ‘up by a third’ since construction watchdog scrapped

Strikes on building sites have leapt by 34 per cent since the Howard-era building industry watchdog was abolished.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver says it’s a myth to say disputes are on the rise. Picture: David Geraghty

Strikes on building sites have leapt by 34 per cent since the Howard-era building industry watchdog was abolished more than three years ago, a government analysis has shown.

Employment Minister Mich­ael­ia Cash branded as “misleading spin” union research that suggested industrial disputes in the construction industry fell after the Australian Building and Construction Commission was abolished in May 2012.

There were 12,900 days lost to industrial disputes across the natio­n’s building sites in the three months to last December, latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures revea­l, making up more than two-thirds of working days lost in industries overall during the quarter.

The December data was a rise on the September quarter, when 10,800 days were lost to building strikes, while the number of indust­rial disputes across the board fell to 19,100 in the three months to December, compared with the previous quarter.

The figures come amid a deepening brawl between the ­Coalition — which is fighting to reinstate the watchdog with a bill that could trigger a double-dissolution election — and Labor and the unions over the link between the ABCC and productivity in the construction sector. Figures provided to The Australian by Senator Cash say that an average 9.6 days per 1000 employees were lost to industrial disputes in the construction industry during the ABCC’s tenure from October 2005 to May 2012.

Since it was scrapped, industrial disputes stand at an average 12.8 working days a month per 1000 workers, a rise of 34 per cent.

The pre-ABCC figures from December 2000 to September 2005, when the Howard government established the watchdog, are more stark again. The quarterly average was 56.6 working days lost per 1000 construction industry employees, compared with 10.4 working days lost per 1000 workers across the board.

The Coalition’s analysis conflicts with the ACTU’s interpretation of the statistics, which purports to show that disputes fell by 65 per cent after the abolition of the ABCC. It said adding quarterly figures to reveal an annual total, instead of using averages, mitigated “seasonal variations”.

ACTU secretary Dave Oliver said it was a “myth” to say disputes were on the rise.

Senator Cash told The Australian: “Irrespective of the misleading spin from the CFMEU and the ACTU, the data is unequivocal when it comes to the disproportionately high number of days lost in the construction industry to ­industrial disputes.

“The cost of industrial peace, the cost of unrealistic union claims and the cost of industrial action can only mean one thing for Australians: they ultimately pay the price of high construction costs. It is ignorant of … Labor to continue to deny this.”

ACTU assistant secretary Scott Connolly said: “The government is desperate to present the ABCC in a positive light, even resorting to convoluted statistical sleight-of-hand. But the raw ABS data speaks for itself: the annual number of days lost to construction industrial disputes plummeted once the ABCC was removed. More importantly, the number of deaths … also dropped.”