Public Sector Bargaining

By CCH

What happens to pay rises when no more productivity improvements can be wrung from an agreement?

Enterprise bargaining usually involves trade offs - extra pay or improved conditions from the employer in exchange for productivity and efficiency improvements on the part of employees. In the public sector reduced labour costs and expenditure could result in savings in the total budget.

Qld Premier Beattie has expressed his view that enterprise bargaining is an unsuitable vehicle for determining public sector wage increases and the Govt is seeking better ways of with a review being conducted by the premiers' Dept, Bob Hawke heading it up.

At the federal level, the Dept in charge of the new approach to "workplace relations", the Dept of Employment and Workplace relations has had its non-union agreement overwhelming rejected by staff (90% rejected it).

Enterprise bargaining has been used in the office of the Australian Government Solicitor where staff have negotiated a non-union agreement involving profit-sharing. No mention here on what a govt dept is doing making a profit.

(CCH Industrial Law News; issue 8, August 2002)