COMMISSION COMMUNITY

SHARAN BURROW
Opening Address To Future Of Work Conference on June 12, 2003

Good morning.

Decent work sits at the heart of a healthy, prosperous and fair nation.

It’s good to be here with you for what is a central debate about the nature of our society.

For those of you who don’t know me my name is Sharan Burrow and I’m the President of the ACTU and it is my job to host today’s proceedings.

So, welcome to the ACTU, ACIRRT and The Australian’s - Future of Work conference.

We’ve got a big day ahead of us but before we get going, I want to say a few words about today’s conference and what drives the ACTU to promote issues associated with work beyond the traditional industrial relations framework.

ACIRRT, The Australian and the ACTU make for interesting bed fellows.

But that’s what today is about - bringing together a whole lot of different interests, ideas and perspectives to talk about what we believe is a centrepiece of national sustainability – The Future of Work.

In the Australian community there is a great deal of uncertainty and concern about where some of the trends in the contemporary workplace might be taking us. When Greg Combet and I came to office three years ago we believed very strongly that there was a need to take a bit of a fresh look at things.

It was time just to stop, consider where things are at and ensure our agenda, our approach and our outlook reflects the concerns and aspirations of the contemporary workplace.

We listened to unions, we researched, we talked to people in the workplace. As part of that process, the ACTU has conducted two major employee surveys - more than 15,000 employees told us what they think about work.

The federal government used to conduct this type of employee survey but that stopped in 1996. It seems short-sighted, indeed somewhat negligent for a government not to know what is going on in our workplaces. In fact, the distinguishing feature of labour market change is that key players, primarily employers, institutional shareholders and government are retreating from taking responsibility for work-related issues. This is resulting in may of the risks and costs associated with employment falling on the weakest party in a work situation.

Not surprisingly then, working Australians are telling us they are worried about:

casualisation or other forms of precarious employment

• job insecurity
• work intensity
• work and family pressures
• low pay and employee entitlements.

There is a deepening anger at the treatment and value accorded to employees when compared to that of corporate or political leaders.

This anger is understandable when we face facts:

• the majority of net jobs growth in the 1990s was in casual and part-time work – non-standard employment.

• 87% of all new jobs created in the 1990s pay less than $26,500, with women accounting for three quarters of all new jobs in low-paying occupations from 1985 to 2001 – professionals in community care and basic sales, clerical and service employees.

• While the participation of Australians in skilled middle income jobs fell and the growth in executive salaries continues to soar, working hours and unpaid overtime are on the rise. When only 7% of employees work a standard 9 to 5 work day, 21% work more than 50 hours per week and 60% of overtime is not paid for, it is no wonder workers are distressed.

These are the issues that have been at the heart of the ACTU’s agenda for the past 3 years:

• our living wage cases
• our test case that secured unpaid maternity leave rights for casual workers
• the achievement of hard fought improvements in the protection of minimum employee entitlements, and now
• campaigns for universal paid maternity leave and reasonable working hours and our test cse on managing work and family.

There is a cultural transformation occurring in our workplaces but a situation of deepening inequality is not inevitable. Increased flexibility in the labour market and the workplace does not have to mean the abandonment of important workplace standards. Policies can be developed which effectively deal with the legitimate concerns of employees in the contemporary workplace and provide people with real choices at work and over the life cycle.

But there is much more to do.

Hence today the ACTU will also launch a report we asked the people at ACIRRT to prepare.

It outlines the key trends and challenges emerging in the contemporary workplace of which I have touched on only a handful.

Some of this material has already been published in The Australian newspaper over the last week or two.

We hope it will inform and stimulate more debate and discussion on these issues.

Because despite a decade of strong economic growth in Australia, the picture of which of us gets to work, how long we work depicts some stark and unacceptable realities. As John Buchanan will no doubt tell you, Harvester Man is dead! Single breadwinner households, for example, dropped from 51% of couples with children in 1981 to 31% in 2000. Dual, one-and-a-half and no-breadwinner households with children all grew strongly during this period. These changes have significantly increased the tensions and pressures between the competing responsibilities of work and family.

As a community we really need to look much more closely at the profound change in:

• the industries in which people work;
• the occupations in which we work; and
• the way Australians are employed.

We need to talk about them and debate them.

When the ACTU initiated this conference together we had a very clear objective in mind.

We wanted to encourage a new debate in the community about work - one that involves employers, employees, unions, academics, policy makers and governments.

This debate should not be focused on the conflict model that has been promoted by some politicians but on trying to find solutions.

The community is looking for answers about how to deal with what Barbara Pocock aptly names the work/life collision and Australians are not tolerant of widening inequality.

We all have a responsibility to try to find a better roadmap for nation building.

So lets get on with it.

Sharan Burrow is President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

HOME | BACK