OHS REPS @ WORK

A study of major workforce trends commissioned by the ACTU has made some disturbing discoveries, including a dramatic increase in casual work. Greg Combet, ACTU Secretary, said "the study shows that Australia's prosperity has increased.. but the majority of workers are not sharing in the newly created wealth."

What is the future for workers?

The study was carried out by ACCIRT (Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training). The ACTU released the report from the study at the 'Future of Work' conference held in Sydney on June 12th.

In opening the conference at which the report was launched, Sharan Burrow, ACTU President said that both the community and unions were looking for answers about how to deal with the 'work/life collision'.

This is not surprising, given that the study revealed that over the past 20 years there have been enormous changes in Australia, particularly in the workplace, where there is no longer a 'standard' model of work or employment. Some of the trends highlighted in the report show:

• Wage inequality has grown - only the top 40% of income earners had real wage growth throughout the 1990s
• Little more than half the Australian workforce is now employed on a permanent basis
• The net increase in jobs in the 1990s consisted almost entirely of casual and part-time jobs
• Half of all employees work overtime and 60% of them are not paid for it
• The standard model of work has disappeared - only 7% of employees work 9 to 5
• The jobs with the largest number of employees in 2001 were sales assistants, secretaries and cleaners. Middle income jobs declined.
• One million people are casual workers - by 2010, one in three workers will be casual
• Half of casual workers, who are mostly female, have been in the same job for over a year
• 51% of employees working more than 45 hours a week would prefer fewer hours
• In NSW alone, workers compensation claims for stress have risen from 5% to 19% of all claims in 6 years
• 55% of large workplaces (500 or more employees) use labour hire companies

"Employees are reaping the benefits of greater job flexibility, but this flexibility isn't being extended to workers who also need to plan and balance their lives. We need new, fairer standards to underpin casual, part-time and short term work," Mr Combet said.

• Read the Executive Summary (pdf) of the Future of Work report.
• Sharan Burrow's opening address to the Future of Work conference
• Greg Combet's address at the conference.