ACTU President RJ Hawke - 1960
So just how does someone end up being the Prime Minister of Australia? Well for ex-PM Bob Hawke it all started at the ACTU. Mr Hawke was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University and started as a Research Officer at the ACTU in 1958. He was then elected as President in 1969 - he took over from Albert Monk who had been President for 20 years. Through Hawke, the ACTU got more publicity, the relationship between the ACTU and the ALP became stronger, there was more support of strike action than in the past and stronger links were formed with white collar unions and organisations. (Hagan 1977, Martin 1975: p. 68)
Equal pay for work of equal value awarded (specifically female work not included) - 1960
The issue of equal pay for women remained a source of hot debate throughout the 1960s. In 1969, the ACTU mounted a test case to get rid of the 25 per cent difference that existed between pay rates for women and those for men. On 19 June the Commonwealth Arbitration Court decided that women should receive the same pay as men if it could be proved they were doing work of equal value. The Court ruled that as of 1 October women would get at least 85 per cent of the male wage; their pay would then go up in steps until 1 January 1972 when they would be rewarded with equal pay - 100 per cent of the male wage. Employers claimed that such a move would have a negative effect on the employment of women. In fact, the number of women in employment has gone up faster than it has for men ever since. (Aplin 1987: p. 177, Yerbury 1992)
Annual leave loading of 17.5 per cent in Metal Trades Award - 1970
Getting a bonus in your pay for going on holidays probably sounds like a good lurk but it resulted from some pretty sound 1970s logic. In May 1974 the leave loading was granted to those under the Metal Industry Award in addition to them winning a claim for four weeks annual leave. The theory was that workers were entitled to the loading; because they were on holidays they wouldn't get their normal pay which included extra for working on shifts and weekends. (Hagan 1981: p. 280, Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics 1907)
Maternity leave awarded - 1973
`Maybe baby' or maybe not. Maternity leave was introduced for government employees via the Maternity Leave (Australian Government Employees) Act 1973. It recognised that working women had a right to come back to a job after the birth of their children. The Act for public servants entitled them to between six and 52 weeks of leave, including 12 weeks paid leave, if they had done 12 months continuous employment with the employer immediately before the start of the leave. Women working in the private sector were entitled to maternity leave in 1979. Adoption Leave and Paternity Leave have been the more recent offspring of the Maternity Leave Act. (Hagan 1981: p. 356, ACTU 1995, Yerbury 1992: p. 216)
Medibank, Australia's new national health scheme is introduced - 1975
On 1 July 1975, Medibank was born. The new national public health scheme offered free medical treatment and basic hospital care in public hospitals. Every state had signed an agreement by 1 October to give them their piece of the Medibank pie. On a state level, the Federal Government agreed to meet 50 per cent of the net operating costs in the State public hospitals. (Aplin et al 1987: p. 198)
Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, sacks Whitlam Government - 1975
Before the then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam could advise the Governor General Sir John Kerr that he wanted a half-senate election, Sir John had sent Gough and his Labor Government on their way and asked Malcolm Fraser to be PM in a caretaker government. Australians often refer to this as `the dismissal.' When Fraser took the job on, both houses of parliament were dissolved and an election was held. (Aplin et al 1987: p. 199)
38 hour week introduced - 1980
During the 1980s, a 38 hour working week became a national standard across Australia. This followed union and ACTU campaigns. The last time working hours had changed was 1948. The 38 hour week is longer than many European workers do even now.
A healthy union ahead of its time - 1980
All through the 1980s and early 1990s most of Australia's old trade unions joined to form industry unions. But not the HSUA! Why not, we hear you say? The HSUA has operated as an industry union (not a trade union) since its formation in 1911. It means the HSUA represents workers throughout the entire health and community services industry, not just workers doing certain types of work, or trades, within that industry.
BHP announces retrenchment of up to 10,000 steelworkers - 1982
BHP reduced its steelmaking workforce by approximately 30 per cent when 10,000 steelworkers lost their jobs on 27 August 1982. In the 1980s the `Big Australian' started finding things tough and after the company experienced a major fall in net profits, BHP asked the Federal Government to put restrictions on imported steel. A five-year strategy was then developed for the steel industry. (Aplin et al 1987: p. 206)
ACTU / ALP Accord - 1983
How do you reduce unemployment and inflation at the same time, reduce industrial disputes and provide an approach to developing policies which suit the majority of Australians on both an economic and social level? Get the ACTU and the Hawke/Keating Labor Party - the government of the time - to develop a framework for looking at Australia's big picture economic issues and call it the Price and Incomes Accord or just `The Accord.' The Accord was developed in the lead up to the 1983 federal election and lasted until 1996. It was re-negotiated eight times. (Harcourt 1997)
National wage case decision awards superannuation - 1986
What do you call the money you put away during your working life to live on when you retire? Superannuation - and prior to 1986 only a select group of workers received it - mostly public servants and middle and senior managers. Superannuation became universal for workers following the National Wage Case in 1986. Rather than a wage increase, all workers were to receive 3 per cent superannuation benefits. Then, in 1987, superannuation started to form part of awards. (ACTU 1997: p. 1)
LHMU develops first federal award for `supported employees' - 1990
The Supported Employment Business Enterprise Award was the first federal award for workers in sheltered workshops or `supported employees'. Flagstaff Industries is a factory that produces canvas and leisure goods. It employs about 100 disabled people. In 1990, the FMWU became very aware of the needs of disabled workers as part of developing the first award to represent them. The Award - based on the Metal Trade Standard - covered all Flagstaff's disabled workers, except managers. It was a big step in recognising the needs and rights of this special `industry.' (LHMU 1990: p. 1)
Abolition of the award system in Victoria - 1994
An `award' is what is `awarded' to a group (of occupations, industries or enterprises) by an Industrial Tribunal, it sets out their working conditions and rates of pay. In Victoria (as in all other states), some employees used to work under `state awards' and others worked were covered by `federal awards.' However, the Kennett government wanted to abolish awards and force all workers onto industrial agreements. In 1994, all Victorian state awards which had existed at 1 March 1993 were abolished by the Coalition State Government. To stop employees being forced into individual or collective contracts, many unions worked to create federal awards for members who had previously been covered by Victorian state awards. (Yerbury 1992: p. 30)
W
eipa dispute - 1995
The then Federal Opposition (and current Federal Coalition Government) push for employees to be on individual workplace agreements instead of awards was put to the test during the Weipa dispute. Mining giant CRA went head to head with the union movement by offering big pay rises to those workers who would sign individual company contracts in an attempt to exclude the union from all its sites. In Weipa, a small mining town in Queensland, a group of 71 workers fought for their right to the same pay rises as award workers and to union representation in enterprise bargaining. Following a seven-week strike in late 1995 which was supported by four unions - AMWU, CFMEU, CEPU and AWU - and thousands of workers around Australia, the ACTU went before the AIRC for the Weipa workers. The result? The AIRC first ruled that CRA had to extend the terms and conditions offered to workers on individual contracts, to the 71 working under awards. Then, it said the company had to negotiate a new award to cover all workers at the mine. (Aiken and Kennedy 1996: p. 1, Marris 1996)
First female President of the ACTU - Jennie George - 1996
Jennie George made the news again when she became the first woman President of the ACTU. Jennie didn't just sit and wait for the presidency to fall in her lap - she was President of the New South Wales Teachers Federation from 1986-1989, Vice-President of the ACTU in 1987 and the Assistant National Director of the Trade Union Training Authority from 1989-1991. (Information Australia 1992: p. 342-343)
End of Accord era - 1996
The `Accord' was an agreement between the ACTU and the former Federal Labor Government. They used it to develop a joint approach to economic issues. When the Federal Coalition Government came into power in March 1996, it abolished the Accord. The Accord had been in place from 1983 through to 1996. It was renegotiated eight times. Without the Accord and a wages policy, the Federal Coalition Government will have to rely on its fiscal and monetary policy to achieve its economic goals. (Harcourt 1996: p. 105-110)
Living Wage Case - 1996
A fair and reasonable wage for all Australian workers - that's what the ACTU Living Wage claim is all about. When the ACTU put the claim before the AIRC it wasn't designed to achieve wage increases for people on high wages. The real purpose was to increase the minimum wage for people on lower incomes to a rate of $12 an hour ($456 a week), over the next three years. (APIC 1997)
Third wave campaign - 1997
A wave of new industrial legislation is certainly not the kind of wave you find at the beach. But like a tidal wave, it does a lot of damage! In Western Australia, the Liberal State Government has introduced sweeping industrial changes in the last two years. The first and second `waves' of change meant that employers could ignore awards and make decisions without having to comply with the industrial relations commission. The third `wave' of legislation aims to keep unions quiet and workers on the back foot by penalising them for taking part in industrial action. The State Government waves of legislation have not gone down well in Western Australia. On 29 April over 30,000 people took to the streets of Perth to demonstrate against it - the largest demonstration against anything in the state's history. (Western Australia TLC 1997)