Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Australia (Ratification: 1973)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report does not address the issues raised by the Committee in its previous direct request.

Federal jurisdiction. 1. Statistical data. Noting that the Government does not provide any information with regard to the Committee’s previous comments on the effect that the Work Choices Act may have on trade union membership (the proportion of employees who were trade union members had been steadily declining from the August 1986 figure of 45.6 per cent to the August 2006 figure of 20.3 per cent; only 15.2 per cent of employees in the private sector were trade union members compared to 42.6 per cent in the public sector), the Committee expresses the hope that the substantive labour reform currently under way will reverse this trend and requests the Government to continue to provide information in this regard.

2. The Workplace Relations Act (WR Act), 1996. The Committee recalls that its previous comments concerned the need to amend sections 798 and 807 of the WR Act on the issue of disciplining members, so as to avoid any interference that would restrict the right of workers’ organizations to freely draw up their constitutions and rules. The Committee expresses the hope that the substantive labour reform currently under way will address the need to ensure that disciplinary matters are left up to the democratically elaborated rules or by-laws of the unions concerned.

State jurisdictions. 1. New South Wales. The Committee recalls that previous comments concerned the need to amend section 226(c) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1996, which provides that the registration of an organization may be cancelled where it or its members engage in industrial action having a major and substantially adverse effect on the provision of any public service.

The Committee once again requests the Government to keep it informed of any measures taken or contemplated with a view to ensuring that any prohibition of the right to strike and related penalties are limited to essential services in the strict sense of the term and to public servants exercising authority in the name of the State.

2. Western Australia. In its previous comments, the Committee raised the need to amend provisions that stipulate that workers’ membership in a trade union ends if their subscriptions are not paid and requested the Government to indicate any measures taken or contemplated so as to leave the issues of membership and subscriptions to the rules of the organizations concerned.

The Committee reiterates its request for information on any measures taken or contemplated so as to leave the issues of membership and subscriptions to the rules of the organizations concerned.