by Nick Wailes & Russell D. Lansbury

I. The types of flexibility introduced
. . V. Outcomes of collective bargaining on flexibility

A. Trade-offs involved in flexibility bargaining

The use of tradeoffs in national bargaining emerged in 1987, as part of the Accord Mark III, when a two-tier wage system was introduced, initiating moves towards productivity bargaining. However, this was still within a largely centralized framework of negotiations at the national level. Further tradeoffs were introduced in the Accords Mark IV to VI (1988 to 1992) when wage increases were linked to award restructuring, as well as to greater efficiency at both the enterprise and industry levels. However, it was only with the introduction of enterprise bargaining as the primary means by which wage increases could be achieved that flexibility at the workplace and enterprise levels became the primary focus of bargaining. Even under Accord Mark III, however, there was a broader national goal of creating 500'000 extra jobs. Nevertheless, under the Keating Labour government and its Reform Act 1993, the process of bargaining was further decentralized and the focus of tradeoffs became improvements at the enterprise level. Under the Coalition government's Workplace Relations Act 1996, this trend has continued and greater emphasis is now being placed on individual contracts of employment whereby tradeoffs are negotiated directly between the employer and employee, without union representation.

As noted in Chapter 1, the dominant forms of labour market regulation in Australia during the past decade have changed quite dramatically. While an estimated 85 per cent of employees were covered by collective bargaining in 1985, this had declined to 70 per cent by 1995. Furthermore, while the majority of employees a decade ago had their employment conditions regulated by an award (negotiated by a union), only 35 per cent were in this category in 1995. By contrast, 30 per cent of the workforce were estimated to have entered into individual common law contracts. Another 30 per cent had their employment conditions regulated by a combination of award and registered agreements. This means that the concept of a union negotiating tradeoffs through an agreement with an employer, on behalf of a group of employees, is now far less common than it was in the past and further underlines the trend towards fragmented flexibility.

An analysis of innovative clauses in recent enterprise agreements has shown that where higher than average wage increases have been achieved, workers have been willing to engage in significant tradeoffs (adam, No. 12, 1997). The main concessions appear to have involved changes to working time arrangements, increased span of hours and productivity improvements. Key features of enterprise agreements with higher wage settlements are shown in table 10. These examples are taken from a wide range of industries but show considerable similarity in the tradeoffs which have been achieved. The focus on changing working time arrangements has contributed to a pronounced trend towards more hours being worked outside the "standard" working week and in excess of the "standard" number of working hours. This appears to have been a key target for many employers seeking to achieve greater flexibility in work arrangements.