PRODUCTIVITY BARGAINING IN THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC SECTOR: A CASE STUDY

Abstract: Standard hours of work have been relatively uniform throughout the work force in Australia. Reductions have occurred only after careful consideration by the industrial tribunals and/or the parliaments. Provision of special treatment in this matter for particular groups of employees has been limited. The use of productivity bargaining techniques to secure reduced standard hours of work for a relatively small proportion of the work force — as occurred in the public sector in the mid-1970s — represented a significant departure from previous practice. This is a study of the first of these cases which, in effect, set the ground rules for a series of similar cases conducted later within the Commonwealth public sector. It sets out the steps which were necessary to have the productivity agreement accepted and points out novel features which arose in the application of the productivity bargaining technique.