PRODUCTIVITY BARGAINING IN COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract: Despite several experiments with productivity bargaining in the Commonwealth employment sector, the rigidity of employment conditions was considered to be a limiting factor to the wider application of this technique to the public sector. Nor did it appear to be suitable for adoption within the compulsory arbitration system. However the frustrated expectations of blue collar employees in government employment during the Labor government's term of office stimulated the exploration of productivity bargaining as a way of achieving reduced working hours without contravening efforts to restrain wage inflation. The events within the Australian Post Office (later to become the Australian Postal Commission and the Australian Telecommunications Commission), the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories Commission, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission and the Reserve Bank of Australia are described and some differences in the processes involved noted. The nature and significance of productivity bargaining as a technique for the immediate future are also discussed, particularly in the light of continuing stagflation and the interest of the government in wage restraint and national productivity growth.