My Blog

Category: Media Releases

  • Pandemic Exacerbated Inequality, Insecurity in Australia’s Labour Market

    A year-end review of the dramatic changes in Australia’s labour market in 2020 has confirmed that the worst economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt by Australians in relatively low-paid, insecure jobs.

    Key Findings:

    • Workers in casual jobs lost employment at a rate 8 times faster than those in permanent positions
    • Part-time workers suffered job losses 3 times worse than full-time workers
    • Young workers, women, and workers who do not work in offices also suffered disproportionate job losses during the initial shutdowns – and continue to experience much worse employment conditions
    • Worse yet, the report shows the rebound in employment that began in May has seen a historic surge in insecure jobs – which account for the vast majority of new jobs created since the economy began re-opening

    “It is painfully ironic that the worst impacts of the pandemic were felt by those who could least afford to lose their work and income,” said Dr Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work, and co-author of the report.

    “Both on the way down, and on the way back up, this recession has reinforced the dominance of insecure work in Australia’s labour market.

    “Precarious work strategies explain why the effects of the pandemic were so painfully unequal, and this new surge in insecure work makes Australians even more vulnerable to such shocks in the future.

    “Covid-19 had a terrible impact on both the quantity and quality of work in 2020. Because Australia has been relatively successful in controlling the virus, the labour market could improve significantly in 2021, however, the rapid expansion of insecure work poses a major challenge to the stability and prosperity of Australian households,” Dr Stanford said.

    Other findings of the report include:

    • Since May, over 400,000 casual jobs have been created (2200 per day, on average), accounting for over 60% of all new waged positions since the recovery started. That is the largest surge in casual employment in Australia’s history – contradicting business and government claims that uncertainty about casual employment rules are holding back hiring.
    • Workers over 35 years of age have regained all of the jobs lost in the pandemic, and then some. All remaining job losses are concentrated among workers under 35.
    • Office-based occupations (professionals, clerical workers, and most managers) have also regained pre-pandemic employment levels. But other occupations (especially community and personal services, sales workers, and labourers) continue to suffer major employment losses.
    • New labour laws proposed by the Commonwealth government would accelerate the surge in insecure work: liberalising the use of casual labour by employers, and allowing them to treat permanent part-time workers more like casuals.

    The post Pandemic Exacerbated Inequality, Insecurity in Australia’s Labour Market appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • New Research Centre Established to Honour Union Leader Laurie Carmichael

    The newly formed Carmichael Centre will be established at the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work, in the name of legendary manufacturing unionist Laurie Carmichael, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 93.

    Laurie Carmichael played a pivotal role in Australia’s union movement over several decades. He campaigned to protect the right to strike, negotiated shorter working hours, developed innovative workers’ education and training programs, helped to negotiate the Prices and Incomes Accords in the 1980s, served on several federal government boards and commissions under the Hawke and Keating governments, and opposed Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. He served in numerous leadership capacities during his career, including with the Amalgamated Engineering Union, the Amalgamated Metal Workers Union, and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

    The Carmichael Centre is being established with the support of Carmichael’s family, and with funding from two of the organisations which Carmichael led: the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU, formed in 1995 through a merger that included successors to Carmichael’s former unions) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (for which Carmichael served as Assistant Secretary from 1987 through 1993).

    Among other activities, the new Carmichael Centre will:

    • Host a Distinguished Research Fellow position, who will conduct and publish research on themes related to Carmichael’s legacy, including: industrial relations, social policy, manufacturing and industry policy, vocational education, international labour solidarity and peace, and the impact of unions on social well-being.
    • Organise an annual lecture by a prominent labour speaker on Carmichael’s legacy.
    • Develop and publish an annotated on-line bibliography of Carmichael’s writings and other contributions.

    The formation of the Carmichael Centre follows two years of discussions among unions and colleagues to plan an appropriate recognition of Carmichael’s influence and legacy. The Centre for Future Work is launching a public search for the first Distinguished Research Fellow, who will be appointed early in 2021.

    “The Carmichael Centre will carry on Laurie Carmichael’s mission, based on his conviction that strong, innovative unions can help build a better society for all,” said Andrew Dettmer, National President of the AMWU

    “Laurie Carmichael was a principled, innovative, progressive union leader who understood that workers need collective power to make economic, social and democratic progress. We are so glad his ideas will receive the continued attention and study they deserve, through the work of the Carmichael Centre,” said Sally McManus, National Secretary of the ACTU.

    Carmichael is survived by his son, Laurie Carmichael Jr. “The values Dad fought for all his life are more important than ever: fairness, equality, democracy, and peace. I am deeply proud that his legacy lives on, including through the work of the Carmichael Centre,” Carmichael Jr. said.

    “The Distinguished Research Fellow will make a very important contribution to progressive labour research in Australia. We are deeply honoured to host the Carmichael Centre, and to advance Laurie’s vision of a better, fairer world of work,” said Ben Oquist, Executive Director of the Australia Institute.

    The post New Research Centre Established to Honour Union Leader Laurie Carmichael appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • Australian Workplaces Unprepared for Rising Heat Stress in Light of Climate Change

    Heading in to next Summer season, new research published today by the Centre for Future Work, outlines why working in extreme heat is a growing and urgent issue for workers, and what can be done by Governments and workplaces to mitigate these risks.

    Key findings:

    • Heat stress poses serious health and safety risks for many workers across Australia, and Australia must act on the causes of rising temperatures and changing weather patterns.
    • Four key groups of workers are at high risk of heat stress:
      • Workers who work inside, in environments with poor climate control, or whose work requires them to be exposed to heat and humidity;
      • Outdoor workers, especially those who are weather-exposed;
      • Workers moving between different climates as part of their work (i.e., moving between extreme heat and cold); and
      • Workers whose roles expose them to situational extreme heat, such as emergency workers and firefighters.
    • Current labour protections, including health and safety laws, are inadequate.
      • Many workers say that OHS policies might appear to offer protection, but in practice it is simply not the case.
      • Workers say that employers do not want work to stop even when heat stress risk is very high, and that employers prioritise productivity over worker health and safety.
      • The hazardous heatwaves, air quality, and bushfire smoke over the recent Black Summer has emphasised the inadequacy of current OHS regulations.
    • The conditions of a person’s employment fundamentally shape their experience of heat stress. Workers who are employed casually, who work in labour hire arrangements, or who are gig workers, often have less capacity to take action on the effects of heat stress.
    • Recommendations include:
      • The Australian Federal and State Governments must urgently review the management of the current and likely impacts of climate change for workers, and develop national and state-based regulatory frameworks that provide strong protection in relation to heat stress and bushfire smoke.
      • Governments and employers must be required to provide adequate resourcing for at-risk workers.
      • Policymakers should strengthen current laws to ensure workers do not lose income when unable to work due to heat stress.

    “Last year’s devastating Black Summer bushfires highlighted that for many workers across Australia, appropriate policies and plans are not always in place to ensure that they are protected from dangerous heat stress related conditions that could cause illness or injury to themselves or others,” said Dr. Elizabeth Humphrys, associate at the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work and co-author of the report.

    “Workers need to be afforded greater protections to ensure their health and safety are paramount in extreme heat conditions. Our research shows that current workplace conditions are woefully inadequate, while climate change will only serve to make conditions worse.

    “To protect workers and the wider community, not only must policymakers act to mitigate the impacts of heat stress, but they must also act on the causes of the climate heating, itself.”

    The post Australian Workplaces Unprepared for Rising Heat Stress in Light of Climate Change appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • Unpaid Overtime Rife, Despite Shift to Work from Home

    The Centre for Future Work’s 12th annual Go Home on Time Day report shows that, despite total work-hours falling and much of the workforce shifting to ‘work from home’, Australians are currently putting in an average 5.25 hours of unpaid work every week – the equivalent of 7 weeks of full-time work per person, per year.

    The report calls for additional protections for people working from home, including limits on hours, overtime pay when relevant, allowances for extra home office expenses, and better OHS rules for home work.

    Key Findings:

    • Even though total work hours have fallen, and much work has shifted to home, demands for unpaid overtime remain strong
      • On average, workers reported working 5.25 hours of unpaid work per week—an increase from 4.6 in 2019
      • This equates to 273 hours per year, or over 7 weeks of full-time work
      • At the economy-wide level, this equates to $98.6 billion in lost income
    • 70% of people doing work from home, are doing at least some of it non-work hours
    • 21% of workers indicated that their employers’ expectations of their availability had increased during the COVID-19 crisis
    • 28% of workers said their family and/or caring responsibilities had increased as a result of COVID-19
      • Of those employees who had additional caring responsibilities, 27% of men had not received time allowances from their employer to do so. But almost half (45%) of women had not—evidence of an increasing double burden for women
      • 16% of respondents whose employers made time allowances for caring responsibilities reported having lost pay if they were permitted to accommodate caring responsibilities
      • Men were more likely to get flexibility from their employer and retain the same pay (57% of men with increased caring responsibilities), compared to women (39%)

    “This year our annual survey of working hours has highlighted an insidious trend: even when you are ‘home’, unpaid overtime is still rife,” said Dan Nahum, economist at the Centre for Future Work and author of the report.

    “For many, the reality of working from home is more like living at work.

    “One-third of workers indicated that, post-COVID, they expect to work from home more. But without adequate rules and protections, this risks a further incursion of work into people’s personal time, poorer health and safety standards, and greater polarisation between those jobs that can be conducted from home and those that cannot.

    “Employers have a duty of care to the worker, regardless of the location of employment, so it is incredibly concerning—for both employers and employees—that 14% of people working from home indicated their home workspace was not appropriate or not safe.

    “COVID-19 has clearly heightened the challenge facing workers of balancing their paid jobs, with their responsibilities at home. Our research shows that working from home is no panacea for this balancing act – in fact, in some ways it makes the problem harder.”

    The post Unpaid Overtime Rife, Despite Shift to “Work from Home” appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • 480,000 Jobs Rely on QLD Public Service, Cuts Would Deepen the State’s Recession

    The report, by the Centre for Future Work, finds that for every 10 direct jobs in state-funded public services, another 4.5 jobs are supported in the QLD private sector. This means that these public services support a total of some 480,000 public and private sector jobs across Queensland. Cuts to public services and staffing would impact private sector jobs and incomes, deepening the recession.

    Key Findings:

    • Some 480,000 positions are supported, directly and indirectly, by the provision of state-funded public services in Queensland.
    • This includes 331,000 direct public sector jobs, as well as over 150,000 more positions in the private sector that depend on the economic stimulus provided by public sector work.
    • For every 10 direct jobs in the state-funded public service, another 4.5 jobs are supported in the private sector.
    • Regional and remote Queensland is the most reliant on state public sector workers – both for the services they provide, and as a source of high-quality employment for local residents. State public sector workers account for almost 12% of total employment in remote and very remote regions of QLD.
    • The report simulates two potential scenarios of fiscal austerity in Queensland. It finds that fiscal austerity (imposed via cuts to public service staffing and wages) would cause substantial harm to Queensland’s economy: including cumulative losses (over three years) of $9-$16 billion in state GSP, and the loss of 20-35,000 person-years of employment in the private sector.

    “In this unprecedented time, the maintenance of public services is surely a more urgent priority than cutting government spending in pursuit of some illusory fiscal target,” said Dan Nahum, Economist at the Centre for Future Work and author of the report.

    “By cutting employment and incomes for public sector workers (and the private sector industries which depend on public services for their own markets), misplaced austerity would undermine economic recovery and reduce GDP.

    “A more constructive and effective response to the COVID crisis is to expand the economic and social footprint of government, including state governments – not shrink it.

    “Attacking public sector employment and compensation, just at the time Queenslanders need more public services, not less, would be a major policy mistake.”

    The post 480,000 Jobs Rely on QLD Public Service, Cuts Would Deepen the State’s Recession appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • New Analysis: 12,000 Community Service Jobs at Risk Due to Funding Uncertainty

    New economic research shows up to 12,000 community service jobs are at risk due to the Federal Government’s failure to confirm whether federal funding for community service organisations will be maintained.

    The new report released today by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work demonstrates the economic importance of Commonwealth pay-equity funding at a time when these community services are critical to Australia’s pandemic-damaged economy.

    Key Findings:

    • The Federal Government is yet to confirm whether it will continue $576.5 million in supplemental funding for federally-supported community services, currently set to expire in the current (2020-21) financial year.
    • This special funding was part of the Commonwealth government’s legislated 9-year timetable to phase in pay equity wage adjustments in community services.
    • If this funding is not renewed (either by incorporation into a higher level of core funding for affected organisations, or through the extension of explicit pay equity supplements), the resulting funding shortfall will undermine and reverse the progress that has been made toward pay equity since the 2012 pay equity order.
    • The loss of federal pay equity supplements would inevitably produce some combination of staffing cuts and wage cuts, as organisations respond to such a significant loss of funding.

    “If experienced fully through staff cuts, the end of federal supplements would result in the loss of close to 12,000 jobs in federally-supported community organisations,” said Dr. Jim Stanford, director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work.

    “Alternatively, if the brunt of the funding cut is experienced through effective wage reductions it would reduce annual incomes for federally-funded community service workers by as much as $15,000 for full-time staff.

    “To put up to 12,000 community service jobs at risk, or force community service workers to take a $15,000 a year pay cut in the middle of global pandemic and an economic recession is both heartless and economically self-destructive,” Dr. Stanford said.

    The Centre for Future Work report also found that the broad health and social services sector (which includes most of these community service organisations) has reduced the gender pay gap by more than any other industry in the years since the pay equity reform was announced.

    Those past gains will be undermined and reversed unless federal funding consistent with new pay equity norms is quickly confirmed.

    The post New Analysis: 12,000 Community Service Jobs at Risk Due to Funding Uncertainty appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • Failure to Invest in New Tech Damaging Economy, Incomes & Jobs

    The report findings contrast sharply with the common concern that robots and other forms of automation will threaten future job security for Australian workers.

    Major findings include:

    • Business investment in new machinery (including robots) is weaker than at any point in Australia’s post-war history.
    • Business spending on new research and technology has also been falling in Australia, and now ranks well behind the average of other industrial countries (and even some emerging economies, like China).
    • The average amount of machinery and equipment used by the typical Australian worker has been declining since 2014, and has since fallen by 6%.
    • Because of less automation and innovation, average productivity in Australia’s economy has also been declining for three straight years – also the weakest performance in Australia’s post-war history.

    “Australian businesses are not investing nearly enough in new technology,” said Dr Jim Stanford, Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work.

    “This lack of business investment in new technology does not mean that Australian jobs are somehow safer. To the contrary, the failure of business investment means that even more jobs will be located in low-productivity, low-tech, low-wage industries – with terrible implications for wages and job quality.

    “Business leaders love to complain that Australia’s productivity problems are due to red tape, taxes, and unions. The evidence is clear that their own failure to invest in new capital and new technology explains the stagnation in productivity. Instead of blaming others for this outcome, business leaders need to look in the mirror.”

    The post Failure to Invest in New Tech Damaging Economy, Incomes & Jobs appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • TAFE system supports $92.5 billion in annual economic benefits

    The report adopts a multidimensional approach to measuring the wide economic and social benefits of the TAFE system resulting from Australia’s historic investments in public vocational education. Over $6 billion in economic activity and 48,000 jobs are supported by the direct operation of TAFE institutes and the TAFE supply-chain. Through its accumulated contribution to the employability and skills of Australians, the TAFE system generates another flow of benefits worth $84.9 billion per year in higher incomes and productivity. Those benefits are shared by workers in higher incomes, firms in higher profits, and federal and state governments – which receive $25 billion per year in extra tax revenues. Finally, another $1.5 billion in fiscal savings are enjoyed by governments through reduced costs for health and welfare benefits for TAFE graduates. Altogether, the TAFE system drives $92.5 billion in benefits per year – equal to almost 5% of Australia’s GDP.

    The report finds despite chronic underfunding, Australia’s historic investment in the TAFE system continues to generate an enormous and ongoing dividend to the Australian economy. Increased public investment in the skills and earning capabilities of Australians will be critical to our post-pandemic recovery.

    Key Findings:

    • Australia’s historic investments in quality TAFE education supports a combined and ongoing flow of total economic benefits worth $92.5 billion to the Australian economy in 2019 — 16 times greater than the annual ‘maintenance’ costs Australia currently reinvests in the TAFE system.
    • The presence and activity of TAFE institutes ‘anchors’ over $6 billion per year in economic activity and 48,000 jobs from the direct operation of the TAFE system and its supply chain, and ‘downstream’ consumer spending impacts.
    • The TAFE-trained workforce generates $84.9 billion per year in higher incomes and business productivity. $49.3 billion is paid in additional earnings to TAFE-credentialed workers (relative to earnings of workers without post-school training); businesses receive $35.6 billion in increased profits from a more productive TAFE-trained workforce.
    • The costs of delivering TAFE are modest – only $5.7 billion per year, or 0.3% GDP. Extra tax revenues received by governments thanks to the superior productivity and incomes of TAFE-trained workers alone are worth $25 billion per year: 4.4 times more than the total costs of running the TAFE system.
    • The TAFE system increases employability and lowers unemployment. TAFE graduates enter the labour force with better employment prospects and skills. The increased labour force participation and employability of TAFE graduates corresponds to additional employment of 486,000.
    • The TAFE system promotes wider social benefits critical to addressing inequality. TAFE helps ‘bridge’ access to further education and jobs pathways in regional areas and for special and at-risk youth groups. TAFE students are more likely to come from low-income households and identify as Aboriginal compared with private VET providers.

    “Australia will squander the demonstrated economic benefits generated by our investments in the TAFE system, and unnecessarily limit our post-COVID recovery if we don’t act quickly to reinstate the critical role that TAFE plays in the VET system,” said Alison Pennington, senior economist at the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work.

    “The Australian economy is reaping an enormous flow of economic benefits from a VET ‘house’ built by the TAFE system. But the ‘house’ that TAFE institutes built is crumbling. If Australia wants to secure the benefits of a superior, productive TAFE-trained workforce as we prepare for post-COVID reconstruction, the damage must be repaired quickly.

    “Major public skills investments will be best coordinated by TAFE institutes as the longest-standing and most reliable ‘anchors’ of vocational training and must be at the centre of an economic reconstruction process.

    “By providing bridges to further education and jobs for regional, low-income and at-risk youth groups, the TAFE system is critically important to addressing systemic inequality in Australia’s economy and society.”

    The post TAFE system supports $92.5 billion in annual economic benefits appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • Post-COVID Manufacturing Renewal Represents Potential $50 Billion Boost to Economy

    Key Findings:

    • Australia ranks last in manufacturing self-sufficiency among all OECD countries. Australians use $565 billion worth of manufactures each year, however, we only produce $380 billion. Therefore, Australia produces only 68% (just over two-thirds) of what we use: less than any other OECD economy.
    • The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the strategic importance of domestic manufacturing capacity. Disruptions in global supply chains and protectionist trade policies by foreign governments have increased risks we might not be able to access essential products (like health equipment and supplies) when we need it.
    • Manufacturing is not just ‘another’ sector of the economy. For several concrete reasons, manufacturing carries strategic importance to broader national prosperity and security.
      • Australians purchase and use more manufactured goods over time; and manufacturing output is growing around the world. Allowing domestic manufacturing to decline, while our use of manufactured products grows, undermines national economic performance.
      • Manufacturing is the most innovation-intensive sector in the whole economy. No country can be an innovation leader without a strong manufacturing base.
      • Manufactured goods account for over two-thirds of world merchandise trade. A country that cannot successfully export manufactures will be shut out of most trade.
      • Manufacturing anchors hundreds of thousands of other jobs throughout the economy, thanks to its long and complex supply chain. Billions of dollars’ worth of supplies and inputs are purchased by manufacturing facilities, supporting many other sectors of the economy.
      • Manufacturing offers high-quality jobs, full-time hours and above-average incomes. And thanks to strong productivity growth and the capacity to apply modern technology, manufacturing offers the prospect of rising incomes in the future.

    “As Australian governments and business leaders realise the importance of manufacturing in rebuilding the national economy after COVID, this research shows that Australia now has the smallest manufacturing industry relative to domestic purchases of any OECD country,” said Dr. Jim Stanford, Director of the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work and author of the report.

    “These findings confirm the enormous task ahead of the country in rebuilding our domestic manufacturing capacity. However, it also highlights the enormous economic benefits that would be generated by getting manufacturing back to a proportional size: including $180 billion in new sales, $50 billion in new GDP, and over 400,000 new direct jobs.

    “While two-way international trade in manufactured products will always be essential, as a nation we should be manufacturing in aggregate as much as we are using. If we rebuilt a manufacturing sector that was broadly proportionate to our needs, our manufacturing industry would grow by almost 50% – generating enormous benefits in jobs, incomes, innovation and exports.”

    The post Post-COVID Manufacturing Renewal Represents Potential $50 Billion Boost to Economy appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.

  • 93 Economic Experts Back Govt Wages Subsidy in Open Letter

    Signatories to the open letter include Bernie Fraser, former Secretary to the Treasury and Governor of the Reserve Bank; Professor Roy Green, former Dean of Business at UTS; Professor Andrew Stewart, Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide; RMIT Distinguished Professor Sara Charlesworth; Professor John Howe, Director of the University of Melbourne School of Government; and Rae Cooper, Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations at the University of Sydney.

    The open letter states, in part:

    “The coming recession will be unprecedented in Australian history – in both its speed and its depth. Without immediate action, we expect that 1-2 million workers, or even more, could lose their jobs in coming weeks. That would drive unemployment to 15% or higher, overwhelm income support programs, and leave hundreds of thousands of businesses unable to function – even after the immediate health danger passes.

    “We recommend that the Commonwealth government immediately implement a large-scale wage subsidy scheme, similar to those already enacted in several other industrial countries.”

    “The breadth of support we received on this open letter confirms the proposal is supported by a broad cross-section of Australian stakeholders. The Government needs to move quickly now to implement this measure, and ease this pandemic’s devastating economic effects,” said Dr Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, and author of the open letter.

    The wage subsidy proposal has also been supported by many Australian unions, business peak bodies, and other stakeholders.

    Bernie Fraser, former Secretary to the Treasury and Reserve Bank Governor said, “Australia’s post-corona economic resurrection requires the on-going preservation both of the skills and self-esteem of our workforces, and of our business and entrepreneurial talents. If Australia is serious about ensuring the readiness of our work-forces to spring into action when the time comes, it should provide appropriate support direct to those workforces, as several other countries appear to be doing.”

    Professor John Howe, Director of the Melbourne School of Government, said, “Wage subsidies are a longstanding and legitimate form of government support for job creation and retention. In the context of the current crisis, an urgently implemented wage subsidy program will help workers retain income and stay in employment, unlike direct welfare payments. And they are more accountable than boosting cash flow to employers, which may or may not be used to save jobs.”

    Professor Roy Green, former Dean of Business at UTS, said, “The duty of the Australian Government in these extraordinary times is to ensure that a short term crisis does not become a long term disaster for the nation. In fact, the Prime Minister has referenced the need to build a ‘bridge’ to a better, stronger economy. For this to happen, the bridge must include substantial wage subsidies to retain workforces for the recovery and provide them with an income as they reskill and reposition our industries for the future.”

    The full open letter and list of signatories can be viewed here.

    A catalogue of international initiatives to support workers, compiled by the Centre for Future Work, is available here.

    The post 93 Economic Experts Back Govt Wages Subsidy in Open Letter appeared first on The Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work.