   |
||
| Issue No 116 |  |
19 October 2001 |
|
|
|
UnionsHome Of The Longest DayBy Noel Hester
Australia has a dubious new prize to put in its cluttered national trophy cabinet. We are increasingly the most over-worked nation in the world.
******************** While most developed countries have been reducing working hours via regulatory initiatives, Australia is one of the few countries to buck the trend. Australia - along with USA and Britain - is one of the few OECD countries to have experienced a reversal in the long-term trend to reducing working time. New research by a world expert on working time Iain Campbell of RMIT has found that Australia has average working hours that are longer than most other OECD countries. Average annual hours tend towards the top of the rankings, comparable with the USA though not as high as Korea. But the more startling aspect concerns the trend. Since 1982 the increase in average weekly hours for full-time workers in Australia has been dramatic. As a result Australia is quickly moving up the rankings, overtaking countries such as Spain and Japan which have been moving in the opposite direction. If present trends continue Australia could further rise to overtake Korea (whose average hours are, like Japan, undergoing a rapid reduction.) For a full-time Australian worker the working week increased on average by 3.7 hours between 1982 and 2000. This amounts to over 21 million extra hours per week or the equivalent of 550,000 full-time jobs. This is by far the largest increase in comparison to other OECD countries. The two years from 1998 to 2000 saw a scary acceleration in this trend as an extra 48 minutes was added to the week of an average full-time employee. Campbell's research has found that about half of all full-time employees in Australia usually put in extra hours in their jobs each week. And the trends again are in the direction of an even longer day. The proportion of employees that worked more than 40 hours increased from 23.4 per cent in 1985 to 31.3 percent in 2000. Those working 45 hours or more rose from 17.8 percent to 26.1 percent. Those working more than 50 or more hours rose from 10.2 percent in 1985 to 17.4 per cent in 2000. Which employees work the long hours distinguishes Australia from other comparable countries as well. In most other OECD countries long hours is associated with high level managerial employees. It is not associated with blue-collar workers whose hours are effectively regulated. In Australia, on the other hand long hours are spread throughout the workforce - professionals and managers but also a significant number of blue-collar workers especially in transport, manufacturing and mining and tradespersons. It gets worse. At least in the other Anglophone countries where hours are on the increase employees are paid for it. In the USA the extra hours which are being worked are in paid overtime. In Britain lengthening full-time hours are driven by both paid and unpaid overtime. In Australia it is unpaid overtime which is the driver of the longer day. Gender plays a role in the issue of overtime. Female full-time employees are less likely than male employees to do overtime, but when they do overtime it is more unlikely to be unpaid. Campbell proffers some explanations for the reason Australia is distinctive starting with the complex political and economic changes of the last twenty years. In particular he cites the changed labour market conditions, changes in employer strategies and changed government responses. Campbell says in Europe and other OECD countries where working hours have been reduced it has been done through regulatory initiatives - either through law or collective agreements. In contrast Campbell says the Australian system is 'extremely porous' missing the crucial definitions of maximum overtime hours and maximum daily and weekly hours. He also says there has been a marked failure to modernize the system in the past 20 years.
|
   Interview: The Green MachineNick Bolkus outlines Labor's environmental stance and lays down the gauntlet to Bob Brown's Greens. Industrial: Regaining Control France�s 35 hour week stems from the program of the Left coalition government which went to the polls in June 1997 with the policy of �worksharing�. Unions: Home Of The Longest DayAustralia has a dubious new prize to put in its cluttered national trophy cabinet. We are increasingly the most over-worked nation in the world. Campaign Diary: Week Two: FightbackLabor's doing everything to win a normal campaign - but this is no normal campaign. Economics: Who Will Notice When You Die?Johann Christoph Arnold asks whether the anti-globalisation movement is the answer to an epidemic of loneliness. History: American TerrorIncredible revelations about the work of the US National Security Agency through the Cold War years help put the current War of Terror into perspective. International: Global Day of Action In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the US last week, the ICFTU has announced that preparations for the Global Unions Day of Action on November 9 will go ahead. Satire: World Gripped by Fear as Howard Third Term LoomsThe global community has uniformly condemned the recent terrorist attacks, which horrifically helped revive the re-election prospects of John Howard. Review: FlashbacksCultural theortician Neale Towart consults his record collection in a bid to understand the chaos gripping the earth.
Notice Board View entire latest issue
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
![[ Home ]](/images/nv_home.gif){kind=small} ![[ Notice Board ]](/images/nv_board.gif){kind=small} ![[ Search ]](/images/nv_search.gif){kind=small} ![[ Previous Issues ]](/images/nv_previous.gif){kind=small} ![[ Latest Issue ]](/images/nv_latest.gif){kind=small} |
|
|
|
|
© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/116/b_tradeunion_hours.htmlLast Modified: 15 Nov 2005 [ Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Credits ] LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW |
|
![[Workers Online]](/images/logo_small.gif){kind=logo}
![[Social Change Online]](/images/sco_logo.gif){kind=logo}