Pattern Bargaining – taking a closer look

By ACIRRT

The Federal Dept of Workplace Relations (DEWR) has been investigating pattern bargaining in a very critical manner. ACIRRT has been conducting its own studies.

One was commissioned by the Cole Royal Commission. The other was undertaken for the AMWU in relation to the Productivity Cmn report into the automotive industry.

ACIRRT dispute the methodology and findings of DEWR. Identical provisions and outcomes don't necessarily mean evidence of pattern bargaining. Justice Munro noted that the evidence of pattern bargaining would need be the absence of the opportunity to concede or modify the demands in a workplace.

ACIRRT also point out that employers often initiate pattern bargaining. Also they note that DEWR overstate the uniformity of agreements.

ACIRRT push the idea of a new policy model. They call it co-ordinated flexibility. The federal government continue to argue about the need for a decentralised model and abuse any notion of centralisation. Europeans use what is called co-ordinated flexibility or organised decentralisation. This approach is common in the European automotive industry. Banging on about union pattern bargaining misses the point of how to productively manage multi-employer and employee interaction.

(ACIRRT ADAM Report, no 35, December 2002)