Research // Labour Standards & Workers' Rights
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Economics
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August 2023
Manufacturing the Energy Revolution
Australia needs to respond quickly to powerful new incentives for sustainable manufacturing now on offer in the U.S. and several other industrial countries, or risk being cut out of lucrative new markets for manufactured products linked to renewable energy systems.
May 2023
Unacceptable Risks
The gigification of care is creating insecure work, undermining gender inequality and damaging workforce sustainability.
February 2023
Profit-Price Spiral: The Truth Behind Australia’s Inflation
Workers in Australia have suffered considerable economic losses as a result of accelerating inflation since the onset of the COVID pandemic. Reaching a year-over-year rate of 7.8% by end-2022, inflation has rapidly eroded the real purchasing power of workers’ incomes; average wages are currently growing at less than half the pace of prices. Now, severe
December 2022
Polling – Wages and cost of living
The Australia Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,001 Australians about their views on wages and cost of living. The majority of Australians report that their wages have not kept up with the cost of living over the past 12 months. For two in three Australians (68%) their wages have either not grown at
November 2022
Theft By Any Other Name: Go Home On Time Day 2022
This year marks the fourteenth annual Go Home on Time Day (GHOTD), an initiative of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute that shines a spotlight on the maldistribution of working hours and the scale of unpaid overtime worked by Australians.
Call Me Maybe (Not)
Working beyond scheduled hours has long been a problem for Australian workers. The nature and scale of overtime has more recently been shaped by the rise in flexible working arrangements and the integration of information and communication technology at work. Checking emails on the weekend, taking multiple-time-zone calls out of hours, and teleconferencing from the dining table have all become familiar experiences amongst workers. This both enabled working from home conditions during the pandemic for a large portion of workers, and accelerated patterns of overtime through the blurring of lines between work and home life.
September 2022
Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Work and Care
Current work and care arrangements in Australia contribute to economic and social disadvantage for carers, the vast majority of whom are women. Patterns of labour force participation and employment provide clear indicators of the inequities inherent in Australia’s current care and work arrangements. These patterns show we do not have equitably shared care arrangements, nor equitable employment opportunities and outcomes for women. Australia requires much stronger support systems, more effective work and care policies and more secure and fairly-paid jobs to address these problems.
May 2022
Working With COVID: Insecure Jobs, Sick Pay, and Public Health
Almost one in five Australians (and a higher proportion of young workers) acknowledge working with potential COVID symptoms over the course of the pandemic, according to new opinion research published by the Centre for Future Work. The research confirms the public health dangers of Australia’s existing patchwork system of sick leave and related entitlements. The main
November 2021
Working From Home, or Living at Work?
2021 marks the thirteenth annual Go Home on Time Day (GHOTD), an initiative of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute that shines a spotlight on overwork among Australians, including excessive overtime that is often unpaid. Last year’s report emphasised that 2020 had been extraordinary and difficult, and 2021 has brought little reprieve.
September 2021
Submission: Workplaces (Protection from Protesters) Amendment Bill 2021
The Tasmanian Government’s attempts to restrict citizens’ right to protest with the Workplaces (Protection from Protesters) Amendment Bill 2021, is unnecessary and problematic. The Amendment Bill 2021 continues to preference businesses’ ability to carry out work over the right of people to protest by making a broad range of peaceful protest activities illegal, with harsh
June 2021
Attitudes towards mandatory COVID-19 vaccination
Key Findings: More than three-quarters of Australians (77%) agree with making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for workers in contact with vulnerable demographics, such as aged care workers. Only 13% disagree. One in two Australians (50%) strongly agree with making the vaccine mandatory for certain workers. Coalition (84%) and Labor (83%) voters are the most likely
May 2021
Investing in Better Mental Health in Australian Workplaces
Australian society is experiencing an epidemic of mental illness that imposes enormous costs on individuals with poor mental health, their families, and the broader economy. There is no doubt that the stress, isolation and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has made this crisis even worse.
March 2020
November 2019
Excessive Hours and Unpaid Overtime: 2019 Update
New research from The Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work estimates that Australian workers are currently working an average of 4.6 hours of unpaid overtime each week, which translates to 6 weeks of full time work without pay, per employee, per year – with an annual worth of $81.5 billion for Australian employers.
June 2019
Union Organising and Labour Market Rules: Two Sides of the Same Coin
International evidence is clear that there is a strong, positive correlation between a country’s protection of labour freedoms, and the organising success and economic influence of unions. Improvements in basic labour rights and freedoms tend to be associated with increases in union membership (as a share of total employment). And stronger union membership, in turn, is associated with broader collective bargaining coverage, less poverty among working people, and less inequality.
March 2019
Workplace Policy Reform in New Zealand
Australia can learn much from the policy leadership of the Ardern Government in New Zealand and its reforms to address stagnant wages and rebuild a more inclusive workplace relations framework, according to new research from the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute.
November 2018
Under the Employer’s Eye: Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance in Australian Workplaces
Each year the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute conducts a public survey of Australian working hours, as part of our annual “Go Home on Time Day” (GHOTD) initiative. Findings from the survey regarding hours worked, preferences for more or less hours, and the incidence of unpaid overtime are reported in a companion study.
Excessive Hours and Unpaid Overtime: 2018 Update
2018 marks the tenth annual Go Home on Time Day (GHOTD), an initiative of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute that shines a spotlight on overwork among Australians, including excessive overtime that is often unpaid. Over many years, the Centre for Future Work and the Australia Institute have commissioned regular annual opinion polls
May 2018
Raising the Bar: How Government Can Use its Economic Leverage to Lift Labour Standards Throughout the Economy
For at least five years now, Australia’s labour market has demonstrated signs of a structural shift that has undermined traditional patterns of wage determination, and eroded the quality and security of work. The economic and social consequences of this sea change in the world of work are severe and far-reaching: flat real wages (the worst
November 2017
Excessive Hours, Unpaid Overtime and the Future of Work
2017 marks the ninth annual Go Home On Time Day (GHOTD), an initiative of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute aimed at highlighting the incidence of overwork among Australians, including excessive overtime (often unpaid). To investigate the prevalence of overwork and unpaid overtime, we commissioned a survey of over 1400 Australians on the incidence
November 2016
Hard to Get Away: Is the paid holiday under threat in Australia?
The focus of this year’s Go Home on Time Day is the threat to the “Great Aussie Holiday.” Thanks to the rise of precarious work in all its forms, a growing share of Australian workers (about one-third, according to our research) have no access to something we once took for granted: a paid annual holiday.
Excessive Hours and Unpaid Overtime: An update
The focus of this year’s Go Home on Time Day is the threat to the “Great Aussie Holiday.” Thanks to the rise of precarious work in all its forms, a growing share of Australian workers (about one-third, according to our research) have no access to something we once took for granted: a paid annual holiday.
November 2015
Workin’ 9 to 5.30
This paper explores the cost of unpaid overtime, the extent to which Australian workers fail to take a break and the cost of work bleeding into everyday life.
November 2014
Walking the tightrope: Have Australians achieved work/life balance?
Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard described work/life balance as a “BBQ-stopper” in 2001. Since then, the term “work/life balance” has been part of the Australian lexicon, but just how well are Australians achieving it? National Go Home on Time Day was launched by The Australia Institute in 2009 as a light-hearted way to
November 2013
Hard to get a break?
Problems getting enough work, breaking back into the workforce or getting a break from overwork are taking their toll on millions of Australian workers, making us sick and leading to less productive and enjoyable workplaces. Whether employees are overworked, underworked or out of work, millions are feeling stressed and their mental health and general health
June 2013
November 2012
An unhealthy obsession: The impact of work hours and workplace culture on Australia’s health
Australians work some of the longest hours in the developed world – substantially longer than their counterparts in Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway. For many Australians though, work stress is related not to the number of hours worked, but a mismatch between the workers’ desired and actual hours of work, and the inflexibility of these arrangements. This is true for workers across the earning spectrum.
December 2011
November 2011
Polluted time: Blurring the boundaries between work and life
In recent decades technology has revolutionised the way companies do business and workers do their jobs. From the very top of organisations to the most menial and low-paid roles, the great majority of employees now use information and communication technology to some extent for work. Some spend their entire working lives in front of a screen of some sort.
November 2010
Long time, no see: The impact of time poverty on Australian workers
Time, as they say, is money. In fact, one of the most important aspects of our lives – what we do for a living – involves exchanging our time, in the form of labour, for money. Yet, millions of Australians ‘donate’ unpaid overtime to their employers on a regular basis. Like money, time is vital