The condition of the union has become worse

Running Head: EMPLOYEMENT REALTIONS
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TRADE UNION-
AUSTRALIA
ESSAY
Student
8/24/2019

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In the commerce industry of Australia, unions hold a great significance as this body has not only
upgraded the standards of workers but also supported them to stand for their rights. Standard
working hours for workers, fair pay for women and better health and safety rule and regulations,
are some of the initiatives take by the Union for the laborers, Through the powerful campaigns,
Unions have protected the rights of the workers and created its place in this industry. However,
despite such achievements, there is a tremendous downfall in the trade union membership of
Australia. Today the condition of the union has become worse. There are several reasons for its
declining. However, before conducting brief research regarding its cause, it is very important to
understand “trade union and their declining status in Australia.
A trade union, which is also recognized as labor unions, is the cooperative body that is
established by the workers of the same domain to supports, take action and work in the interest
of the people who suffer any kind of discrimination in the organization (Economics Times ,
2019). It means with unity members solve the issues related to the equal pay, flexible and
positive working conditions, standard working hours and incentives. Unions act as representative
to all the workers and bridges a gap between managers and workers. Unions have been formed
with objectives to look after the issues of labors, which are being faced by them at the
organizational level. The core element of this union is that it is the collective voices of all the
employees, which are put forward against the management. They are considered a powerful
intermediate, which conducts the smooth functioning of communication between both parties.
The key areas where the union majorly focuses are the collective negotiations, settlement related
to safety, improvements in the labor laws. In the association, the staff members generally consist
of factory workers or employees who are selected by the existing members. The purpose of trade
unions is to maintain and improve the business environment. Unions, understand the grievance,

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look after the common issues through the complaint procedures, and create awareness regarding
any kind of discrimination and exploitation faced by the employees in the management (Peetz,
2015).
In Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and governing council of trade
union movement are protecting the rights of employees since 1927. The Unions have played a
vital role as it is constructed to ban child labor, upgrade the safety measures, improve the wage
system of the companies and promote the interest of Australian employees, thus raising the
living standard of the community (The Sydney Morning Herald , 2014). Until 1981, more than
2.5 million employees from all over Australia had joined trade union membership. Despite such
growth of unionism in Australia, the impact and importance of the Australian trade union
movement is decreasing in masses. Josh Bornstein who is an employment attorney stated that, as
compared to developed countries like the UK, China the association in Australia had a
tremendous downfall. He further said that the labor union has been undergoing a tragic
breakdown in its membership. It has also been stated that if unions were once called as problem-
solver, then their collision has resulted in numerous problems. In the declination of trade union
membership, the solution has been provided through Pluralism theory where the emphasized has
been put ion the interest of the employees (Pandey, 2018).
Its major decline has been observed in 1990 when ACTU conducted a drive to promote
education and training systems in the commerce industry. Further in 1996, realizing the
conditions of employees, Howard Government reformed the Workplace Relations Act, which
limited union capability to shape and attract the interest of members. Due to such issues, the
foundation of the union was shaken (Tapia et al., 2015). From 1998, the experts have observed a

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significant decline in the union population. In 1998, the percentage of trade union was 38.357,
which declined 27.767 in 2015 (OCED, 2015).
It can be observed that from the last 40 years members have been declined to 1.6 million.
During the same period, the share of union density has by 37%. Such collapse is due to young
and new employees who are now less likely to join the union as compared to the permanent
employee, there is a major shift of members into the education industry (The Sydney Morning
Herald , 2014). Such catastrophe can been seen in all sectors of industry. In primary sector,
where the labour association was only 1.9% (2016) in the total share of union density. Moreover,
downfall has challenged the relationship between both parties has created a There are several
other reasons, which will be discussed in the report (OCED, 2019).
Reasons:
Casual Employment
The rise in part-time and casual employment across many parts of the commerce industry and the
decrease in permanent jobs in total share of employment are one of the reasons for the decline in
unionization in Australia. The causes of such decline is a great casualization of labors. Moreover,
Youngsters are least interested to be a part of the union than the older employees. In the total
share of employment in the union membership, only 6 %share is of 15-24 years of laborer’s
whereas, 13% of the share is possessed by workers from 25-44 years of age and 19% of the
employees are from 45 to 64 of age. With the growth of part-time employment, union
membership is declining. According to the ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) about 57% of