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Industrial Disputes, Australia

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The number of disputes (strikes or lockouts), employees involved and working days lost; cause of dispute; duration; and the reason work resumed

Reference period

June 2020

Released

3/09/2020

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Key statistics

In the June quarter 2020:

11 disputes occurred.
1,100 employees were involved and 1,500 working days lost.
disputes occurred in 4 industries and in 3 states.

Across 2019-20, there were 102 disputes with 35,600 working days lost.

Main features

Quarterly estimates

11 disputes occurred, 12 fewer than from the previous quarter.
1,100 employees were involved, a decrease from 4,000 in the previous quarter.
1,500 working days were lost, a decrease from 3,900 in the previous quarter.
More than five in ten (53%) working days lost were in the Transport, postal and warehousing industry.
More than seven in ten (71%) working days lost were in Victoria.

Year ended estimates

102 disputes occurred, 68 less than in the previous year.
35,600 working days were lost, 68% less than the previous year.

		Quarter		Year ended
		March 2020	June 2020	June 2019	June 2020
Number of disputes
	Commenced in period (no.)	r17	8	163	94
	Total (no.)	r23	11	170	102
Employees involved
	Newly involved ('000)	r2.9	0.9	65.8	28.8
	Total ('000)	r4.0	1.1	66.0	29.6
Working days lost ('000)		3.9	1.5	112.5	35.6

r revised

Working days lost, Australia
	Working days lost ('000)
Jun-15	14.8
Sep-15	29.1
Dec-15	19.1
Mar-16	27.9
Jun-16	24.5
Sep-16	34.9
Dec-16	37.2
Mar-17	25.6
Jun-17	40.2
Sep-17	45.9
Dec-17	36.7
Mar-18	14.9
Jun-18	12.5
Sep-18	47.4
Dec-18	30.9
Mar-19	16.6
Jun-19	17.6
Sep-19	17.8
Dec-19	12.4
Mar-20	3.9
Jun-20	1.5

Working days lost, Australia

["","Working days lost ('000)"]

[["Jun-15","Sep-15","Dec-15","Mar-16","Jun-16","Sep-16","Dec-16","Mar-17","Jun-17","Sep-17","Dec-17","Mar-18","Jun-18","Sep-18","Dec-18","Mar-19","Jun-19","Sep-19","Dec-19","Mar-20","Jun-20"],[[14.800000000000001],[29.100000000000001],[19.100000000000001],[27.899999999999999],[24.5],[34.899999999999999],[37.200000000000003],[25.600000000000001],[40.200000000000003],[45.899999999999999],[36.700000000000003],[14.9],[12.5],[47.399999999999999],[30.899999999999999],[16.600000000000001],[17.600000000000001],[17.800000000000001],[12.4],[3.8999999999999999],[1.5]]]

[]

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Tables

1 Industrial disputes which occurred during the quarter

	Number of disputes		Employees involved
	Commenced in period	Total	Newly involved	Total	Working days lost
	no.	no.	'000	'000	'000
June Quarter 2018	42	48	14.4	14.6	12.5
September Quarter 2018	44	51	13.6	13.8	47.4
December Quarter 2018	53	62	25.6	28.8	30.9
March Quarter 2019	32	44	7.8	9.3	16.6
June Quarter 2019	34	44	18.8	20.2	17.6
September Quarter 2019	35	43	16.8	17.5	17.8
December Quarter 2019	34	38	8.3	8.8	12.4
March Quarter 2020	r17	r23	r2.9	r4.0	3.9
June Quarter 2020	8	11	0.9	1.1	1.5

r revised

2 Industrial disputes which occurred during the quarter, industry

		March Quarter 2020		June Quarter 2020
		Working days lost	Working days lost per thousand employees	Working days lost	Working days lost per thousand employees
		'000	no.	'000	no.
Mining
	Coal mining	-	-	-	-
	Other mining	-	-	-	-
Manufacturing
	Metal product etc(a)	0.1	0.3	-	-
	Other manufacturing	0.9	1.7	0.6	1.2
Construction		0.2	0.2	np	np
Transport, postal and warehousing		2.5	4.3	0.8	1.6
Education and training; Health care and social assistance		0.1	-	np	np
Other industries(a)		0.1	-	-	-
All industries		3.9	0.3	1.5	0.1

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated
a. See Glossary - Industry - for details of industries included.

3 Industrial disputes which occurred during the quarter, states and territories

	March Quarter 2020		June Quarter 2020
	Working days lost	Working days lost per thousand employees	Working days lost	Working days lost per thousand employees
	'000	no.	'000	no.
New South Wales	1.0	0.3	np	np
Victoria	2.0	0.6	1.0	0.4
Queensland	np	np	np	np
South Australia	-	-	-	-
Western Australia	np	np	-	-
Tasmania	-	-	-	-
Northern Territory	-	-	-	-
Australian Capital Territory	-	-	-	-
Australia	3.9	0.3	1.5	0.1

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

4 Industrial disputes which ended during the quarter

		December Quarter 2019			March Quarter 2020
		Total Number of Disputes	Total Employees Involved	Working days Lost	Total Number of Disputes	Total Employees Involved	Working days Lost
		no.	'000	'000	no.	'000	'000
			CAUSE OF DISPUTE
Enterprise Bargaining (EB) related
	Remuneration	8	1.2	4.2	4	0.2	0.3
	Employment conditions (EB)	15	5.3	9.5	12	3.4	3.6
	Other EB related	2	np	np	-	-	-
Non-EB related
	Remuneration	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Employment conditions	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Health and safety	4	0.5	0.4	3	0.2	0.1
	Job security	1	np	np	-	-	-
	Managerial policy	-	-	-	1	0.1	0.1
	Union issues	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Other Non EB related	3	0.9	0.5	-	-	-
Total		33	8.0	14.6	20	3.8	4.1
			WORKING DAYS LOST PER EMPLOYEE INVOLVED
Up to and including 1 day		22	6.8	2.5	13	3.3	2.7
Over 1 day and up to including 2 days		1	np	np	4	0.4	0.6
Over 2 and less than 5 days		3	0.4	1.0	1	np	np
5 and less than 10 days		2	np	np	1	np	np
10 days and over		5	0.6	10.4	1	np	np
Total		33	8.0	14.6	20	3.8	4.1
			REASON WORK RESUMED
Negotiation without intervention of a third party		-	-	-	2	np	np
State legislation		2	0.1	0.1	-	-	-
Federal legislation		1	-	0.2	-	-	-
Pre-determined return to work		27	7.5	13.9	16	3.7	3.5
Resumption without negotiation		2	0.4	0.4	-	-	-
Mediation		1	0.1	-	1	np	np
Other reasons		-	-	-	1	np	np
Total		33	8.0	14.6	20	3.8	4.1

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
np not available for publication but included in totals where applicable, unless otherwise indicated

Revisions

Revisions have been made to the March quarter 2020 data. The data items affected were number of disputes and employees involved at total Australia level. These revisions are reflected in Table 1 and the associated time series spreadsheet.

Inquiries

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

Data downloads

Table 1: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period

Data files

Download xls [88.5 KB]

Table 2a: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost, industry

Data files

Download xls [102 KB]

Table 2b: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost per thousand employees, industry

Data files

Download xls [99.5 KB]

Table 3a: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost, states and territories

Data files

Download xls [149 KB]

Table 3b: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost per thousand employees, states and territories

Data files

Download xls [138.5 KB]

Table 4a: Industrial disputes which ended during the period, cause of dispute

Data files

Download xls [327.5 KB]

Table 4b: Industrial disputes which ended during the period, working days lost per employee involved

Data files

Download xls [146.5 KB]

Table 4c: Industrial disputes which ended during the period, reason work resumed

Data files

Download xls [252 KB]

All data cubes

Data files

Download zip [403.52 KB]

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 6321.0.55.001.

Methodology

Industrial Disputes, Australia methodology, June 2020

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APA

Citation

Industrial Disputes, Australia

APA

Citation

Key statistics

Main features

Quarterly estimates

Year ended estimates

Tables

1 Industrial disputes which occurred during the quarter

2 Industrial disputes which occurred during the quarter, industry

3 Industrial disputes which occurred during the quarter, states and territories

4 Industrial disputes which ended during the quarter

Revisions

Inquiries

Data downloads

Table 1: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period

Table 2a: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost, industry

Table 2b: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost per thousand employees, industry

Table 3a: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost, states and territories

Table 3b: Industrial disputes which occurred during the period, working days lost per thousand employees, states and territories

Table 4a: Industrial disputes which ended during the period, cause of dispute

Table 4b: Industrial disputes which ended during the period, working days lost per employee involved

Table 4c: Industrial disputes which ended during the period, reason work resumed

All data cubes

Previous catalogue number

Methodology

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