Wage stagnation linked to decline in industrial action

February 3, 2018
Issue 

A new report by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work says there is a "close statistical relationship" between a dramatic reduction in industrial activity and stagnation in wages.

Its research shows there has been a 97% decline in industrial action from the 1970s to the present, which has weakened the bargaining power of workers.

Report author Jim Stanford said: "It isn't a coincidence that we are seeing record low rates of industrial action and record low wage growth.

"If workers do not have the capacity to impose a cost of disagreement on employers in the form of some kind of collective action … then employers don't take bargaining as seriously."

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