The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released data on industrial disputes across Australia, which revealed that only 9,700 working days were lost due to industrial disputes in the March quarter of 2014 – the lowest quarterly reading since June quarter 2007.
The below chart, which comes from Matt Cowgill via Twitter, plots the number of work days lost since 1989:
As you can see, days lost from industrial action has fallen significantly over the past decade, despite the implementation of the Fair Work Act by the former Labor Government in 2009.
In addition, labour productivity has also risen significantly recently, as illustrated by the next chart from yesterday’s national accounts:
Coincidentally, data released yesterday by the ABS also revealed that trade union membership has fallen to record lows, with just 17% of all employees (1.7 million) being trade union members in relation to their main job, down from roughly 23% a decade earlier:
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