The Return of the Lockout in Australia: a Profile of Lockouts since the Decentralisation of Bargaining

Abstract

"Virtually unheard of outside the struggles of unions to establish themselves in the\n1880s-90s and the Great Depression1, lockouts have resurfaced in a series of disputes\nsince the decentralisation of bargaining during the 1990s. A quantitative profile of\nlockouts during the past decade of enterprise bargaining is presented as the first phase\nof a project which examines lockouts in Australia. Lockouts are still rare, but the\nnumber of working days lost in disputes with lockouts was almost six times greater for\nthe second half-decade of enterprise bargaining than the first half-decade. Moreover,\nlockouts accounted for over half of the long disputes (i.e. over a month). Lockouts are\nespecially common in manufacturing (though all major ANZSIC categories have had\nat least one lockout), where they constituted one quarter of all working days lost to\nindustrial disputes in the second half-decade of enterprise bargaining. Indeed, working\ndays lost to industrial disputes in manufacturing would have fallen but for the rising\nuse of lockouts. Other data are presented showing that lockouts are most common in\nVictoria, disproportionately common in regional areas and used primarily either to\nrepel union bargaining demands, coerce employees into signing AWAs or as a tool for\nconcession bargaining."