Although the penal laws were not repealed, they were never used again and so
unions effectively now had the whip hand over employers and the Commission.
To summarize the system of compulsory arbitration:
In the classic system, arbitration always began with a‘dispute’between
firms and unions. This did not need to be an actual strike.
Either party could unilaterally invoke arbitration on the basis of a dispute.
Thus arbitration was‘compulsory’rather than by mutual agreement.
Only‘registered’unions could appear before the Court.
Registration was not a right, but a privilege granted by the Court, and a
privilege that could be refused if there already existed another union to
which workers could‘conveniently belong’.
Employers also had corresponding ‘registered’employer associations
which had the privilege of appearing before the Court.
The Arbitration Court (or Industrial Court) would make an award over
wages, conditions, and eligibility for employment.
Courts (often) had the power to require‘preference’for the employment
of unionists over non-unionists.
The award had the legal status of legislation binding employers. It was in
no way‘a contract’between employer and employee; it was not even a
contract of a compulsory kind.
The award was subject to no appeal beyond the Full Bench of the Arbitra-
tion Court (or Commission).
The composition of the Court (Commission) was decided wholly by
government. Employers and unions had no formal role, or rights, in the
making of appointments.
The Courts generally were not enforcers of the awards. They were not
‘policemen’of the system. Menzies founded the Industrial Court in 1956,
but it proved fairly feeble.It should be noted that the conditions and rates of pay of some‘awards’
were, in fact, reached, not through arbitration process, but through bargaining
between unions and employers. The role of industrial tribunals was simply to
ratify these bargains. Such awards became known as‘sweetheart’or‘consent’
awards. With these exceptions, wage determination was highly centralized.
When a tribunal made a decision it affected allfirms and workers in the
occupation or industry covered by that award. In the early 1980s, compulsory
arbitration was the dominant form of wage determination. Among other
things, awards generally contain clauses covering not only ordinary pay
rates and‘penalty’rates, but also:
Phil Lewis