Statement by Mr Peter Anderson, Chief Executive
Attempts today by the ACTU to use a survey of unionists to portray the workforce as dissatisfied, insecure and exploited are inaccurate, an unfair reflection on most managers and staff, and largely not supported by the ACTU’s own survey let alone more reliable independent analysis.
The reality is that small business sentiment about trading conditions and their desire to keep staff in work is much more of a concern than the relatively high levels of job satisfaction reported by independent research (76%) and even the ACTU survey (70.3%).
Interesting as it is, the ACTU Survey has inbuilt limitations. It is a survey of trade unionists. Only 14% of employees in the private sector have joined unions.
The ACTU survey is an on-line survey, unlike the statistically more robust independent surveys such as the nationally regarded Families, Incomes and Jobs Survey recently released by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (HILDA Survey).
The latest HILDA Survey (Volume 6) found that:
- Overall most people were quite satisfied with their jobs (76%), and average levels of job satisfaction
- changed very little over the past decade (pp78,83);
- The aspect of the job with which people are most satisfied is job security (80%) (p83);
- Satisfaction with hours is high (72%) and slightly increased over the decade (from 70%);
- The global financial crisis only slightly reduced employee perceptions (p81);
- There was “very healthy” median real wage growth of 20.2% between 2001 and 2008 (p60); and
- The majority of people are content with their working hours (60%); some of those not content want more hours, others want fewer hours (p69).
Interestingly, this HILDA data covers the period of the WorkChoices laws (2005-2008), suggesting that union claims of workplace unfairness during this period played more on perception rather than reality.
In contrast to relatively high job satisfaction, ACCI’s Small Business Survey released in August showed that small business conditions fell across the June quarter to below their five year average, and to the lowest level since the depths of the 2008/09 global financial crisis.
ACCI profiled the IR debate and the HILDA Survey in a Speech to the Workforce Conference this week, available at
www.acci.asn.au.