Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - Australia (Ratification: 1969)

1. The Committee has taken note of the Government's detailed report for the period ending June 1990, which contains replies to its previous observation. It notes that the rapid growth of employment continued during the period under consideration; total employment increased by 3.8 per cent in 1989-90, particularly to the advantage of women. Despite the increase in already high participation rates, the unemployment rate was reduced from 7.3 per cent in June 1988 to 6.4 per cent in June 1990. However, the Government mentions in its report a slow-down in economic growth at the beginning of 1990. This trend, inimical to employment, has grown more marked since the end of the period covered by the report, and the recession that began in mid-1990 has led to a swift increase in the unemployment rate, which according to OECD was close to 10 per cent by mid-1991.

2. The Committee notes the full information supplied by the Government concerning the objectives of its economic policy in relation to employment. The thrust of budgetary and monetary policy has been to reduce inflation and public indebtedness in the medium term; fiscal policy is designed to create a favourable environment for investment and employment, whereas price and incomes policy continues to aim, pursuant to the agreement between the federal Government and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), at wage moderation, labour flexibility and improved productivity. The Committee further notes with interest the far-reaching current reform of wage-fixing methods: applying the "Structural Efficiency Principle", the Australian Industrial Relations Commission has undertaken an overhaul of the system of industrial awards designed to eliminate impediments to the mobility and qualification of workers so as to afford them access to more varied, more fulfilling and better-paid jobs. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply in its next report any available assessment of the effect which the changes in the wage fixation system have had on the employment market.

3. As part of its labour market policy, the Government has endeavoured to strengthen the vocational training provided by undertakings and by education and training institutions. The Government's expenditure on training has been increased and the Training Guarantee Act 1990 now places undertakings under an obligation to allocate a certain level of expenditure to financing approved training activities. The Committee notes further the information given concerning training programmes to encourage integration or reintegration in the labour market, supplied by the Government in its report on the application of the Human Resources Development Convention, 1975 (No. 142). The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to supply information on the development of these programmes and their effects on the employment of the categories of persons concerned.

4. The Committee has taken note of the information concerning objectives designed to promote reform of the labour market and structural adjustment in industry through action on the practices of labour and management, the organisation of work, and industrial relations. It has also taken note of the initiative which was announced in the Government's economic policy statement of February 1990 and which is designed to restructure measures of aid to the unemployed and to institute reform of employment programmes. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on the follow-up of the these reform programmes. More generally it hopes, having regard to the recent developments in the employment market situation referred to above, that the Government will state in its next report whether it has proceeded under Article 2 of the Convention to re-examine, within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy, the measures to be adopted in order to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment, as a major goal in accordance with Article 1.