Strikes
Strikes are a collective refusal to work,, usually with the purpose of putting pressure on the employer to agree to a claim for changes in wages, conditions or dangerous work practices, or as a protest against something the employer has done, such as dismissing someone in a way that is seen to be unjust.
Bans and Limitations
Bans and limitations may be imposed for similar reasons as strike action but the industrial point is made without stopping work altogether. There may be bans on overtime, or limits placed on the amount of overtime workers will do, thus disrupting employer scheduling.
Pickets
Picketing involves the physical presence of employees around a workplace with the object of publicising demands, persuading non-striking workers to join in, and possibly to prevent others entering the workplace, although picketers do not have the legal right to physically prevent people entering a workplace. Verbal persuasion is usually used to achieve this.
Secondary Boycotts
These involve a situation where, for example, members of a transport union, who are not directly involved in a dispute involving a mining union, refuse to deliver or take delivery of products from the firm who are in conflict with the mining union. This type of action makes the union liable to prosecution under the Trade Practices Act and is thus used with extreme caution by unions.
Stop-Work Meetings
Attendance at meetings to discuss a dispute may result in unauthorised absence from duty and workers may suffer a loss of pay for the time away.
Lockouts
Employers also take industrial action and in a lockout the employees are prevented from entering their place of employment to perform their work.
(based on Donna McKenna. Your Rights at Work: the Labor Council's Easy Guide. Pluto Press in association with the Lloyd Ross Forum, 1993)
|
