The push to 'super unions' (continued)

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission set up a review of the registration of 'small organisations' ie. those with less than 1,000 members, and subsequently 10,000 members, under the two stage process. 'Small organisations' which did not meet the size criteria (usually attained through amalgamation/s) by the relevant date were required to show 'special circumstances' to justify their continued registration under the Act.

The 1988 Industrial Relations Act also saw the minimum number of employees required by registered employer associations raised from 100 (under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act) to 1,000. This number remained static until amendments to the Act saw the size criteria for both unions and employer associations returned to 100 in 1994. The return to 100 member or employees size criteria stemmed from a successful complaint by the then Confederation of Australian Industry (CAI) to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

In November of 1990 the CAI made a complaint against the Government of Australia to the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association. The complaint was made on the grounds that the then proposed amendment contained in the Industrial Relations Legislation Amendment Bill of 1990 (later passed in Parliament with little change)

unreasonably restricted the registration of new employees' organisations of their own choosing in individual enterprises and small industries and restricted the freedom of employees to choose which union they wished to belong to.[78]

Following proceedings at which the CAI and the Australian Government both gave argument for their respective cases, the ILO Freedom of Association Committee concluded that introduction of the 10,000 membership requirement for registration could

unduly influence the workers' free choice of union to which they wish to belong, even when federal registration is only one of the alternatives available for protecting their rights.[79]

The Committee recommended that the Australian Government, which had ratified both the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98),

should take measures so that it is not a requirement that a union have 10,000 members or demonstrate special circumstances to claim access to the benefits deriving from registration under the federal system.[80]

The Australian Government's eventual response to this request saw the 1993 Industrial Relations Reform Act amending the Industrial Relations Act to return both union and employer association size criteria for registration to the 100 (the number it stood at for the duration of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act). These amendments took effect from 30 March 1994, one month after the 'stage two' 10,000 membership deadline passed. By this time most of the amalgamations of unions which had been arranged had either taken place or were on track.

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