-JL2 F76/ 209
J3ASI'dizti. A.
I P N D L Jj.)) AUTRALI
FOR P". ESS OCTOBER 3, 1976
ELECTORAL TALK
Australian companies are making a valuable contribution
to our national recovery with each new investment decision
regardless of size.
But companies can do more not just for themselves, but
for the benefit of all Australians.
Company management can spend more time and effort in taking
employees into their confidence.
Management can spend more time recognising that they
have common interests with ' those down on the shop floor'.
Today an increasing number of businesses are making a special
effort to inform employees about the company's performance
and prospects. An increasing number are starting to issue
special reports to employees and involving them in discussions.
Some companies are telling their workforce how inflation affects
their particular business; what has, happened to the cumpany's trade
over the last few years; the prospects for new investment
and the prospects of the company providing more jobs.
These companies understand that their workers are not just
another ingot of steel or another element of inanimate
object in the production process.
Unfortunately, however, there are too many Australian companies
who do not pay enough attention to this critical area.
If these companies follow the example of the best, then.
there would be less time lost through strikes and a reduction
in the number of disputes.
Surely t". c managers who simply see their workforce as a cost in the
business of maKin-a product must understand they are retarding
national recovery.
This kind of inward looking and inward thinking out-dated
industrial relations attitude must have a far reaching affect
the industrial scene in Australia. / 2
This attitude not onl~ y affects their owD co,.; pany's
performance but rubs off onto neighbouring companies
and others in the same industry.
When a company opens a new plant, or unveils a new development
why does it sometimes happen only in front of a bevy
of ma-Jnagement people, customers, suppliers, industry heads
and politicians?
Employees should always be invited. Their wives and children
should be part of the ceremony too.
For without these employees and their families -there would
be no new plant, no new technological development -and no
industry to run.
Australian companies have a special obligation to help make
people understand that there are interests held in common.
They are in a unique position to demonstrate that there
doesn't have to be competition for influence and power.
I look for evidence that more companies understand th-.. t employees
and management do have interests in common.
Companies are also in the best position to persuade people of
the virtues of the free enterprise system.
In a free enterprise system the employee has a choice of
employers, a choice of industry, a choice of products.
Collectively, he exercises a great deal of control over the
market place. He controls what products sell, and what
remain on the shelf. He therefore affects profits.
Pre-emi~ nently, private enterprise gives employees a standard
of living not matched by any other system.
But how mnany Australian companies really try and persuade
their employees who may not believe in the free enterpri-,>-,
system that it does offer the best life for Australians
and -not just for employers, for management or for company directors.
There is a job -which mana 4gement can undertake in a quiet
and logical sense that could help transform society and help
make. Australia a better place for all of us.
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