PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA FRIDAY, 24 JULY 1981
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER AND THE PRESIDENT
OF THE ACTU, MR DOLAN
The Government, represented by the Prime Minister, the
Deputy Prime Minister and the Acting minister for Industrial
Relations, Mr Fife,. met today in the presence of the
President of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission,
Sir John Moore, with representatives of the Australian
Council of Trade Unions*-Mr C. Dolan, President;
Mr C. FitzGibbon, Senior Vice-President; Mr P. Nolan,
Secretary; Mr W. Kelty, Assistant Secretary; Mrs J. Marsh,
Advocate. The meeting was called at th e suggestion of the President
of the ACTU in the face of growing industrial disruption
from disputes some of which are associated with transport
workers, Telecom clerical officers and employees of the
Port of Melbourne Authority.
There was a-useful and wide-ranging discussion about the
serious state of industrial unrest in Australia and about
its causes.
Both parties agreed that the matter is very serious and
that there are obligations for everyone to do all they could
to lessen the industrial disruption now present in
Australia and to work for industrial stability.
As a result, the parties have agreed to take certain action
and to accept certain moral responsibilities.
The ACTU, for its part, will recommend an immediate
resumption of normal work and will use all its influence
to achieve this without bans or limitations in each of
these disputes. / 2 L/
0 The Government, for its part, will not pursue action under
section 143A for a declaration from the Conciliation and
Arbitration Commission concerning the Transport Workers'
Union. It will revoke suspensions of its own employees
taken under the Commonwealth Employees ( Employment Provisions)
Act. The Government agreed on the Telecom clerical officers
dispute that it would be appropriate for early discussions
to be held between the Ministers for Industrial Relations
and: Communications and the ACTU, together with the
ACOA and APSA. It is expected this meeting will take
place on Sunday.
Both parties agreed that a contributing factor in the
industrial situation was the way in which the current wage
fixation principles were seen by unions to inhibit proper
consideration of the merits of their claims.
Both the Government and the ACTU officers agreed that the
principles should not operate to prevent a resolution or
prevention of industrial disputation by inhibiting the
examination of claims on'their merits.
Specifically, they accepted that in recent times the
anomalies and inequities provisions of the principles have
not provided the safety valve that was originally intended
and therefore they hoped that deficiency would be rectified
through the procedures the President of the Commission
had unfolded in his statement this morning. The Government
and the ACTU agreed to work co-operatively in efforts to
overcome that deficiency.
If the ACTU is unsuccessful in achieving an early return to
work, the Government will of course have to review its position.
Ir
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