Recognition claims back to 2010 levels

The number of applications for statutory recognition rose from 28 to 43, thus returning to the level of two years ago, according to the latest annual report from the Central Arbitration Committee, the independent body that rules over such decisions.

There were some changes in the characteristics of the applications. Although the proportion of applications involving employers of fewer than 200 workers was 45% in 2011-12, almost identical to the 46% the year before, the average size of a bargaining unit was 261 workers, compared with 87.

It would be misleading to depict the latter figure as a genuine trend as the average of 261 workers was heavily influenced by one application in which the bargaining unit was over 5000 workers, one in which it was some 800 workers and three in which the unit was between 400 and 500 workers. About two-thirds of the applications involved a bargaining unit of 100 workers or fewer.

The manufacturing, transport and communication sectors have, in recent years, accounted for a majority of the applications and these sectors, taken together, represented 58% of the applications last year compared with 68% in 2010-11.

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