ACTU – Employee representation on boards would help end Government and corporate greed

30 August 2017

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is supportive of workers having more power at work and believes the concept of co-determination, where workers have a place on company boards, would be a positive move for the corporate governance of Australian companies.

Corporate power now looms so large in Australia that the foundation our rights at work were built on is disappearing, an important new essay from Australian academic Dr Nick Dyrenfurth says.

Dr Dyrenfurth’s essay, Make Australia Fair Again: the Case for Employee Representation on Company Boards, says working people could retain better pay and conditions if they were given a seat at the corporate table.

Quotes attributable to ACTU President Ged Kearney:

• “The concept of co-determination is a successful model in Germany and the ACTU supports Dr Dyrenfurth’s argument that affording working people more power in their own workplaces will have universal benefits for the economy and their lives.”
• “As Australian workers languish amidst record low wage growth, mass casualisation, rising inequality and a work structure that gives all power to the bosses and little to the worker, it’s time for the rules to change.
• “Unless we listen to the big ideas from academics like Dr Dyrenfurth, the neoliberal era will continue to hurt working people. It’s time to change the rules.”