Free-Riding in Australia

Abstract

Free-riding has long been a contentious issue in Australian industrial relations. This article gauges the nature and location of free-riding in Australian workplaces, drawing on the 2004 Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey. Of the 39.2 percent of employees who could join a union in their workplace and who do not, 51.7 percent may be characterized as deliberately free-riding. A similar proportion of employees may be described as `passive beneficiaries', for whom the costs of membership are greater than the benefits, or for whom the net benefit is not perceived to be positive. Although free-riding is found to reduce as age and tenure increase, and to increase with higher income, supervisory responsibilities and full-time employment status, when free-riding is regressed against a range of personal and workplace characteristics only tenure and supervisory responsibilities retain significance. In general, instrumental motivations prevail over the ideological, personal, organizational and worker characteristics included in this analysis. The implications of these findings for union renewal in the current context are discussed.

Union membership among young graduate workers in Australia: using the experience good model to explain the role of student employment

“…This can be explained by the low variance in this variable, as most young graduates had only recently commenced their current jobs in the previous 24 months. Haynes et al . (2008: 22) found that after controlling for other variables, those workers with tenures between two and 10 years were no more or less likely than newer workers to be freeriders.…”

“…Because of the limitations of the data source, the analysis does not include some variables that have been found to increase the likelihood of an individual joining a union, namely perceived union instrumentality (Charlwood, 2002; Haynes et al ., 2008), perceived union performance (Bryson, 2006), perceived management attitudes to unions (Bryson, 2006), employee needs (Bryson, 2006) and ideology (Charlwood, 2002).…”

“…(2008) estimate that approximately four in 10 Australian workers are freeriders. In unionised workplaces, membership levels were much lower among workers aged up to 24 years (48.6 per cent) than workers aged 44 years and over (68.7 per cent) (Haynes et al ., 2008: 19). However, when compared with other English‐speaking ‘open shop’ regimes, the level of freeriding among young workers is not as high.…”

“…Of all age groups, workers under 35 are most likely to not be a member of a union when there is one represented at the workplace, a situation known as freeriding (Bryson, 2006: 8). Using data from the Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey (AWRPS), Haynes et al (2008) estimate that approximately four in 10 Australian workers are freeriders. In unionised workplaces, membership levels were much lower among workers aged up to 24 years (48.6 per cent) than workers aged 44 years and over (68.7 per cent) (Haynes et al, 2008: 19).…”

“…Of all age groups, workers under 35 are most likely to not be a member of a union when there is one represented at the workplace, a situation known as freeriding (Bryson, 2006: 8). Using data from the Australian Worker Representation and Participation Survey (AWRPS), Haynes et al . (2008) estimate that approximately four in 10 Australian workers are freeriders.…”