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One in five workers are struggling to pay off their
debts.
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In the last year the number of workers struggling to cope on their household income has increased by four per cent according to the latest research from the University of Sydney.

The research, conducted by the University's Workplace Research Centre, also found the majority of workers (85 per cent) have debts to pay, and one in five of all workers struggle to make their debt repayments on time.

The findings are from The Australia at Work study, which is tracking 8,000 workers over five years and is the largest and most up-to-date study of Australian working life. The second annual report, which includes data from 2007 and first half of 2008, also found workers continue to report work overload and long full-time hours.

The report found different workers face different pressures in the labour market. One in three workers hold a job that does not give them the full protection of Australian labour law. And even the conditions of 'standard' employment are deteriorating. "It is not a simple case of casual employment is 'bad' and permanent employment is 'good'. Casual employees face job insecurity but many permanent employees work very long hours", explained lead researcher Dr Brigid van Wanrooy. "All workers face trade-offs between control over working hours, security of employment and quality of work."

Of concern was employees' poor understanding of how their pay and conditions are set. "While the ABS reports 40 per cent of employees have their pay set by enterprise agreements, only 23 per cent of employees perceive this to be the case," reported Dr van Wanrooy.

While Work Choices remains in place for now, it will be superseded by the Rudd Government's Forward with Fairness legislation. "The precise details are unclear but we do know that enterprise bargaining is the centerpiece of the Government's new laws," said Dr van Wanrooy.

Notably the study found much greater numbers report a reliance on awards for their pay and conditions. Yet "awards are unlikely to exist as we currently know them under Labor's proposal," said Dr van Wanrooy. "They will no longer be settled through arbitration and will only be updated every four years."

Further, workers earning higher incomes will be excluded from the award system. "This is problematic as awards determine more than just pay - they are especially important for regulating hours. We found that high earners are susceptible to long and unpaid hours; more so for those not covered by awards."

While the number of Australian union members has been declining steeply, this is not a reflection of negative attitudes toward unions, researchers found. "Australian attitudes are comparable to countries with very high union density such as Sweden. Indeed, there are almost 1 million Australian employees who would like to join a union," Dr van Wanrooy said.