Senator Murray asked the Minister representing the Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business, upon notice, on 10 November 1998:

(1) With reference to unfair dismissal claims under federal law, the annual report for 1996-97 of the Industrial Relations Court of Australia highlighted major outcomes in the federal jurisdiction as follows: (a) 74 per cent of unfair dismissal claims cases were settled by agreement; (b) 75 per cent of cases were finalised within 6 months and 99 per cent within 12 months; (c) 62 per cent of trials were completed in one day and 84 per cent within 2 days; (d) 58 per cent of contested cases were decided in favour of the employee, with 42 per cent in favour of the employer; (e) reinstatement of the employee was ordered in 7.5 per cent of contested cases; and (f) the median amount of compensation awarded was approximately $6 000:

Can comparable information on unfair dismissal claims for the 1997-98 financial year be provided for the following jurisdictions: (a) Federal; (b) New South Wales; (c) Queensland; (d) South Australia; (e) Tasmania; and (f) Western Australia.

(2) With reference to the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia's guess that 50 000 jobs would be created by exempting small business employers employing 15 or fewer employees from federal unfair dismissal laws: (a) how many of the estimated 50 000 jobs will be created in each state and territory; and (b) can the methodology and empirical data used to arrive at the jobs estimate creation in each jurisdiction be provided.

(3) With reference to the answer to paragraph (1) of question on notice no. 1005 (Senate Hansard, 4 March 1998, p.421), for each of the jurisdictions outlined in the table provided, can numbers be given, accompanied by evidence and methodology for: (a) jobs created or lost as a result of increases or decreases in unfair dismissal applications; and (b) separate answers for federal, state and territory jurisdictions based on comparative 1996-97 data.

Senator Alston (Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) —The Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) Answers for each of the five State unfair dismissal regimes are unavailable.

The 1997-8 Annual Report of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission contains some statistics in relation to resolution of unfair dismissal claims. However, the Australian Industrial Registry does not collect data on all of the subjects on which the Industrial Relations Court of Australia previously collected data. Therefore, statistics in relation to federal unfair dismissal claims can only be provided for parts (a), (d) and (e).

(a) There were 8,092 termination of employment applications lodged under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 in 1997-98. Of those applications, 6,303 (78 per cent) were settled by agreement (ie had been withdrawn, settled or otherwise discontinued prior to conciliation or settled at conciliation or withdrawn, discontinued or otherwise settled after conciliation but prior to final orders).

(d) There were 774 contested federal cases decided in 1997-98, with 311 (40 per cent) decided in favour of the employer and 463 (60 per cent) in favour of the employee. (It may be noted that 282 of the decisions in favour of the employee involved applications against Gordonstone Coal Management based on the same fact situation; if these 282 applications are treated as one class action, then 63 per cent of contested cases would have been decided in favour of the employer and 37 per cent in favour of the employee.)

(e) Reinstatement was awarded in only 17 (2 per cent) of the 774 contested federal cases.

(2) The Chief Executive of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, Mr Rob Bastian, based his estimate that 50 000 jobs would be created if small businesses were exempt from federal unfair dismissal laws on the, in his view conservative, premise that 1 in 20 small businesses would hire at least one more employee if the exclusion was to come into force.

Applying this formula to the percentage of small businesses in each State or Territory (according to data published in Small Business in Australia 1997, ABS Cat No. 1321.0), approximately 16 500 jobs would be created in NSW, 12 500 in VIC, 9 500 in QLD, 4 000 in SA, 5 500 in WA, 1 000 in TAS and 500 each in the ACT and NT.

(3) Figures for the number of jobs created in each State and Territory in 1996 and 1997 (trend series annual averages) are as follows. (Source: ABS Labour Force Survey.)

There are a number of factors that contribute to the differences in labour market performance across the States and Territories. For example, the States and Territories generally rely on different industries for economic and employment growth. As such, any changes in policy or economic conditions which affect sectors in a non-uniform manner can be expected to have different impacts on employment. Similarly, characteristics such as population size and growth, natural attributes and climatic conditions also contribute to the differences in employment growth.

The reduction in the number of unfair dismissal applications indicates that progress has been made under the current legislation in discouraging inappropriate applications. This in itself would not be expected to create additional jobs in the small business sector. The Government considers that further change is required to recognise the particular circumstances of small businesses as well as to provide greater certainty for employers about the length of an employee's employment before that person can initiate an unfair dismissal application (no change is proposed in respect of unlawful dismissal applications). It is necessary to provide security for employers that they will not be subject to inappropriate applications. This is provided for in the Workplace Relations Amendment (Unfair Dismissals) Bill 1998, presently before the Parliament.