* Your Rights factsheets

Industrial Action

   About
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   Australia’s laws restrict this right. Employers can do as they please
   and workers can do little to stop them. Workers face heavy penalties
   for taking strike action. Even a 10 minute stop work meeting can result
   in tough punishments.
   The Issue
   The right to strike is an internationally recognised human right. The
   United Nations’ International Covenant on Economic (FWO), Social and
   Cultural Rights of 1966 requires Governments to ensure that workers
   have a right to strike.
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       revenue.

   Even if the employer doesn't want to take legal action, government
   agencies, such as the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) and the Australian
   Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) can.
   Our laws haven’t always been this way. For most of the 20th century
   there were no fines for workers who took strike action. Instead the
   laws protected workers from victimisation for taking industrial action.
   It was illegal to sack someone for going on strike.
   The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has found on numerous
   occasions that our protected action laws breached international
   obligations to protect the right to strike. The ILO has repeatedly
   emphasised that the ability to go on strike should not only apply
   during industrial disputes over collective agreements. The right to
   strike extends to enabling workers to express their dissatisfaction
   through industrial action with economic and social policy matters that
   affect their interests.
   In Australia today industrial action is hardly ever taken. There may be
   a right to strike in limited circumstances during bargaining, but in
   practice there is no right to strike, except for exceptional