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From the mid-1930s to mid-1970s, Australian workers enjoyed a boom in their paid leave entitlements. Thanks to a concerted push by unions, annual leave entitlements increased on four separate occasions, rising from zero at Federation to four weeks under the Whitlam government.
But since then: nothing.
A symptom, perhaps, of the declining bargaining power of workers relative to their bosses? âBloody oath, yes,â says economist Saul Eslake. âClearly, the thrust of industrial relations regulation has been to tip the balance explicitly in favour of employers after having, by the 1970s, gone too far in favour of employees.â