Morgan's 'garbage in; garbage out' IR survey

Link: catallaxy � Will satisfied workers switch to Labor?.

According to a survey conducted by Roy Morgan Research “a major proportion of the Australian workforce is confused about what type of workplace arrangement they’re under.” But the workers are not the only people who seem confused. Morgan’s classifications are: individual AWA (there is no other type), collective AWA (do they mean collective agreements negotiated without unions?), union-based award (collective agreements negotiated by the workplace union?) and non-union based award (centrally set wages?). This leaves out one of the most common forms of employment arrangement recorded in the easier-to-follow ABS classifications, that of unregistered individual arrangements, which covered 31% of workers in 2004. No wonder Morgan’s respondents weren’t sure which category to pick.

Obviously, no-one involved in designing the survey has a clue about workplace relations. I hope no-one paid them to do it.

According to Morgan's site:

Respondents who said they were either employed full-time or part-time were asked: "Are you employed under an…?”

Those who said they were employed under an AWA were then asked: “Is that an individual workplace agreement, where you negotiated your own terms and conditions, or a collective workplace agreement?”

This is a question structure that can only confuse the interviewee because AWAs are individual agreements d anthere is no such thing as a collective AWA.

Amusingly, or disturbingly, 13% of respondents said they were employed on these mythological collective AWAs and even more surprisingly,perhaps, 77% said they were 'satisfied' with their collective AWAs.

All of which I guess just goes to confirm Morgan's topline conclusion that a lot of people (including themselves) are confused about the basis on which they are employed.