Alex de Ruyter

Declining Job Quality in Australia: Another Hidden Cost of Unemployment

The deterioration of the labour market associated with high and sustained rates of unemployment leads to forms of hidden unemployment and underemployment as well as a systematic decline in job quality. The ability of employers to reduce job quality is enhanced through conditions of persistent excess labour supply. In turn the State can challenge and erode conditions and standards that sustain job quality. Hence, falling job quality is another of the hidden costs of unemployment. This paper sets out the decline in job quality in Australia as manifested by the growth in non-standard employment arrangements and by the systematic erosion of the conditions associated with the standard employment model.

Growing Labour Insecurity in Australia and the UK in the Midst of Job Growth: Beware the Anglo-Saxon Model

This article compares trends and issues affecting labour security in the UK and Australia, using an adaptation of Standings 1997 typology. The increased polarization and variability of hours worked, declining union densities and increased wage inequality provide evidence of growing labour insecurity in both countries. This represents the reciprocal impact of increased employer dominance in the workplace and government pursuit of labour flexibility. Growing labour insecurity casts doubts on the supposed benefits for EU economies of the Anglo-Saxon model of deregulated labour markets. The last part of the article considers measures to counter increased insecurity.

Plant closures and taskforce responses: an analysis of the impact of and policy response to MG Rover in Birmingham

This paper explores the socio-economic impacts and associated policy responses to the collapse of MG Rover at Longbridge in Birmingham. Critically, it attempts to move beyond a ‘standard’ taskforce narrative that emphasizes the role of the regional response. While recognizing that significant policy ‘successes’ were indeed evident at the regional level in anticipating and responding to the crisis, a wider perspective is required that situates this taskforce response in (1) a fuller understanding of labour market precariousness (that in turn mitigates some of its policy ‘successes’), and (2) more local perspectives that highlight the local impacts of closure, the role of the neighbourhood level officials and the third sector in mediating these. Taking this broader perspective suggests that longer-term, workers face a precarious situation and the need for policies to create and sustain ‘good quality’ jobs remains paramount. Adding in more local perspectives, a key lesson from the Longbridge experience for dealing with closures more generally is that the public policy responses must be: multidimensional in that they transcend narrow sector-based concerns and addresses broader spatial impacts; inclusive in that they build on a broad coalition of economic and social stakeholders; and long-term in that they acknowledge that adaptation takes many years. If anything, the Birmingham Longbridge experience demonstrates the difficulty of achieving such responses in the context of crisis where action is imperative and deliberation a luxury.

Outsourcing the procurement of agency workers: the impact of vendor managed services in English social care

In recent years marked changes have occurred in the way employers recruit and select agency workers, with this activity increasingly being outsourced to third party organizations providing ‘vendor managed services’ (VMS). Drawing on data from a study of English social services, this article explores the consequences of this outsourcing. The findings reveal that although VMS has delivered cost savings, it has also resulted in less effective placement matching, rising line manager workloads and concerns about service quality. In the conclusion the wider implications of VMS for the future development of partnerships between employers and employment agencies are discussed.

The Australian Fair Pay Commission: Rationale, Operation, Antecedents and Implications

The Australian Fair Pay Commission (AFPC) is the latest institution to be created by the Federal government in the industrial relations arena and is one of the key pillars of the Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 (Cth) No. 153. In this article we examine the rationale for the establishment of the AFPC, outline the structure and operational details associated with the AFPC and compare it with the UK Low Pay Commission. The creation of the AFPC presumes some failings of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission with respect to its safety net wage case deliberations. We attempt to identify what these failings were. Finally, we consider what the implications of the creation of the AFPC will be. On this point the establishment of the AFPC must be placed in a context of ongoing legislative change to welfare access and in the other major developments in the Work Choices legislation, especially the creation of the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard.

‘Practising what they preach’? The disconnect between the state as regulator and user of employment agencies

There has been a considerable expansion of agency working in many countries in recent years. Based largely on neo-liberal thinking, this has been seen as a welcome means of promoting labour flexibility and creating jobs. Governments in Anglo-Saxon countries in particular have been keen to limit agency market regulation. However, in line with a shift from new public management (NPM) to post-NPM imperatives, the UK state, as an employer, has adopted an increasingly regulatory stance in its own dealings with employment agencies. Using data from three related research projects, we explore this development in the context of the UKs National Health Service (NHS). We highlight the problems that overt market liberalisation engendered and point to the steps the NHS has taken to address these problems through the introduction of framework agreements and the internalisation of flexibility. While these policies have generated new unforeseen challenges and tensions, they do point to a growing disconnect between the governments approach towards the regulation of agencies in the wider macroeconomic arena and its own approach as a user of agency services.

The Enforcement of Decent Work in India and Indonesia: Developing Sustainable Institutions

Although informal labor has proliferated in many developing countries, the desire to attract foreign direct investment has often led to a disassociation of the national government from labor regulation at the federal level. Enforcement capacity (and commitment) at the state/provincial level is crucial. We analyze two key newly industrialized countries in Asia, Indonesia and India, comparing their enforcement capacity in the realm of decent work. We highlight the variation in the degree of labor law enforcement found within each country, noting how the different degrees of centralization in each country translate into labor relations and enforcement outcomes. We conclude with some recommendations for policy and practice.

Re-examining the BMW-Rover affair: a case study of corporate, strategic and government failure?

This paper analyses corporate and government strategies during the purchase, period of control and divestment by BMW of the car manufacturer Rover over the period 1994 to 2000. This paper examines three types of ‘failure’. It views BMW’s purchase of Rover as a ‘corporate failure’, with British Aerospace keen to sell Rover to raise cash and with BMW not realising the real condition of Rover. It then moves on to examine BMW’s ‘divide and rule’ strategies with regard to working conditions and subsidy-seeking and its decision to sell Rover as an example of ‘strategic failure’. Finally, it considers the ‘hands-off’ nature of British policy towards such transnational firms, and BMW in particular, as an example of ‘government failure’. This paper concludes by raising the possibility of an EU-wide policy towards transnationals, especially in terms of monitoring the activities of such firms.

The MG Rover closure and policy response: an evaluation of the Task Force model in the UK

In recent years there have been a number of high-profile plant closures in the UK. In several cases, the policy response has included setting up a task force to deal with the impacts of the closure. It can be hypothesised that task force involving multi-level working across territorial boundaries and tiers of government is crucial to devising a policy response tailored to peoples needs and to ensuring success in dealing with the immediate impacts of a closure. This suggests that leadership, and vision, partnership working and community engagement, and delivery of high quality services are important. This paper looks at the case of the MG Rover closure in 2005, to examine the extent to which the policy response to the closure at the national, regional and local levels dealt effectively with the immediate impacts of the closure, and the lessons that can be learned from the experience. Such lessons are of particular relevance given the closure of the LDV van plant in Birmingham in 2009 and more broadly – such as in the case of the downsizing of the Opel operation in Europe following its takeover by Magna.

Plant closures, precariousness and policy responses: Revisiting MG Rover 10 years on

With automotive plants being closed in Australia and western Europe, this article reflects on the employment status of ex-MG Rover (MGR) workers following the closure of the Longbridge plant in 2005. In particular, it draws on Standings typology of labour market insecurity and uses a mixed-methods approach including an analysis of a longitudinal survey of some 200 ex-MGR workers, and in-depth interviews with ex-workers and policy-makers. While the policy response to the closure saw significant successes in terms of the great majority of workers successfully adjusting into re-employment, and with positive findings in terms of re-training and education, the paper finds significant challenges in terms of security of employment, income, job quality and representation at work years after closure. In particular, the paper posits that the general lack of attention to employment security at the macrolevel effectively undermined elements of a positive policy response over the longer run. This in turn suggests longer-term policy measures are required to address aspects of precariousness at work.