David Robert Peetz

Globalization and Industrial Relations in East Asia: A Three-Country Comparison

Globalization enhances competitiveness, both at the level of the firm and at the level of the nation. As observed in China, Malaysia, and Korea, this leads management and the state to adopt strategies designed to increase labor effectiveness to the benefit of capital. However, the effect of globalization on industrial relations procedures and substantive outcomes is contingent. Pressure for greater flexibility in the use of labor is ubiquitous, but the outcome is constrained by cultural norms valuing hierarchy and security. State strategies vary by historical circumstance, resource endowments, and internal political dynamics, including the influence of trade unions. While Malaysian industrial relations is heavily constrained by the discipline of high exposure to international capital, in China and Korea, major struggles are shaping the future of workplace and national labor market governance. Thus the extent and impact of globalization vary between countries, resulting in similar preoccupations by policymakers yet leading to variable responses and industrial relations outcomes.

Declining Union Density

Union density has been declining since thefirst Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey of trade union members in 1976. Between 1976 and 1982, changes in the industry composition of employment actually benefited trade unions. Since around 1982, however, this structural change has disadvantaged unions, and this accounts for around half the decline in union density since then. Changes in average establishment size may also have affected union density. The propensity for employees to belong to a union has been steadily falling since 1976. The decline in the propensity to unionize has accelerated since 1986, as has the deleterious impact of structural change upon union density. Factors that may have had an influence upon the declining propensity to unionize could include unfavourable legislative environments, a shift in public sentiment against unions during the 1970s, adverse reactions to the two-tier wage system and, possibly, management strategies. There is no convincing evidence yet that declining real wages, or centralized wage fixing arrangements as such, are primarily responsible.

Influences on work/ non-work conflict

Work/non-work conflict is important because it tells us about the well-being of individuals and more generally of a particular workplace or organization. Important progress has been made in research literature on the importance of structural policies designed to assist workers to meet competing demands to be at work and at home. More information is needed into organizational influences on the emotional aspects of work/non-work conflict. Based on a survey of over 900 employees, we use factor, correlation and multiple regression analyses to find that exacerbation in work/non-work conflict is a result of high workload pressure, long working hours, unsupportive management and weak employee control, especially control over workload and when employees can take time off.

Are individualistic attitudes killing collectivism

This article addresses a core aspect of the question: ‘is the collectivism of labour in fundamental decline?’ It pays particular attention to attitudes towards collectivism using national and cross-national data on trends in dimensions of collectivism over periods of up to two decades. The data indicate that collective values and identities are today broadly as strong (or weak) as they were two or three decades ago. If individualization is the problem, then we should not look at individualization of attitudes but attempts by employers and governments to individualize the employment relationship. Union organizing strategies need to reinforce union values and build solidarities across groups which are more complex and heterogeneous than in the past. Le présent article aborde un aspect essentiel de la question suivante: « le collectivisme du travail connaît-il un déclin substantiel? ». Il accorde une attention particulière aux comportements à l’égard du collectivisme à l’aide de données nationales et transnationales sur les tendances concernant les dimensions du collectivisme sur des périodes allant jusqu’à vingt ans. Ces données montrent que les valeurs et identités collectives sont généralement aussi fortes (ou faibles) qu’il y a vingt ou trente ans. Si la source du problème est l’individualisation, nous ne devrions pas examiner l’individualisation des comportements mais bien les tentatives des employeurs et des gouvernements d’individualiser la relation de travail. Les stratégies de syndicalisation doivent renforcer les valeurs syndicales et instaurer des solidarités entre groupes plus complexes et hétérogènes que par le passé. Dieser Beitrag befasst sich mit einem zentralen Aspekt der Frage, ob sich die kollektive Interessenvertretung der Arbeitnehmer in einem grundlegenden Niedergang befindet. Ausgehend von länderspezifischen und länderübergreifenden Daten zu Trends des Kollektivismus, die sich auf Zeiträume von bis zu zwei Jahrzehnten erstrecken, wird untersucht, wie sich die Einstellungen zu Kollektivismus entwickelt haben. Aus den Daten geht hervor, dass kollektive Werte und Identitäten heute in etwa ebenso stark (oder schwach) sind wie vor zwanzig oder dreißig Jahren. Wenn das Problem in der Individualisierung liegt, müssen wir uns also nicht mit der Individualisierung der Einstellungen befassen, sondern mit den Versuchen der Arbeitgeber und Regierungen, eine Individualisierung der Beschäftigungsbeziehungen zu erreichen. Im Rahmen der Organisationsstrategien der Gewerkschaften sollten gewerkschaftliche Werte gestärkt und Solidaritätsbeziehungen zwischen Gruppen aufgebaut werden, die komplexer und heterogener sind als in der Vergangenheit.

‘You Get Really Old, Really Quick’: Involuntary Long Hours in the Mining Industry

Is there a job-quality problem in mining? Is part of this problem that mining employees are working involuntary long hours? If so, how extensive is this problem? What is the impact, if any, of involuntary long hours in mining on family life? And how much control do mining employees have over their working-time arrangements? What are the possible policy responses? We address these questions through analysis of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Work and Life Index survey, a survey of employees in Queensland, and qualitative interviews with 135 people associated with the Queensland mining industry. We find evidence of substantial involuntary long hours in mining, closely related to 24-hour operations and 12-hour shifts, with adverse implications for the work—life balance, which is made worse where employees lack input into the design of rosters. The findings suggest that, in order to promote ‘good jobs’ in the mining industry, there is both a need to revisit protections for employees against being forced to work ‘unreasonable’ hours above the ostensible national standard of 38 hours per week and strong support even amongst mine-workers for a ceiling on hours worked per week.

An Analysis of Workplace Representatives, Union Power and Democracy in Australia

The purpose of this article is to illuminate the views and experiences of workplace representatives in Australia in the context of falling union density, and to analyse factors that are most strongly associated with subjective union power at the workplace level, as perceived by delegates. The analysis relies on a large random survey of workplace delegates in eight significant Australian unions. The article describes the situation broadly facing delegates as shown by the survey and analyses a set of factors associated with the power of workers as perceived by delegates. We find that higher levels of reported activism among delegates are strongly associated with greater subjective union power. We also find that self-reported delegate confidence is also strongly associated with perceptions of higher union power, as is delegates clarity about their roles. The data also show a strong association between perceptions of democracy within the union and union power. Support for delegates from the union office and organizers is also associated with higher levels of union power at the local level. The analysis provides some support for union renewal strategies associated with the ‘organizing model’ as applied in Australia and some other Anglo-Saxon countries that aim to increase the activism of workplace delegates through education, the provision of support for workplace delegates and more democratic union structures.

The casual academic workforce and labour market segmentation in Australia

Teaching in Australian universities is performed by two groups of academic staff, defined by the nature of the employment contract. While permanent academic staff are engaged in teaching and research, a growing group of hourly paid or casual employees deliver teaching services. This article explores some key dimensions of the work and aspirations of these casual academic staff, including levels of access to job and career supports, and career and job satisfaction. The 2011 Work and Careers in Australian Universities survey of staff in 19 universities provides data from more than 3000 casual academic staff. Three related issues are investigated: the characteristics of labour supply in the casual academic labour force; the key defining boundaries of labour segmentation; and barriers between casual and permanent academic employment. A typology of casual academic staff is proposed. In particular, gender, type of university and discipline are investigated to examine whether these have an impact on the various measures of career opportunity, job satisfaction and the incidence of the ‘frustrated academic’. The research reveals that the casual academic labour market is not integrated with the permanent academic labour market and that discipline is a key determinant of the level of ‘frustration’ of casual academic staff.

Deunionisation and Union Establishment: the Impact of Workplace Change, HRM Strategies and Workplace Unionism

Abstract Union organisation and activity is a critical influence upon the rate at which workplaces become deunionised. While some “HRM” or ‘trust’-based managerial strategies may have as an objective the removal of unionism, the impact such strategies have on unionism is a contingent one. If the union is active and well- represented, then management efforts to develop more inclusive work relationships will generally do little harm to unionisation. But if unions are not active, management trust strategies can lead to the circumvention of unions altogether. On the other hand, the increasing rate of workplace change appears to promote the unionisation of non-union workplaces and reduce the likelihood that workplaces with a union presence will deunionise, particularly in the context of declining satisfaction with management as a result of workplace change.

The Safety Net, Bargaining and the Role of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission

In a policy environment dominated by enterprise bargaining, adjustment of the wages safety net is influenced by a number of factots including the effects of raising award rates on productivity, equity, the incidence of bargaining, wage outcomes from enter prise bargaining and employment. Our understanding of many of these issues has been affected by changes during the 1990s in the relationship between the award safety net and actual wages, by new research and by growing experience of the interaction between award wages and monetary policy. The efficacy of flat rate safety net adjustments in promoting equity is naw also open to challenge. By late in the 1990s the Australian Industrial Relations Commission was in a better position to give effect to its social obligations than it had been at any earlier time in the decade, and to ensure that award rates kept pace in the longer run with changes in community living standards.

Dancing Alone: The Australian Union Movement Over Three Decades

We investigate the challenges faced by the Australian union movement over the two decades since the early 1990s, the renewal strategies it employed and their success or otherwise. We locate the Australian union movement historically, outline core internal and external challenges faced by Australian unions, and consider their key responses. Australian unions utilized strategies focused on the external level (in the political arena, actions aimed at framing ideas and shaping values or ideologies, or at altering the embeddedness of unions within support networks) and at the internal level (actions influencing the extent to which power is held centrally or vested in membership, and whether policy is controlled, coordinated or dispersed; the mix between industry, occupational, general or enterprise-based structures; and the development and deployment of resources). We focus on the ‘Your Rights at Work’ campaign aimed at defeating the ‘WorkChoices’ legislation, and two other core strategies: amalgamationism and organizing. We show the relations between these strategies, each aimed at increasing the strength of unions. Achieving stronger workplace organizing on the one hand, and stronger regulation on the other, are currently the key aims of the movement.