Duncan Macdonald

The 'representation gap' in Australia

Abstract Drawing on recent literature from overseas, this article identifies four alternative forms of employee representation, two union-based and two non-union. Using these categories, it argues that there is in Australia a significant and growing ‘representation gap’. To some degree, this gap is not new. The system of compulsory conciliation and arbitration that dominated Australian industrial relations for decades before the 1990s delivered significant support for union forms of representation, but they were less than perfect in their effect. Furthermore, nonunion forms of representation in this earlier period were poorly developed. The gap, however, widened dramatically during the 1990s. The well-known decline in union membership and contraction in the coverage and scope of collective bargaining and state regulation constitute the core of the problem. Less acknowledged, however, is the failure of new non-union forms to deliver effective representation. It is contended that the representation gap should be treated as an urgent public policy issue by Australian governments.

Outsourcing, Employment and Industrial Relations in the Public Sector

Outsourcing is very much part of the neo-liberal agenda for the public sector. The rationale for transferring the provision of goods and services, traditionally the responsibility of governments to private enterprise lies in the perception of public sector inefficiency and the philosophy that reducing the role of government, is essential for the optimal performance of the economy. While the impact of outsourcing is not always easy to isolate given its coexistence with a variety of complementary neo-liberal strategies such as legislative attacks on trade unions, there is strong evidence to suggest that it has contributed significantly to the reduction of employment, wages and working conditions. This has occurred both as functions are transferred to the less regulated private sector and as those left in government employment are subjected to the impact of ongoing financial stringency in their struggle to compete with the private sector and hold on to their jobs.

Productivity, Restructuring and the Trade Union Role

AbstractThe productivity slowdown in the Australian economy, especially in the manufacturing sector, is one of the driving forces behind current attempts to introduce microeconomic reforms into the...

Public Sector Industrial Relations Under the Howard Government1

Abstract Under Labor there was a very significant movement away from the traditional public administration focus of the public service towards ‘managerialism’ and ‘marketisation ‘. With the election of the Coalition Government these trends continued but in a much more extreme form. Moreover, there has been a dramatic marginalisation of the union movement with a strong emphasis on individualism as the appropriate basis for the employment relationship, and this does represent a significant break with the past. Much of the Coalitions reform agenda has its basis in industrial relations reform which was ope rationalised in the provisions of the Workplace Relations Act but many would argue that the die had been cast by Labor. Thus it will be important to consider the extent to which the Coalitions neo-liberal public sector agenda is more extreme than that of Labor. This article focuses largely on the Australian Public Service with some attention to certain Government Business Enterprises. It outlines the Howa...

Multinational Versus State Ownership: Labour-Management Relations in the Electricity Industry

Restructuring of public utilities has been a response to the competitive pressures of internationalisation in many parts of the world. In Australia, the states of Victoria and New South Wales have taken rather different approaches with respect to electricity generation. Both have fragmented their industries, establishing autonomous corporate entities, but in Victoria these bave been sold—to multinational companies, as it happens—while in New South Wales ownership remains in tbe hands of the state government. This paper attempts to discover the repercussions for labour—management relations of the restructuring of electricity generation in the two states and, particu larly, whether the different forms of ownership have affected these relations.

Globalisation and Industrial Relations in the Hunter Region

Writers in the post-Fordist tradition have suggested that the challenges of globalisation have led to the widespread adoption of flexible specialisation in industrial regions such as the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. The paper examines this contention and asks a number of related questions about the repercussions of globalisation for regional labour markets and industrial relations. Globalisation as a concept is given some consideration and the Hunter region is defined as a distinct region for industrial relations purposes according to specified criteria. However, drawing on a range of data on restructuring in the region during the last decade, we reach the conclusion that most of the labour market and industrial relations transformation bas followed a neo-Fordist rather than a post-Fordist pattern.

Regional Workplace Bargaining: Evidence From The Hunter Workplace Change Survey

This paper reports on the finding of a 1992/93 survey conducted by the authors of 21 workplaces in the Hunter region of New South Wales. The purpose of the survey was to gather information on the progress, processes and outcomes associated with award restructuring and enterprise bargaining. The paper focuses on the processes of workplace reform and the associated workplace institutions, but also includes a brief discussion of outcomes. In particular there was interest in the extent to which award restructuring principles had been implemented, the extent to which employees were involved in the change process and the type of changes that were implemented. Overall the impression was one of extensive change with high degrees of trade union and employee participation. While there were differences across the workplaces in the type of change and extent of employee participation the over-riding finding was one of co-operation and active trade union involvement in the change process.

Employment Relations in the Australian Public Sector

The public sector has long been a significant part of the Australian political economy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 from six separate British colonies and now comprises one federal and eight state or territory-based governments. Although the Australian constitution established a division of powers between the commonwealth or federal and state governments, each has a series of administrative departments covering areas such as education, health and transport, which provide public services. There are numerous statutory authorities and government business enterprises, which provide services such as electricity supply, railways, broadcasting and telecommunications. There are also important judicial bodies, including courts and tribunals at both state and federal levels. Finally, there is a layer of government at local or municipal level responsible for a range of services. Together, these comprise the public sector which has been defined as “the institutional framework of government administration, public commercial activities and state-run utilities” (Davis et al., 1993). Hence, the Australian public sector includes employees in a wide range of work and employment settings.

Unionism in the Hunter Valley: An Exploratory Regional Study

Abstract The strategies adopted by the Australian union movement at the national level to combat union decline and the pressures of globalisation in the eighties and nineties have been based on Cupertino, as were the strategies adopted by unions in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. The literature reveals, however, that support for Cupertino as a union strategy is far from unanimous. Moreover, to combat falling membership levels, union movements have embraced the organising model as a preferred alternative to the servicing model but, it appears, there are potential conflicts between the organising model and a co-operative strategy. The changing status, roles and strategies of Hunter Valley unions has been analysed with the assistance of data gathered from unions and employers in the region. It has been found that the decline of unionism has been somewhat less in the Hunter Region than it has been nationally but, not surprisingly, there are differences between the perceptions of union officials and huma...

Globalization and Confrontation: The Transformation of the Australian Coal Industry

The Australian coal industry serves as a vivid illustration of the impact of globalization on workplace organization and workplace industrial relations. In this contribution we outline the changes and developments, from the organization of production through to the product market, that are impacting on workplace organization and industrial relations of the Australian coal industry. In particular the authors highlight the attempts and strategies of management to increase productivity, to realize functional and numerical flexibilities in the deployment of labour and to deregulate employment relations. Simultaneously, trade unions are faced with institutional, legal and global competitive pressures to conform to the flexibility strategies of managers. The result has been persistent and sporadic outbreaks of industrial disputation in the midst of the erosion of employment conditions and a shift towards greater managerial control of the labour process. The forces identified as globalization are systematically transforming workplace organization and impacting on the strategies of coal mine managers and trade unions.