Glenda Maconachie

Managing equity: structure, policy and justice influences

This paper outlines the methods and outcomes of a study into equity management strategies in Australian private sector organisations reporting to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA). Reports from 1,976 organisations indicate 11 key factors characterising equity management in Australia. The study highlights differences within previously identified social structural policies, temperamental and opportunity policies and identifies a further policy type, categorised as “support policies”. Differences have also been identified in relation to distribution structures, suggesting that gender is not the sole consideration in determining equity management strategies. The justice principle of distribution also figures strongly in equity management implementation.

Employer Evasion of Workers’ Entitlements 1986-1995: Why, What and Whose?

Employer non-compliance with workers’ entitlements has been largely ignored in Australian industrial relations. The legal and regulatory literature however, identifies arguments relating to employer propensity to evade regulatory requirements, as well as highlighting environmental factors that may influence such behaviour. This article explores these issues in the Australian federal industrial relations jurisdiction, as well as providing a picture of employer evasion of minimum labour standards between 1986 and 1995: who is exploited and in respect of what entitlements. Industry contexts and common characteristics of non-compliance are outlined by exploration of 30 awards ranked by the extent of underpayments recovered by the federal inspectorate during the period. Employer evasion of workers’ entitlements is arguably a calculated business decision, prompted or facilitated by intense competition, precarious employment (particularly female and youth), non-unionized workplaces and under-resourced enforcement agencies.

Does Institutional Location Protect from Political Influence? The Case of a Minimum Labour Standards Enforcement Agency in Australia

Among the many factors that influence enforcement agencies, this article examines the role of the institutional location (and independence) of agencies, and an incumbent governments ideology. It is argued that institutional location affects the level of political influence on the agencys operations, while government ideology affects its willingness to resource enforcement agencies and approve regulatory activities. Evidence from the agency regulating minimum labour standards in the Australian federal industrial relations jurisdiction (currently the Fair Work Ombudsman) highlights two divergences from the regulatory enforcement literature generally. First, notions of independence from political interference offered by institutional location are more illusory than real and, second, political need motivates political action to a greater extent than political ideology.

Flexing Some Muscle: Strategy and Outcomes in the Queensland Health and Fitness Industry

In 1993, contrary to the trend towards enterprise bargaining, and despite an employment environment favouring strong managerial prerogative, a small group of employers in the Queensland commercial health and fitness industry sought industrial regulation through an industry-specific award. A range of factors, including increased competition and unscrupulous profiteers damaging the industry’s reputation, triggered the actions as a business strategy. The strategic choices of the employer group, to approach a union to initiate a consent award, are the inverse of behaviours expected under strategic choice theory. This article argues that organizational size, collective employer action, focus on industry rather than organizational outcomes and the traditional industrial relations system providing broader impacts explain their atypical behaviour.

TRANSFORMING THE INSPECTION BLITZ: TARGETED CAMPAIGNS, ENFORCEMENT AND THE OMBUDSMAN

The inspection blitz is a tool used by enforcement agencies, as a method of checking compliance with regulatory standards by concentrating resources on particular workplaces where significant non-compliance is suspected. This paper explores the transformation of blitzes into ‘targeted campaigns’ in the minimum labour standards’ enforcement agency in the Australian federal industrial relations jurisdiction. An examination of historical and current use by the agency exposes significant changes to both the implementation and potential outcomes of this enforcement tool. Examined within the framework of regulatory enforcement approaches taking accommodative, deterrence or ‘responsive’ stances, two points are made: several aspects of current practice limit the effectiveness of targeted campaigns in the longer term; and the agency displays divided enforcement approaches delivering inconsistent messages to its target audience.

Emotional Suppression to Regulated Empathy: From One Face of Control to Another

Abstract During the 1970s the neutral face of bureaucracy in the Australian national employment service was partially replaced by emotional expression. New recruits introduced emotions as a coping strategy in response to work intensification and insufficient training. As government policies subsequently weakened bureaucratic control mechanisms of internal labour markets while also adopting private sector management techniques, emotions became recognised as part of improved service delivery. Measurement and evaluation followed, moving the use of emotions full circle—from suppression, to autonomous use, to recognition, to prescription (or regulated empathy). Two key points are argued. Firstly, workers did not experience emotional labour equally. Secondly, part of the motivation for management s recognition and incorporation of emotions into policy must be perceived as an attempt to tighten behavioural controls over workers, through a customer service focus.

PHYSICAL CAPITAL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR FITNESS WORKERS IN QUEENSLAND

Sexual, social and employment success have been linked to the physical capital drawn from having aesthetic attributes of the socially idealised body. In certain workplace settings, such as health and fitness centres, the body becomes a mainstream commodity with physical capital affording the fitness worker a high degree of distinction and adoration as well as employment opportunities. The employment relationship is shaped by ‘lookism’, with both the employer and employee taking advantage of the fitness workers idealised form. The workers physical capital provides a walking billboard advertising the employers products and services, while exposure to comparison and adoration provides a heightened sense of self-worth, distinction and celebrity. Fitness workers appear to be prepared to ignore poor employment conditions or trade-off standard entitlements for the alternative rewards that their physical capital brings.