Janis Bailey

Young people's aspirations for education, work, family and leisure

Young people are arguably facing more ‘complex and contested’ transitions to adulthood and an increasing array of ‘non-linear’ paths. Education and training have been extended, identity is increasingly shaped through leisure and consumerism and youth must navigate their life trajectories in highly individualised ways. The study utilises 819 short essays compiled by students aged 14–16 years from 19 schools in Australia. It examines how young people understand their own unique positions and the possibilities open to them through their aspirations and future orientations to employment and family life. These young people do not anticipate postponing work identities, but rather embrace post-school options such as gaining qualifications, work experience and achieving financial security. Boys expected a distant involvement in family life secondary to participation in paid work. In contrast, around half the girls simultaneously expected a future involving primary care-giving and an autonomous, independent career, suggesting attempts to remake gendered inequalities.

Daggy Shirts, Daggy Slogans? Marketing Unions to Young People:

In light of declining trade union density, specifically among young workers, this article explores how trade unions recruit, service and organize young people. Our focus is the way in which trade unions market their services to the young. We use, as a lens of analysis, the services and social marketing literature and the concept of an ‘unsought, experience good’ to explore trade union strategy. Based on interviews with a number of union officials in the state of Queensland, it is clear that unions see the issue of recruitment of young people as significant, and that innovative strategies are being used in at least some unions. However, the research also indicates that despite union awareness, strategies are uneven and resource allocation is patchy. While the research was carried out in one state, the results and conclusion are broadly applicable to the Australian labour movement as a whole, and have implications for union movements in other Anglophone countries.

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.

‘No leg to stand on’: The moral economy of Australian industrial relations changes

Labour law changes in Australia in 2006 significantly reconfigured industrial relations institutions and the balance of power in the employment relationship – in favour of employers and against the low-paid in particular. This article analyses the changes as they affected low-waged women workers, using a moral economy framework. While acknowledging the importance of material rewards, a moral economy perspective focuses on aspects of work that are not reducible to the terms of the market. The article analyses how women articulated the effects of the legislation, and how work institutions embody moral conceptions, demonstrating how labour law change can markedly disrupt the underlying, taken-for-granted moral economy.

School-aged workers: Industrial citizens in waiting?

While the literature points to significant shifts in young peoples’ labour market participation and the social, economic and political context in which this has occurred, it tells us little about whether and in what sense young people can be considered as industrial citizens. We explored the notion of youth citizenship using data derived from 48 focus groups conducted with 216 young people (13-16 years of age) at 19 high schools in Australia. The findings reveal the ways in which several key dimensions of industrial citizenship come to be shaped and have implications for addressing the vulnerability of youth in employment and informing policy and action.

Challenging the ‘care penalty’: The Queensland pay equity campaign for community services workers:

In 2009, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission delivered a historic pay equity decision for the social and community services sector in Queensland. Employers were persuaded not to oppose the need for pay equity, and government – the major funder of the sector – was persuaded to agree to funding increases, as a result of a campaign coordinated by the relevant trade union, the Queensland Services Union, and the peak body representing the sector, the Queensland Council of Social Service. Informed by participant observation, interviews and documentary analysis, this article identifies key elements of the campaign’s success using the literature on union campaign strategy, especially studies of coalitions. The study contributes to the developing literature on ‘care movements’ and to knowledge of strategies for building and maintaining successful campaign coalitions involving unions.

Unions and collective bargaining in Australia in 2012

In 2012, the big issues for unions were working hours, insecurity, supply chain intervention, collective rights, public sector employment and, of course, organisation and membership. Membership and density were fairly stable. Disputation rose but was well below the levels of the Workplace Relations Act era. Disputes became longer and retained their focus on bargaining under the Fair Work Act. Unions continued to attempt to widen sources of collective power that had been severely constricted during the Howard years. They developed new policies and a slightly broader range of tactics, and undertook some internal restructuring at the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The unions’ relationship with the federal government was relatively stable. In contrast, in state public sectors there was increasing unrest, with unions using a variety of tactics to counter attacks on job security and long-standing conditions. Unions also faced challenges from restructuring and redundancies in industries such as airlines and coal.

Australian unions and collective bargaining in 2014

In 2014, published data suggested declines in union membership and industrial conflict, but union members still appeared to achieve small real wage gains even if their non-union counterparts could not. In a slowing economy and with a conservative Federal Government, union members and officials faced considerable difficulties. Collective bargaining was less volatile in 2014 than in 2013 (which was quieter than 2012). Union campaigning continued, including in the low-paid area, but was more defensive as the environment was less friendly towards the low-paid and vulnerable. A 20th anniversary provided an opportunity for appraisal of the Organising Works program and of the shift to a more organising-focused approach. There was continuing growth of employer unilateralism and state militancy in the public sector. To the public, the year was dominated by media headlines generated by Royal Commission proceedings. Instead of building on previous gains, unions became more defensive in the face of increasing economic and institutional hostility.

Going up or going down? Occupational mobility of skilled migrants in Australia

Skilled migration programs are now widespread among western settler societies, but little is known about the recent outcomes of skilled migrants. Using a feminist framework and qualitative interviews of 22 migrants, this article sheds light on the job-seeking experiences of professional skilled migrants in Australia, who are from non-English speaking backgrounds. The article reveals that many are unable to find commensurate employment post-arrival. They experience downward occupational mobility; that is they find jobs that are lower in skill level compared to the job held pre-migration. The range of job-seeking strategies is examined to determine whether migrants can improve occupational outcomes, revealing differences between the mobility of women and men. Job-seeking for women is more complex due to the gendering effects of family responsibility, making their job search more difficult. The research further highlights the underutilisation of human capital, which is in need of addressing for skilled migrants, and the wider economy.

Academic pay loadings and gender in Australian universities

Academic pay loadings are one potential mechanism of gender pay disparity in universities. Drawing on a large-scale survey of Australian academics with over 8000 respondents, we analyse how ‘discretionary’ and higher duties loadings (or bonuses) are distributed between men and women, and investigate the reasons for such distributions. Investigating both incidence and quantum, we find that discretionary loadings are particularly susceptible to gender influences. We explain this finding in terms of the concepts of regulation distance and the meritocracy paradox. The findings have implications for the design of loadings schemes in universities, and, by implication, in other kinds of organisations that provide loadings.