Search Results

Over the past few decades, both the nature of work and employment relations have undergone significant change in Australia. Employees are expected to work harder and for longer hours, employment is less secure for many workers, and part-time and casual work have increased significantly. In addition, the ways in which wages and working conditions are determined have also changed. Industrial relations have become decentralised and union coverage of the workforce has declined. Collective approaches to employment relations have increasingly been replaced with more individualised arrangements. This collection of writings is based on a workshop sponsored by the Australian Academy of Social Sciences at the end of the year 2000 and involving participants from academic fields along with practitioners and policy makers. The collection attempts to examine the likely future directions for both work and employment relations in Australia as the new millennium begins. The chapters are: Introduction to working futures / Ron Callus and Russell D. Lansbury; Work in an ungolden age / Keith Hancock; Changes in the nature of work and employment relations: an historical perspective / Greg Patmore (with commentaries by Melanie Oppenheimer and Raelene Francis); The changing labour market and its impact on work and employment relations / Mark Wooden (with commentaries by John Burgess and Joe Isaac); Legal aspects of the changing social contract at work / Ron McCallum (with commentaries by F. L. Wright and Suzanne Jamieson); Down with the dictator: the role of trade unions in the future / Michael Crosby (with commentaries by Rae Cooper and Stephen Long); Employment time and family time: the intersection of labour market transformation and family responsibilities in Australia / Bettina Cass (with commentaries by Ed Davis and Alison Morehead); The disadvantaged in the new economy / Gianni Zappala, Vanessa Green and Ben Parker (with commentaries by Gillian Considine and Caroline Alcorso); Changing forms of organisation and management / Dexter Dunphy and Doug Stace (with commentaries by Beryl Hesketh and David Grant); Working futures: Australia in a global context / Ron Callus and Russell D. Lansbury. The editors conclude that the traditional employer-employee model is increasingly irrelevant in the current context and that more inclusive economic and social policies are needed to ensure quality of jobs and employment relations in the future. Two issues require particular attention: the portability of entitlements between employers and the sharing of risks associated with less secure forms of employment. Show less

This theme section contains two papers on research into small business.

The first paper, by Leonie Still, concentrates on research on women in small business, and identifies gaps in the research. The author also considers the question of who should do the research. She concludes that research and policy needs to take a careful look at the future contribution of the small business woman owner (based on her current profile) and shape policy and research accordingly to assist national goals.

The second paper, by Ron Callus, presents some information on training and small business in Australia with a view to proposing some research priorities in this area. The paper suggests that there are a number of specific issues that need to be addressed if the national training reform agenda’s objectives are to be successfully applied to the majority of Australian businesses. The paper examines some relevant research and identifies areas for further research. Show less

The process of economic restructuring and labour adjustment in Australian industry continues in an effort to improve productivity and competitiveness. Australian businesses generally use retrenchment as a means of reducing labour in the face of economic restructuring or downturn. This report examines this issue of labour adjustment from a number of perspectives including a literature review, semi-structured interviews with retrenchment experts, workplace case studies and focus groups of retrenched workers. The aim of the report is to encourage discussion and improve labour adjustment practices. Part 2 reviews recent overseas literature to explore how overseas enterprises prevent retrenchment or alleviate the negative effects if retrenchment is inevitable. This section discusses the academic and policy debate on labour adjustment and enterprise restructuring, reports on structural adjustment in enterprises in several countries, and summarises the key findings. A bibliography is included in the appendices. Part 3 reports on the prevalence of innovative labour adjustment practices in Australia. This section is based on the views of consultants, employers and unionists regarding current retrenchment practices, their weaknesses and suggestions for improvements. Part 4 contains several case studies illustrating innovative approaches to labour adjustment at the enterprise level. Part 5 presents the results of workshops with retrenched workers and demonstrates the social cost of retrenchment. Part 6 summarises the findings of the research and recommends a code of practice for the management of labour adjustment. The code is based on an approach that seeks to avoid retrenchment but also provides guidelines for managing retrenchment when it becomes unavoidable. Show less