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Globalisation is too often equated with the deregulation of labour. The central proposition of this article is that globalisation entails a re-regulations rather than a deregulation of employment relations. Research, it is argued, should focus on the nature of that re-regulation. Drawing on three vignettes of labour regulation in Canada, the article seeks to provide a theoretical account of the nature of labour regulation and re-regulation in the context of globalisation. After identifying different dimensions of globalisation, it explores four features of labour regulation with particular attention to the consequences of globalisation on them. These features are: the nature of employment relationship; the role of organisational processes and contingency in the shaping of work rules; the strategic interdependence of actors and, in particular, the importance of the balance of power between them in shaping labour regulation; and, finally, the nature of rules about work, especially their dynamic and social character.

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In many industrialised countries, there have been major changes in the pattern of labour utilisation in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper argues that, in Australia, labour utilisation has been changing in thee key dimensions: job broadening, employment insecurity and work intensification. These changes are affecting both standard 'core' workers and non-standard 'peripheral' workers. Reviewing case study evidence and survey data from a federal Australian government study of workplace change, we analyse employee perceptions of these forms of labour utilisation. Employees are being affected by differing combinations of these changes and are experiencing higher stress levels, greater job insecurity and lower levels of satisfaction with the work/family balance.

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In this review, the authors discuss developments in the Australian labour market over the year 2001, the persistence of the unemployment problem and the implications of the continued rise in part-time employment. Four special policy issues are then highlighted: (a) the youth labour market; (b) the position of older males in the Australian labour market and the interface with pension availability; (c) the incidence and implications of long service leave entitlements; and (d) the dominant Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) supply-side policy framework that is currently driving labour market policy in Australia. The authors conclude that, overall, the jobs market continues to be unresponsive, full-time jobs are difficult to find, and official unemployment rates mask the true extent of labour under-utilisation in Australia. Show less

Debates over whether customer service work is deskilled or part of the knowledge economy tend to focus on single issues such as control, emotional labour or information management. Call centre work, however, falls within a spectrum of service jobs requiring simultaneous and multifaceted work with people, information and technology. This activity, which we call 'articulation work', is often performed within tight timeframes and requires workers, first, to integrate their own tasks into an ongoing 'line' of work, and second, to collaborate in maintaining the overall work-flow. The requisite skills, of awareness, interaction management and coordination, tend to be poorly specified in competency standards that subdivide work into discrete tasks. We compare examples of call centre competency standards with case study accounts of the use of articulation work skills, arguing the need for a taxonomy allowing the recognition of different levels of these skills across the service sector.

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A professional, skilled and engaged early childhood workforce is critical to economic and social productivity and positive life trajectories for children. Yet high staff turnover, skill loss and unmet standards of staff qualification pervade the sector, limiting optimal outcomes. For many early childhood educators, alternatives of better paid and less challenging sources of employment are available in other employment sectors, a fact that explains turnover rates as high as 30 per cent. However, this study reverses the emphasis on why early childhood educators leave the sector and asks instead 'Why do so many stay?'. This question is a significant one when it is considered that the remuneration of educators in early childhood barely meets minimum wage thresholds, and that they face challenging working conditions and few opportunities for career progression. The findings of the study contribute to an understanding of retention in early childhood education and care occupations specifically, and in feminised, low-paid occupational groups more broadly. The study also informs policy and strategy responses to low retention in the early childhood sector in Australia and internationally.

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In a context of international economic uncertainty and uneven domestic economic performance, labour market outcomes showed considerable diversity. Wide-ranging outcomes in employment numbers, patterns of full-time and part-time work, labour utilization, and changes in earnings were evident both across and within industries. Men's full-time employment appears to be one labour market area that is experiencing particular decline as casualization of the workforce continues and men's traditional industries of employment experience subdued economic growth. Women's employment appears to be faring relatively well in terms of growth, but large and persistent gender pay gaps remain evident in particular feminized industries, including financial and insurance services and health and social assistance. Predictions made earlier this decade that population ageing might ensure relative stability in employment among younger workers have not yet been fulfilled. Younger workers continue to experience relatively high levels of unemployment and underutilization, with the immediate employment experiences of younger men being relatively unfavourable compared with younger women in the workforce.

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The reconfiguration of the employment relationship - through the growing intensification, informalization and casualization of work, downsizing and retrenchments - impacts directly on workers’ households and the communities within which they are embedded. To understand these responses, we need to rethink the way we study the changing employment relationship. Employment relations should not only analyse the workplace: we need to research workers in the totality of their lives. To comprehend these processes we surveyed and interviewed workers in the workplace and in their households and communities. Through following workers into their homes and communities in South Africa, Australia and South Korea, the differential impact of the global restructuring of one industry, the white goods industry, on the non-working life of working people emerged. Two types of responses were identified: on the one hand, a retreat from, or an adaptation to, rapid market liberalization; on the other, mobilization to challenge the market. All three research sites evidenced innovative attempts at the local level to search for security. However, these responses lacked an overall vision of alternative possibilities to the realities of the free market paradigm of globalization.

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The exercise by an Australian state agency of coercive powers against construction industry workers has been justified by reference to claimed gains in productivity and hence national welfare. Yet the literature suggests that a more cooperative approach to union-management relations would offer better opportunities for productivity improvement. This article examines the data behind the productivity claims and finds that they were erroneous, probably due to incorrect transcription, and that the source data indicated no relative productivity gains against the identified benchmark. Despite being made aware of this, the state agency and its consultant maintained the original claims about the size of productivity and welfare gains from the use of coercive powers. Official cross-industry and time series data also showed no productivity gains arising from the use of coercive powers. However, there is some evidence that there has been a shift of income shares in the industry from labour to capital. The findings have implications for understanding the role of commissioned studies in public debate, and for regulation of the construction industry.

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This article examines the dispute resolution practices of Fair Work Australia that are evolving to deal with individual workplace rights, as its traditional role shifts away from conciliating and arbitrating collective industrial disputes. The workplace rights enshrined in the 'general protections' provisions in Part 3-1 of the Fair Work Act 2009 protect employees and prospective employees from any 'adverse action' taken against them because they are exercising a workplace right, or because they fall within one of the protected categories, such as the right to be free from discrimination. A broad range of alternative dispute resolution processes is now available to Fair Work Australia in dealing with such disputes. Alternative dispute resolution processes are seen as a way of avoiding costly and time-consuming litigation, and in some circumstances can improve access to justice for individuals. This article explores whether Fair Work Australia is likely to adopt different dispute resolution approaches from its traditional conciliation practices when managing 'general protections' applications, and whether the framework for dealing with these disputes will facilitate fair recognition and enforcement of workplace rights.

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Casualization of teaching has become a major issue in Australian universities. In 1990 casuals delivered about a tenth of all university teaching. By 2008 between a third and a half of university teaching was being delivered by casuals. Quantitative studies have assessed the scale of casualization; this qualitative study addresses the experience of casual academics. It documents a sharpening class divide among academics, which has become institutionally embedded. It reports on interviews with casual academics examining how the divide is experienced, and how it may be addressed. Academic casuals report underpayment and compromised quality; they experience persistent income insecurity; and they find themselves voiceless in the workplace. These experiences are interpreted as aspects of class subordination, and possibilities for addressing them are discussed.

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