State Intervention in Australian Modern Workplace - Essay Example

? “The should take no part in employment relations, leaving it entirely to employers and their employees." Introduction The main aim of this paper is to critically analyze and determine whether the Australian government should stop intervening with the employment relations or not. In this paper it will be discussed that is it appropriate to say that the state should not take part in employment relation, rather they should be entirely left on the employers and the employees. In this context various aspects have been studied regarding the role of government that takes place in employment relations. It is understandable that there are certain laws that have helped the workers in ensuring a stable income and has provided job security also. On the other hand, there are issues regarding the coalition’s perspective because it is believed that it is important to create legislation for supporting the success of businesses (Accel Team 2007). Therefore, the aspect from both the sides will be evaluated in context with the interference of the state in the employment relations. During the past two decades, the reform of employment relations has been considered as very significant to political and economic debate. In late 1980s, the process of enterprise bargaining was introduced by Hawke Labor government, with the support of union government, in order to decentralize the employments relations system. This paper will also analyze the modern workplace of Australia regarding employment relations. Arguments in favor of the state intervention It has been observed that the role of government on the employment relations is very significant as it helps in setting up a legal framework that industrial relations operate. A proper legislation helps in identifying the requirements of both employees and employers, because the fact is that the employees and the employers both want to benefit from each other as they are reliant on each other. This states that it is necessary to recognize the equal bargaining power of the workers and the employers. The laws of employment relations should be appropriately implemented addressing any imbalance of power and both groups should be given equal degree of control. Proper legislation on the employment relations should allow a mixture of both collective and individual bargaining, as well as it should also support in facilitating employee participation in the regular decisions taken at the workplace. The state provides a structure and framework for employment relationship, which is formally controlled by the legislation to secure good employment relations (Combet 2005). Australian modern workplace The main debate regarding the industrial relations in Australia is to organize and manage the labor practices. On the other hand, there is a difference in opinion of both the current government and the opposition in relation with the present industrial relations laws, and the main issues are concerned with the use of the third parties or unions, individualist and collectivist frames of reference and individual vs. collective bargaining. The proper employment relation laws are to protect minimum wage, outlaw discrimination, prevent the abuse of power by either party, and determine minimum standards of safety, health, hygiene, and minimum employment conditions (Bailyn and Fletcher 2002). In order to determine pay and other key conditions of the employment, government has used legislation to establish industrial tribunals tasked with the role in the past. The state has also played a key role in preventing and settling industrial disputes. In the earlier times, the center of attention was on collective bargaining through unions and employers, in the region of minimum wages and conditions laid down by the tribunal. This model was created on the whole purpose and did not acquaint with the individual requirements of both employees and employers. But, presently, the legislation has altered to try and support better flexibility among workers and managers (Crosby 2002). If it is analyzed from both the viewpoints, the Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) or the individual contracts are mainly considered as superior for the employment relations, as they help in increasing and enhancing the flexibility and also allows removing the impact of the third party. On the other hand, a few believe that these leads to the reduction of bargaining power of the employees (Alexander and Lower 2004). The determination of the rules and regulations can be collectively influenced by the workers at the workplace by ravening the employer of labor to surplus value. This can help in clearly demonstrating the value of unions to the workers as they can present a degree of power above employers particularly at the time of dealing with wages and conditions. The employment relations are lead to adverse results if it excludes unions because it helps the employers to allow and relate to their worker in an individual manner. The present legislation has provided the employees with the secure perception of job security. Because, when the employers sack the employees, they may consider it as harsh and unjust treatment, which further gap between workers and employees which can lead to conflict and distrust in the employment relationship (Todd 2007). The Fair Work Act 2009 In 2009, there has been a great change in the workplace relations of Australia. These new systems for workplace relations are known as Fair Work, which have been especially framed in order to balance the requirements of employees, the employers and the unions. The Fair Work Act 2009 has been considered as a new legislative framework for workplace relations. Fair Work is mainly formulated to bring a balance, which will support Australia in becoming more aggressive and affluent without eradicating the workplace rights and assured minimum standards (Otobo 2000). The Australian Government has established itself as a well-known and independent arbitrator, Fair Work Australia, to oversee Fair Work. It mainly concentrates on providing speedy and successful support for employers and employees. Fair Work Australia also has the authority to show a discrepancy on awards, approve agreements, formulate minimum wage orders, settle on unfair dismissal claims and create orders on such matters as superior assurance bargaining and industrial action, in order to support the employees and employers in resolving disputes at the workplace (Fells 2002). Therefore, the state provides a helping hand to maintain better relationships for the employees and the employers at the workplace. This kind of role regulated by the state legislation helps the mangers to make right decisions for hiring and firing the employees. For instance, the federal Work Choices legislation, which has recently been passed has supported in providing an industrial environment, which assures to decrease the role of unions and facilitate the employees in negotiating (Giles and Anthony 2009). According to the present industrial relations laws, the managers are given more powers to have more control and power regarding employment relations. On the other hand, the alternative recruitment strategies have been adopted by the employers for the emergencies like overseas recruitment and lateral entry etc, this is because the employers try to attract the employees which have resulted in strengthening the negotiating power of individual workers (Deery, Mitchell and Richard 1999). The management can reward their productive workers with the use of individual contracts and it also allows to layoff the non productive workers. In some of the incidents, it has been observed that these types of employees do not agree with the objectives of the company and are generally strong unionists. There are certain contracts that take away power and control from workers, and allow the managers to show evidence of a greater intensity of control over working conditions and compensation. This helps in clearly exhibiting that the legislation can also result in bad industrial relations which can create an unproductive and under paid labor force. This is the reason; many of the workers have been forced to sign on individual contacts which create frustration among them by the new laws created by the Howard government (Fox and Howard 1995). Therefore, it is important for the managers to initiate employee participation, and as a result, giving employees an influence in the company decisions which in turn will make a contribution to create better employment relationship. Across a diverse range of occupations the public sector employs a significant percentage of the Australian workforce, both state and federally. Teicher et al. explains that many of the practices are influenced by the public sector along with the employment relations strategies adopted by the private sector and over and over again government policies are intentionally created with the objective that the private sector will take on the same strategies. Since last decade, the state governments and the commonwealth have been adopting flexible employment conditions along with family friendly environment, in order to enable workers to structure their working hours around family commitments. For instance, the implementation of job-sharing, rostered days off, part-time employment, and working from home have been encouraged. From the implementation of AWAs and government’s workplace reforms, this strategy is also clearly evident. In order to negotiate employment contracts, a flexible streamline process for employer’s and individual employees, has been desired by the Federal Government. This has been accomplished by means of eradicating of appeal rights and practically all regulation of wages and conditions. Teicher et al. states that the a decentralized way has to be regulated in terms of wages and conditions, which has in turn created tension between employers and employees (Teicher 2006). Arguments against the state intervention Lansbury et al (1999) explains that the partnership programs such as employee participation and industrial democracy have been downgraded by the coalition government because they do not fit the more extreme approaches personified in the concepts of marketization and new public management. Some form of employee and managers participation should be included in order to form good industrial relations and also a more pluralist approach to management should be taken. This is because the employee participation helps in improving the productivity, and performance of the employees. The managers should be encouraged to remove the uneven distribution of power in the workplace, which will in turn enhance communication and flexibility between workers and managers (Lansbury and Macdonald 1999). The role of the state in the current system does not provide adequate protection for the most vulnerable members of the labor market, and in addition it has not smoothed the progress of a co-operative approach between unions and employers, for improving national economic presentation despite the fact of providing fair and evenhanded distribution of gains (Lansbury et al. 2004). This shows that it is essential to change the current industrial relations laws to encourage fairness to both the workers and employers. It is believed that proper employment relations laws help the government to address the issues related to the employees and employers in a better manner as well as form a balanced decision. The accelerating and excessively unfavorable contemporary policy about industrial relations had resulted in hindering the economic growth and prosperity of Australia, because of the excessive complication, involvedness, and inflexibility of the existing overlapping state and federal systems (Timo 2008). Conclusion With the critical analysis of the above discussion regarding the role of state in employment relations, it can be concluded that, the state should not intervene in the employee and employer relations to a certain extent, as it would result in hampering the economic growth of Australia. It is essential for the government to rationalize and simplify the overlapping, and complicated state and federal arrangements, by which the Australian employment relations are regulated in present times. It is also important to create a simpler and more efficient unified national system to achieve better employment relations. This type of strategical decision will help in forming effective Australian industrial relations under the federal jurisdiction. The other option can be a referral by the States to the Commonwealth, to allow the centralized parliament to pass and endorse widespread legislation for the direction regarding the terms and conditions of employment through awards, orders, or agreements. On the other hand, it is necessary to create a production framework in which sectoral interests are aimed for increasing productivity with an environment of self-governing collective bargaining, in this manner developing a more evenhanded or balance employment relationship. References Accel Team, 2007, Human Resource Management. [Online]. Available from: http://www.accel-team.com/human_resources/hrm_05.html [accessed on: 16 September 2012]. Alexander, R and Lower, J. 2004, Understanding Australian industrial relations. South Melbourne: Routledge. Bailyn, L and Fletcher, K. 2002, Work redesign: theory, practice, and possibility. US: JamshanPrinters. Combet. G. 2005. Your Rights at Work, Melbourne: ACTU. Crosby, M. 2002. Working futures: the changing nature of work and employment relations in Australia. Federation Press, pp. 258. Deery, Mitchell, S. and Richard J. 1999. Employment relations: individualisation and union exclusion : an international study, Federation Press.  Fells, R. E. 2002, The employment relationship, control and strategic choice in the study of industrial relations, Longman Cheshire, 36, pp. 502. Fox, C. and Howard, W. A. 1995. Industrial relations in Australia: development, law and operation. Melbourne: Routlegde. Giles and Anthony, 2009. Theories and concepts in comparative industrial relations, Columbia S.C, 67, pp.268. Lansbury, R and Macdonald, D. 1999. Workplace reform and enterprise bargaining: issues, cases, trends, 451 p. US: Jhntrends. Otobo, D. 2000. Industrial Relations: Theory and Controversies. Lagos: Malthouse Press Ltd. Teicher, J., 2006, Employee relations management :Australia in a global context. Ibadan: University Press Ltd. Timo, N, 2008, Labour and industr : a journal of the social and economic relations of work. Year of publication, 9(1). Todd T. 2007. Foundations of Industrial Relations. Crawley: University of Western Australia. Read More