How Is the Employment Relationship in Australia Changing - Essay Example

How is the employment relationship in Australia changing Why is this so The employment relationship in Australia has been an evolving one and the past couple of decades have observed a great deal of changes. Most of these changes have been highly innovative, although the means by which these changes have been introduced have varied. The inclination towards which workplace relationship have changed include from centralized to decentralized work regulation and employee relationship, from awards and jointly negotiated agreements to individual contract of employment, from full time permanent jobs to contingent workers, and from a pure pluralist employment system of employment relation to unitarist approach where collective bargaining powers of employees are diminished. In the past existed a tradition of centralized regulations of wage rates and working conditions through the granting of awards and various other agreements by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission was permitted through the industry as well as national level. While somewhere from the last decade there was a drastic reduction in the Commission's influence to placate and arbitrate award matters. And to add to these individual agreements between employers and workers was encouraged at all enterprise level. (Plowman, 361-363) Jargon such has high dedication and participation and high functioning work systems have entered the lingo of employees to denote new approaches and methods to management styles which reiterate the importance of certain work practices like team work, multitasking and high employee association to achieve and maintain high levels of eminence and productivity. But surveys have shown that employees feel strongly that they are not consulted on key an issue which inevitably affects their work. In additions works feel stress level rising as they are being overworked and due to a reduction in job security. Changes and innovations of any kind usually occur by a number of means and various reasons. Some changes are evolutionary and proceed with gradual increment, on the other hand changes made by the synchronization of management, workers, and unions are usually permanent. (Lansbury, n..p) One of the most important and interesting changes in the last few decades regarding work reforms has been the relationships between the macro and enterprise level. Many workplace issues if not all have important to economic and sociopolitical debate, which both major political parties have claimed superiority. The Labor Party that reigned from 1983 to 1996 strived to achieve change through a formal concurrence. Employees agreed to moderate wage levels to curb inflation with the promise of future economic and social reforms. With strong support from the unions the government also undertook the initiation for workforce market modification, which primarily included decentralization of employment relations. At the dawn of 1990's the Labor Government provided flexibility to non-union agreements at a workplace, although being controversial t revamped thinking and cemented the way for more deep-seated changes during the later half of the 1990's after Labor lost office. On the other hand a more hard line policy was pursued by the Liberal-National Party Collation Government after the elections of 1996, on labor market restructuring and relationships with union activities becoming tumultuous. Under the new collation government reforms were bought through a more unilateral recommendations then collaborations with workers and their unions. Sadly the government promoted individual growth and not collective changes for the entire overall workplace. It is therefore essential to consider changes in relations in workplaces at a national level and enterprise level, in Australia worker relationship has been institutionalized for the better part of the twentieth century as unions play an important role id efficiently regulating the labor market. Consistent stability after the Second World War, employment relations have undergone persistent changes. To efficiently and concisely describe these changes, from the year 1983 to 1993 wage determinations changed from centralized to managed decentralism, 1993 to 1996 experiences coordinated flexibility, and since 1996 fragmented flexibility prevailed. Both political parties In Australia have placed a great amount of importance on Industrial Relations. Both parties have emphasized on the need to achieve a greater level of flexibility and changed in the workplace barring the fact that they disagree on the means of achieving it. Under Labor, there was an essential transition to centralized industrial relations under the string consent AIRC. The initial part of Labor government there was a brief period where there was a return to centralized wage determination. It was claimed by the Hawke government throughout this tenure and the previous Liberal National Party worsen industrial squabble. The Hawke government tried to prevent a renewed price wage spiral. The new agreement also wanted collaboration government and unions to achieve social development and controlling inflation. As Australia faced an adverse balance of payment and other economic problem during the 1980s, it is for this reason that the government relinquished the centralized approach and acquired the managed decentralism. A 'lean management" are now more widely practiced in Australian Auto mobile industry in particular, where closely defined job specifications has done away with. Teamwork and group dynamics have been widely practiced even without much success, but now widely practiced in the industry. While most worker unions were initially hesitant about the introduction of teamwork and other reorganization fearing they would result in increased work stress but actually resulted in skill related pay. Another innovation has been the introduction of employee participatory programs and well as higher responsibilities in the decision making model. While employment in industries like steel, but on the whole enjoyed profitability till the government issued the car industry plan. (Plowman, 361-363) In spite the placement of a revamped program for workplace and industrial relationships by Labor, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) representative of the largest employers believes that the labor market is being over regulated, also that to achieve increased competitiveness it is imperative to introduce a more detailed enterprise-based bargaining with reduced intervention from unions. They also claimed that this would further enhance the mutuality of employee management interests and strained the concept of individualism and flexibility. Expectedly criticism by unions and various independent commentators but the BCA was persuasive in causing Labor's government to change its relations strategy. While the gradual process of moving towards a decentralized system, focus on the 1990 National Wage Case when government, unions and employers imposed that collective bargaining should be made the future basis of wage increase. This came amidst the economic ambiguity and the opposition campaign that promoted enterprise bargaining. As of first the AIRC rejected all demands for enterprise Bargaining as all parties had a different approach and therefore the government promoted a more decentralized approach. The AIRC reserved the right to scrutinize all agreements so that public interest may be met, but employers apposed as it was too difficult to achieve enterprise agreements under such restrictions. Hence the government then issued amendments to the Industrial Relations Act, which reduced the power of AIRC considerably and provided more lucrative opportunities o employers to opt out of the prevalent award system. Even so the IRC still continued to maintain a safety net of minimum wages and working conditions of low paid workers, by conducting many wage hearings. With the re-election of Keating in the Labor government expansionary reforms were implemented to increase enterprise bargaining. Bulk of the reform contains ILO recommendations which provided employees with increased security and higher entitlements. Promotion of employee-employer relationship without intervention from unions this period was considered to be the dawn of coordinated flexibility where workers had the rights to strike agreements within the parameter governed by AIRC. This introduced the Enterprise Flexibility Agreements (EFAs) which was bought foreword with the 1993 reform Act, did not press for union involvement, although unions opposed that's it provided loop holes for employers wanting to avoid union and promote private individual contracts, which also later resulted in the major dispute in 1995 between Rio Tinto and its union, which although in this case was the employers fault. This also gave birth to Australian Workplace Agreement which was introduced by the collation government in 1996. Surprisingly the recent and partly effective set of reforms came from the election of Liberal-National government presided by John Howard. This new government aimed to revamp employment relations by drifting away from its collectivist roots, having strong unions and reconciliatory system., to a wider and effective fragmented system leading to individual bargaining. The 1996 Relations Act ventured more radically towards decentralization of worker relations and a wider non-union reducing AIRC intervention further. The 1996 relations act incorporated AWA, to entice workers to enter non-union agreements or individual work contracts. AWA only plays a minute role in the regulation of way but is a political icon and government's weapon to achieve its non-union goal, through various strategies announced ways to bring about light unionized workplaces to increase productivity and profitability. Most organizations in Australia have resorted to a more complex Human Resource process with high expectations of quality while others are content to keep costs low. An extreme case where extermination of unions was attempted by Patrick Stevedores, one of the key protagonists in the industry stated that its company had overpaid workers as the Maritime Union enjoyed a worker monopoly due to a strong hold over labor supply. And due to its unethical restrictive practices, new companies then replace workers with non-union employees. While practices tried to bring in reform without any loss his competitor introduced many changes by means of negotiations with workers and union leaders therefore using more collaborative measures. As the late 1990s continued to see reforms this had obviously not meant that collaborative employment relations had been abandoned. All workplace agreements in Australia are certified by AIRC, 35 percent of all employees in Australia earn their wages by reward, wile another 29 percent have their wages determined by fixed individual contracts. In spite of all the efforts companies find it difficult to mover away from collective bargaining. The Labor government all pledges that after coming back in power it will eradicate AWA, and again strengthen all forms of collective bargaining and the power to AIRC. Despite many notions that collective bargaining might bring about efficiency and greater productivity, there is doubt regarding this. It appears that an unsubstantiated direct relationship exists between relationships and productivity. On the other hand, it is found that productivity usually results from an increased collaboration between management and employees than the structure of wage bargaining. (Lansbury, n.p.) As seen there has been a substantial change in workplace relationship and innovation in Australia, there has been a decline in collaboration between employers and worker unions on various matters throughout the 1990s. Is from that time that various unions have expressed dissatisfaction on the fact that Federal governments support and inclination towards individualistic approach, collective bargaining and reduction in labor market institutions. Managements also bring changes now without consultation from its workforce. In times where unemployment rates are unacceptably high, workers are hired on need basis casually and are inevitable and passively forced to accept any changes made by employers. Therefore, in order to achieve higher performances and involvement collaboration needs to be high and interactive between workers and their employers. This inevitably is only possible if workers feel genuine job security and involvement in the decision making process. Australia has made a long journey in the transition of reforms and is unlikely to revert to centralized employment relations, having more coordination which brings about flexibility in the labor market having institutions with rigid framework, like AIRC who provides striking yet disjointed elasticity to the present system. Any form of change or innovation in the coming years will require having a strong visionary approach, which is willing to accept contributions and suggestions for all involved parties to achieve all its short term and long term goals in the labor supply market. Employers are now faced with a challenge to gain the trust of their workers who feel insecure. For unions it's a challenge to maintain cooperative relationship with employers. For the government making policies and frameworks without loop holes presents a challenge with in turn will ensure efficiency, equity and increase the future prosperity for Australia. Works Cited Burgess, J., (2006) The New Federal Workplace Relations System, Sydney: Pearson Dabscheck, J (2007) The Struggle for Australian Industrial Relations, Oxford Press. Gollan P. (1999) Bargained Out: Negotiating without Unions in Australia, the Federation Press, Sydney. Kitay, J (Eds) Changing Employment Relations in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Lansbury, Russell D. "Workplace Change and Employment relations Reforms in Australia." Australian Review of Public Affairs. University of Sydney. 12 Apr 2008 . Plowman, David H. "Origins of a Debate: A reply to Segal." The Journal of Industrial Relations vol. 47(2005) 361-363. 12 April 2008 . Read More