The change in emphasis from centralized to decentralized bargaining has sharply increased the attention being paid to bargaining over productivity at the workplace level. Bargaining outcomes for womert may be adversely affected by the problem of defining productivity in service work, and by women's industrial weakness. In this paper both problems are examined, in isolation and as they may interact with each other. The experience of women with decentralized arrangements in the United States of America is used to illustrate the issues raised. Finally, the concerns identified in the paper are tested against early survey results of productivity measures and bargaining outcomes in Australian workplaces.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Access Economics, Service Industries: Towards a More Productive and Adaptable Sector: A Report Prepared for the Australian Coalition of Service Industries, Canberra, 1990, photocopy.
2.
Beechey, V., 'Studies of Women's Employment', in Feminist Review (ed.), Waged Work, London , Virago Press, 1986, pp. 130-59.
3.
Bennett, L., 'The Construction of Skill: Craft Unions, Women Workers and the Conciliation and Arbitration System', Law in Context, 1984 , vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 112-27.
4.
Bergman, B., 'Pay Equity—Surprising Answers to Hard Questions', Challenge, May/June 1987, pp. 45-51.
5.
Blinder, A. 'On Dogmatism in Human Capital Theory', Journal of Human Resources, vol. 11, no. 1, 1976, pp. 8-22.
6.
Burgess, J., 'Marginal Workers and the Australian Labour Market', in Mark Bray and Vic Taylor (eds), The Other Side of Flexibility: Unions and Marginal Workers in Australia, Sydney, Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Teaching, 1991, pp. 14-43.
Burton, C., Hag, R. and Thompson, G., Women's Worth: Pay Equity and Job Evaluation in Australia, Canberra, AGPS, 1987 .
9.
Business Council of Australia, The Measurement and Distribution of Productivity, Queanbeyan, BCA, 1986.
10.
Commonwealth of Australia, Submission to the National Wage Case, June-July 1988, Canberra, AGPS, 1989.
11.
—, Submission to the 1991 Review of Wage Fixation Principles, vol. I. Canberra, AGPS, 1991.
12.
—, Submission to the 1993 Review of Wage Fixation Principles, July/August, 1993, Canberra, AGPS. All references are to the transcript of proceedings. Exhibit 11 has been published as Short, M., Preston, A. and Peetz, D., The Spread and Impact of Workplace Bargaining: Evidence from the Workplace Bargaining Research Project, Canberra, AGPS, 1993.
13.
Confederation of Australian Industry (CAI), National Wage Case Submission, September 1991, Exhibit: Productivity Distribution at the Enterprise Lerel.
14.
-, National Wage Case Submission, November, 1990, Exhibit 3'. The Role of Service Industries.
15.
Davidoff, L. and Hall, C., Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780-1850, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1987.
16.
Department of Industrial Relations, Women in Restructured Awards, Canberra, 1990.
17.
Department of Industrial Relations, Workplace Bargaining: The First 100 Agreements, Canberra, 1992.
18.
Eisenstein, Z.R., 'The Sexual Politics of the New Right: Understanding the "Crisis of Liberalism" for the 1980s', Signs, Spring 1982, p. 576.
19.
Game, A. and Pringle, R., Gender at Work, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1983.
20.
Gilder, G., Wealth and Poverty, New York, Basic Books, 1981.
21.
Green, R., 'The Impact of Product and Labour Markets on Workplace Industrial Relations' , Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey Seminar Series Paper no. 2, Canberra, Department of Industrial Relations, September 1991.
22.
Gregory, R.G., Anstie, R., Daly, A. and Ho, V., 'Women's Pay in Australia, Britain and the United States: The Role of Laws, Regulations and Human Capital', paper for panel on Pay Equity Research , National Research Council, Washington , 14 and 15 September, 1987.
23.
Gregory, R.G. and Daly, A.E., 'Can Economic Theory Explain Why Australian Women are so Well Paid Relative to their US Counterparts?', paper presented at the Eighth Conference on Women's Wages: Stability and Change in Six Industrial Countries, Chicago, March 1990.
24.
Hall, C., 'The Early Formation of Victorian Domestic Ideology', in Sandra Burman (ed.), Fit Work for Women, London, Croom Helm, 1979.
25.
Hilmer, F.G., Coming to Grips with Competitiveness and Productivity: A Paper Prepared for the Economic Planning Advisory Council, Canberra, 1991.
26.
Iohnston, N., 'Implementing the Carmichael Report', a paper for the IIR Conference: The Changing Focus of Vocational Education and Training—the New Agenda for TAFE, 3-4 December 1992 .
27.
Kelly, R., Pay Equity for Women in the Confectionery Industry: An Analysis of Issues and Options for Change, Equal Pay Research Series no. 3, Canberra, 1992.
28.
Lattimore, R., 'The Productivity Performance of Australian Manufacturing: Research Paper 3', Canberra, Bureau of Industry Economics, 1990.
29.
Lever-Tracy, C., 'Re-orienting Union Strategies on Part-time Work', in Mark Bray and Vic Taylor (eds), The Other Side of Flexibility: Unions and Marginal Workers in Australia, Sydney, Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Teaching, 1991, pp. 75-92.
30.
Metal Trades Federation of Unions/Australian Council of Trades Unions, Joint Written Submission in support of Metal Trades Industry Association/ Metal Trades Federation of Unions Agreement, September, 1991.
31.
Metal Trades Industry Association of Australia and Others, Metal Industry Award 1984—Part I (ODN C. no. 02568 of 1984) Draft Order—Appendix I—Enterprise Bargaining Guidelines, Sydney, 1991.
32.
National Catholic Committee on Industrial Relations, Submission to the 1991 Review of Wage Fixation Principles Canberra, AGPS.
33.
Daxaca, R., 'Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets', International Economic Review, vol. 14, no. 3, 1973, pp. 693-709.
34.
O'Donnell. C. and Hall, P., Getting Equal: Labour Market Regulation and Women's Work, Sydney, Allen & Unwin1988, chapter 3.
35.
Paul, R.E., Divsions of Labour, London, Basil Blackwell, 1984.
36.
Phillips, A. and Taylor, B., 'Sex and Skill', in Feminist Reriew (ed.), Waged Work, Virago Press, 1986, pp. 54-66.
37.
Rose, S.O., 'Gender Antagonism and Class Conflict: Exclusionary Strategies of Male Trade Unionists in Nineteenth-Century Britain', Social History , vol. 13, no. 2, May 1988, pp. 191-208.
38.
Rummery, S., 'The Contribution of Intermittent Labour Force Participation to the Gender Wage Differential', Discussion Paper 89.02, Department of Economics, University of Western Australia, March 1989.
39.
Swindells, J., Victorian Writing and Working Women, London, Polity Press, 1985.
40.
Wages Policy', Industrial Relations and Management Newsletter, vol. 8, no, 8, September, 1991, pp. 4-6.
41.
Waring, M., Counting for Nothing, Wellington, Allen & Unwin, 1988.
42.
Wilkinson, J.,' Unions and Women Workers', in Bill Ford and David Plowman (eds), Australian Unions: An Industrial Relations Perspective, Melbourne , Macmillan, 1983.
43.
Women's Bureau, Pay Equity: A Study of 7 OECD Countries, Canberra, AGPS, 1987.
44.
Working Party on the Measurement of Labour Productivity, Report of the Working Party, Canberra, AGPS, 1976.
45.
Workplace Resource Centre (Hunter Region) Ltd, Key Performance Indicator Training Module Participant Workbook 1991, unpublished.
