Australian Industrial Relations and the Management of Technological Change

Abstract

Technological change and the way in which it is introduced has become an important industrial question in Australia. In recent years the Australian trade union movement has become increasingly restive about the general absence of adequate standards of job protection and consultative rights. Pressures on the unrestricted rights of management to introduce new technology without trade union participation have accordingly become more intense. This paper looks at these pressures and in particular the recommendations of the Committee of Inquiry into Tech nological Change in Australia. It concludes that the development of consultative procedures to deal with the conse quences of changing technology are essential for stable industrial relations.