Joint Consultation and Industrial Relations: Experience from Australia and overseas

Abstract

Although Australia has been slow to introduce formal consultative arrangements at the workplace level, there has been an expansion of activities in this area over the past decade. These developments have been facilitated by award restructuring and various other measures of workplace reform. The recent Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey indicated that both managers and union delegates were generally satisfied with the operation of joint consultative committees. The survey results also showed that the incidence of joint consultation was positively correlated with levels of productivity. Yet there have been no moves to provide a legislated basis for joint consultation in Australia. By contrast, the rights of workers in many Europoean countries to both consultation and information are guaranteed by law. The propopsed European Works Councils provide one approach to a legal framework which is worthy of consideration in Australia. This is of particular significance as the trends towards greater. decentralization and enterprise-level bargaining gains momentum. The effective utilization of consultative mechanisms, however, requires different skills and approaches from those which have characterized traditional industrial relations practices in Australia. Irrespective of whether a legislative framework is provided, the issue of joint consultation is likely to continue to be important in the debate as new frameworks of industrial relations are developed to meet changing economic and social circumstances.