Journal of Industrial Relations

This paper provides a critical assessment of state deregulation policy, industrial restructuring and the erosion of union-based bargaining by analysing the role of the Swedish whitegoods transnational corporation, Electrolux, which bought out the last remaining Australian whitegoods manufacturer in November 2000. We contend that analysis of the global strategy of a transnational corporation provides insight into the dynamics of competition and changing power relations in a deregulated environment. Our research shows how deregulation intensifies global competition in a way that accelerates mergers and acquisitions, which create a high degree of concentration, further rationalisations and workplace restructuring. The latter has been facilitated by the 1996 Workplace Relations Act (WRA), which disorganises trade unionism and undermines solidarity cultures. This we illustrate through a short analysis of the restructuring Electrolux has implemented at a refrigeration plant in Orange, New South Wales. The corporation's mode of bargaining a new enterprise agreement is explored. The power imbalances this process re.ects will only be redressed when there is ‘a new social organisation of labour’.

Themes of marginalisation and disadvantage dominate much of the literature on non-standard employment and the studies which underlie these themes are generally restricted to the temporary, casual and part time workforce. This paper presents results from a survey of 240 professional workers in Australia who have moved into contract employment arrangements. A key focus of the paper is the establishment of the Push/Pull Matrix, a tool which analyses individuals’ movement into non-standard employment by explicitly recognising the relationship between both personal and situational factors. The survey results suggest that the themes of marginalisation and disadvantage are just as relevant to the professional contractor as they are to other forms of non-standard employment.

Industrial tribunals have been considering redundancy benefits for older workers, workers with long job tenure and casual workers (the latter group presently having no access to redundancy benefits regardless of tenure). This paper details labour market disadvantage faced by these categories of retrenched workers.

It is argued that adopting a networked organisational model improves organisational performance and provides opportunities for innovation and creativity. The model is premised on introducing a range of information and communication technology (ICT) into the work environment. ICTs establish a fundamentally different interface between workers and their tasks and also connect managers and workers in new ways that require re-conceptualising of labour management relations. This process necessitates adapting existing organisational structures and systems to account for changes in the way work is scheduled and organised and the way workers are managed. It is argued that organisations implementing such new organisational forms create non-traditional organisational boundaries and fewer bureaucratic structures through forming networks. These network arrangements may present an opportunity for shifting the labour management control nexus.

Alcohol and illicit substance abuse in the workplace is an important human resource and industrial relations issue. Although more sophisticated measures have been developed to test and monitor drug use in the workplace, and despite tacit union support on occupational health and safety grounds, the implementation of drug testing procedures remains contentious. This paper examines the arguments for and against drug testing in the workplace using an Australian case study where drug testing resulted in industrial disputation that led to legal intervention and remedy.

The impact of New Public Management reforms on industrial relations at the agency level of the Australian Public Service is a neglected area of research. To redress this deficiency, we examine the evolution of industrial relations in the second largest public service agency, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), an organisation that is in transition from a bureaucratised administration to a responsive provider of services. The employment relationship in the ATO has become more flexible and workplace focused, yet many characteristics of a collective form of regulation remain, suggesting an increasingly strategic response to complex demands. Although human resource management strategies of controlling work through values, behaviours and performance are on the ascendancy, their effective implementation faces significant barriers. In view of the size of the ATO, its policies and practices are likely to provide a reliable indicator of the evolution of industrial relations in the Australian Public Service at large.