Since the late 1980s there have been significant problems in the Korean auto industry related to employment relations. This paper focusses on the experience of three companies: Hyundai, Daewoo and Kia, which have pursued somewhat different strategies in industrial relations and human resource management. Hyundai, which is the largest auto producer, has experienced major labour disputes almost every year since 1987, but has reached an accommodation with its union in the past couple of years. Daewoo and Kia have both faced militant union leadership since the early 1990s. Kia’s management was rather indecisive, but Daewoo was more decisive and industrial relations appear to have stabilised. However, major industrial conflicts at the end of 1996, following the government’s attempt to reform labour laws, and the formation of a new independent peak union council, indicate that industrial relations in the Korean auto industry are likely to remain unsettled for some time.

In April 1997 the Australian Industrial Relations Commission established a federal minimum award wage of $359.40 per week, and awarded a $10 per week safety net increase for workers who had been unable to obtain wage increases under the regime of enterprise bargaining. The Commission produced a split decision, the first time this has occurred in twenty years. This article provides a commentary on the respective decisions of the majority and minority. It examines the background or context of the case, the claims of the parties, and the reasoning of the majority and minority in their respective decisions. The case reveals a widening gap in the income of workers. Those without bargaining power are falling behind in both real and relative terms, in the regulatory world of enterprise bargaining. The situation has only been partially addressed by the decision in this case.

This study examines long term changes in the industrial and workforce structure of the Australian construction industry and their effect on the capacity of the industry to invest in training. The study finds that restructuring has raised the barriers to employer investment in vocational training and is the principal cause of sustained skill shortages in the industry. Using the 1986 and 2001 Population Censuses and economic and labour force surveys, it examines the significant changes in the occupational, industry, firm size, educational attainment and demographic structure of employment in the industry that have occurred over the last two decades. The major drivers of change include: new technologies; evolving consumer tastes; an intensification of sub-contracting through the intra-industry division of labour; outsourcing of activities through the inter-industry division of labour; and reduced role of the public sector in the industry. The study also finds evidence that a large proportion of sub-trade vacancies are filled by qualified tradespersons. This finding has important implications for current strategies to address trade skills shortages. It is concluded that changes in industry and workforce structure which exacerbate the lack of employer investment in training are creating an industry which does not have the skilled people required to meet demands.

This essay analyses the relationship of two ‘Great Transformations’: the first from socialism to capitalism, more specifically in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and the second from regulated to unregulated capitalism in the global economy since the 1980s, with respect to their common origins, elements and social results. Applying Karl Polanyi’s double-movement concept, it is concluded that these two, in essence neoliberal, transformations have led to societies being deeply divided economically, socially and culturally. Moreover, the self-protection of transformation losers is generating adverse political outcomes on a global scale. For both reasons, the outcomes of neoliberal transformations are jeopardising also the viability of the European Union, which was initially built on the basis of a regulated capitalism. The future of the global economy and also of the European Union depends on how the conflicts between the deepening of unregulated globalisation, national sovereignty and democratic politics can be solved.

The National Wage Case decision of April 1991 has provided a crisis for the implementation of wages policy in Australia. Since 1983 wages policy has been implemented under a process which requires consistency between the principles under which the Industrial Relations Commission determines National Wage Case adjustments, and the elements of successive Commonwealth Government/ACTU Accords. The 1991 decision represents a rejection by the IRC of the thrust of the Government’s wages policy as presented in Accord V1. It is argued here that it is the shift in the primary goal of wages policy, from control of inflation to the promotion of allocative and operational efficiency, which has provoked the crisis. Unlike the Government, the IRC was not prepared to abandon control over the aggregate wage outcome in the pursuit of the uncertain productivity benefits of enterprise bargaining.

The April national wage decision doubted whether Australia’s industrial relations parties as yet possessed the “maturity” to conduct enterprise bargaining. This view is consistent with the traditional role of the Industrial Relations Commission and with the conclusions of the 1985 Hancock Report, which provided the rationale for a permanent regime of centralised wage-fixing in Australia. It is also supported to some degree by the results of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, which show that, despite the accumulating pressure for change, most workplaces currently lack the necessary ‘infrastructure’ for bargaining and consultation at enterprise level. In particular, the failure of Australian management to involve workers and unions in change may be seen as a major impediment to further workplace reform. The fundamental question which arises for industrial relations policy is whether to accept the situation as it is and hope for progress through the slow but steady implementation of award restructuring, or whether to provide an external impetus for the development of a workplace infrastructure through the establishment of a new framework for enterprise bargaining combined with legislation to promote information-sharing and consultation at the workplace. The central thrust of this article is that the latter approach will more effectively foster a ‘strategic bargaining’ culture in Australia.

The events following the collapse of Ansett Airlines in September 2001 provide an opportunity to explore the impact of internal labour markets on post-retrenchment labour market outcomes. This paper traces the labour market experiences of a sample of 649 former Ansett Airlines employees in the first eleven months after the airline’s initial closure. It reveals that many workers spent long periods in an employment limbo — officially ‘stood down’ but not retrenched — while waiting for their Ansett jobs to be resurrected under new ownership. During that time, many accepted fragmented, short-term placements in ‘bad’ jobs. After this initial period of uncertainty, however, many former Ansett employees found their way back to ‘good’ jobs — either in the aviation sector or in firms offering secure primary segment employment conditions. The uneven outcomes experienced by different groups of workers reflect the interconnections between workers’ perceptions of their options, their attachments to Ansett, their age and household circumstances in the context of weak demand for their skills. The paper illuminates the ways in which the personal loyalties, social networks and work expectations developed within Ansett’s rigid internal labour market shaped retrenched workers’ job search, recruitment and re-employment outcomes.

Adam Smith is widely regarded as the father of political economics, and as one who provided the philosophical underpinnings of much of neoclassical economics. Since the mid-1970s there has been renewed interest in, and reinterpretation of, Smith’s work. This paper looks at two aspects of this reinterpretation, the first of which is Smith’s writing on wages. Smith was an advocate of high wages, a view that strongly contrasted with the received wisdom of the day. He considered that a wage which provided for a reasonable standard of living was essential for the development of an economy. The second aspect encompasses Smith’s notion of the subsistence wage which traces its historic lineage to the Greek philosophers. The paper concludes that Smith, the champion of ‘liberty’ and non-government interference in markets, would probably have supported the notion of minimum wages, such as are now mandated in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Nevertheless, the mandating of minimum wages is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the achievement of living wage outcomes.

The Hayne Royal Commission into Australian financial sector misbehaviour reported in February 2019. It is, however, unlikely to provide a lasting solution to problems of financial sector misbehaviour. It has identified a number of types of misbehaviour, their ‘proximate causes’ and recommended solutions to those. But, reflecting its limited mandate and limited time, it was unable to investigate the complex question of whether there are more deep-seated, fundamental issues driving financial sector misconduct, both in Australia and globally. This article argues that there are, and that consequently the benefits from the Royal Commission will be relatively short-lived, with misconduct likely to resurface, albeit in different guises.

This article aims to provide insight into the employment relations in China-based multinational companies internationalising to Europe, a still relatively unexplored topic. We investigate the transfer of work and employment practices from Foxconn’s manufacturing headquarters in mainland China to its subsidiaries in Czechia and the factors that influence the firm’s internationalisation of production. By drawing upon original ethnographic fieldwork, the study makes a two-fold contribution. First, it shows the analytical inadequacy of the ‘latecomer’ model which assumes that the Chinese firm is an asset seeker. Second, it illustrates the relevance of diversity of labour and non-institutionalised forms of workers’ agency for theorisation of internationalisation. These topics are still insufficiently addressed by the literature that favours managerial agency and the model of distinctive and stable national labour forces. The study contributes to the theoretical debates on internationalisation by illustrating the limits of the national institutionalist perspective, the importance of considering a multi-scalar analytical framework and the relevance of labour composition in shaping multinational employment relations.

The Howard Government, supported by the Labor Opposition, legislated in 2007 to enable small businesses to engage in collective bargaining with large businesses under the Trade Practices Act. The object of the legislation is to facilitate greater equality in the bargaining power of the parties. Except where the small business sells goods/commodities rather than a service, a person who is ‘employed’ and the business that provides a ‘service’ are both effectively involved in the sale of labour or in the performance of work in the labour market. However, the legal concepts and procedures relating to collective bargaining in these two types of labour transactions are different. One, the ‘employment’ of persons, is placed in the category of workplace relations operating through labour law; the other, the ‘sale of services', is viewed as a commercial transaction, dealt with through commercial law. This paper considers the question of whether there are sufficiently significant differences between these labour/service transactions as to justify the application of two separate sets of laws to deal with them — one to cover transactions between employers and employees, and the other to cover transactions between small and large businesses. A case study will be used to illustrate the involved and unsatisfactory approach of the commercial law route in determining what is in essence a labour transaction rather than a commodity transaction.

This paper describes the various stages of industrialisation through which Malaysia has passed, beginning with import substitution in the 1960s, export-oriented industries of the 1970s to heavy industries in the 1980s. The public sector, which used to employ a substantial percentage of the labour force and a high percentage of ethnic Malays, has been reduced as a result of the government’s decision to corporatise and privatise many of its agencies. However, as more Malays have began working in the industrial sector, a new phenomena of an emerging Malay proletariat alongside the non-Malays has become evident. They now form more than half of the union leadership and are strongly represented among skilled workers. Whether the government will become more liberal with its laws and policies towards unions in the future is uncertain, as the democratic process in Malaysia has yet to gain a firm hold.

Much theoretical and empirical work by economists and psychologists has shown that the neo-classical approach is defective, and economists are now looking for an alternative. Evolutionary economics is the answer. It starts from the realistic premise that society and the economy are shaped by competition, but unlike neo-classical economics, it proceeds empirically by observing and analysing what has been happening to the economy and society. It does so on the premise that a process of social selection is taking place, analogous but not identical to that of biological selection. This dynamic approach requires a revival of economic history. By reporting on, and inviting debate over, what is happening and its implications, the adoption of an evolutionary approach should help restore the moral content of economics and the surrounding social sciences. Such a change in approach would be a paradigm shift, and will take time. That it will happen is likely: in the end facts kick.

In the period leading up to the federal government’s May 2009 announcement of a paid parental leave scheme, there was a surge in community and media debate about the absence of such a scheme in Australia. This article explores whether this context had some bearing on bargaining outcomes during that time. We analyse data from the Australian Workplace Agreements Database to determine the incidence and length of paid parental leave in collective agreements registered between 2005 and 2010. The results show an increase in the number of agreements that included paid parental leave clauses in the period, with just over 14% of all current agreements including a paid parental leave clause by 2010. Moreover, 18% of all agreements lodged in 2010 included a paid parental leave clause, suggesting an increase in bargaining outcomes over time. We also find a slight increase in the average duration of paid parental leave in collective agreements. A leave of 14 weeks is most common in public sector agreements but less than 3% of agreements in the private sector provide for 14 weeks or more. These marked differences between the public and private sectors suggest minimal change in private sector bargaining outcomes. We conclude that the legislative context does influence bargaining outcomes, but that this effect is felt more in public sector than private sector bargaining.

This study explores the impacts of the 2008–2009 economic crisis on joblessness in Turkey, incorporating into the analysis the marginally attached who would like to work if the opportunity existed, but are not actively searching for a job. We find that women were more likely than men to have a marginally attached status over the whole period of analysis, and during the time of the crisis, the number of marginally attached grew significantly faster for women than for men. The transition probability for the employed to become marginally attached and move out of the labour force rose substantially more for women than it did for men. The results obtained have important implications. Using conventional criteria, it is not possible to identify the degree of motivation to work or search for work in the case of women in Turkey, where the possibilities of shifting the care of burden to someone else or an institution are very limited, as a result of inadequate provisioning of public care services.

In this article we consider the Australian Football League Players’ Association (AFLPA) initial fixed percentage of revenue pay request for the 2012–2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the Australian Football League (AFL) in the context of theoretical predictions of models of player salaries in both settings of profit-maximising and win-maximising clubs. We then explore the AFL data from 2001–2009 and show that the declining share of player salaries as a proportion of revenue is consistent with the predictions from these theoretical models. This poses the question of what the league and the clubs do with the additional revenue if they are not paying it to the players. We explore alternative talent investments (better coaching, improved facilities) as a club strategy and the changing spending on game development as a league strategy.

This article adopts a labour process theory approach to analysing distinct circuits of labour control in platform video game work in China, a novel manifestation of the platform economy rooted in the special formation of Chinese gaming infrastructure as well as in precarious labour regimes. Platform game work encompasses a broad range of online video game services such as live game streaming, paid boosting, and game companion, matching customers’ demands to workers who provide entertainment or assist play. Platform game work has drawn an estimated seven million young workers into precarious employment during the past decade. The article outlines three interwoven features defining the fragmented control of platform game work: the crucial function of extra-platform intermediaries in regulating labour processes; the deployment of relationship labour in order matching and community management; and the mutual reinforcement of platform diversity and fast-moving platform architecture. These three features co-create a decentralised yet resilient structure organised by a network of platform and non-platform, human and machine agencies. Positioning platform game work in the broad spectrum of gig work, the article illuminates new modes of labour control and workers’ embedded agency, adding to the nascent literature on diverse labour regimes and subjectivities in the platform economy.

The institutions of industrial relations have proved to be more malleable than I expected in the mid-eighties, and the ‘system’ has, for better or for worse, been transformed.

Underlying forces conducive to change have been the economy’s exposure to external competition, related changes in the structure of industry and employment, the pervasive free market ideology and a sustained decline in union density. More fortuitous factors, such as the antipathy of an ACTU Secretary to members of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, a Prime Minister’s entrenched hostility to the ‘system’, the Coalition’s unexpected capture of a Senate majority in 2004 and the High Court’s validation of WorkChoices, have also contributed to the present state of play.

Labour market ‘deregulation’ is a major economic policy issue in Australia. Some of the desire for deregulation has been part of a worldwide trend in OECD countries whilst some comes from more localised disquiet about the alleged effect of Australia’s industrial relations institutions on the economy. This article looks at the evidence em Australian labour market regulation and its relation to economic performance. The article finds that Australian labour market institutions have had little effect on efficiency but have provided important distributional outcomes. Furthermore it is argued that with ‘globalisation’ there is more reason to continue labour market protection not less to enhance Australia’s capacity to trade and invest in the global economy.

This historical paper analyses the distributional consequences of computerisation on the wage share of income in United Kingdom (UK) workplaces in the first decade of this century. The reasons why computerisation might increase a firm’s income but reduce the share assigned to wages are still not well understood. The uniquely rich Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004–2011 includes firm-level measures of the main production inputs and outputs, and thus allows an analysis of the main mechanisms through which increased computer usage influenced the wage share of income in UK workplaces over this period. This analysis shows that the proportion of employees using computers impacted the wage share in ways that were at odds with two mainstream views: that computers complement capital, and that labour can be easily replaced by capital. The results show that the proportion of employees using computers reduced the wage share by disproportionally increasing the productivity of the least skilled employees, who were not proportionally compensated for their increase in productivity. The stability of the wage share, over the period of interest, is explained by the rise in a workplace’s share of professional employees and by a rise in work effort. This positive contribution to the wage share was counteracted by an increased share of employees using computers and by a reduction in the share of employees whose pay was negotiated by unions, thereby contributing to a decline in the wage share of firm income.