Casual Employment, Labour Regulation and Australian Trade Unions

1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Employment Benefits ◽  
To Come ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Conditions Of Employment ◽  
Labour Regulation

This article explores the implications for trade unions of the rapid expansion in Australia of casual employment—a distinctive form of non-standard employment characterized by a lack of entitlement to most employment benefits and forms of employment protection. The article summarizes the main features of casual em ployment and the evidertce for its growth since 1982. It highlights the role of award regulation in shaping casual employment. Casual employment is identified as unprotected employment, which survived within the award system and indeed flourished in the gaps created by officially sanctioned exemptions from protection and limits in the enforcement and reach of award regulation. Labour market deregulation in the 1990s has in turn widened these gaps and facilitated both an expansion of casual employment and an extension of some casual conditions of employment into sections of the permanent workforce. These developments offer a major challenge to Australian trade unions. They underline the failure of tradi tional trade union policies, oriented to a simple rejection of all forms of non- standard employment. They pose a threat both to the set of employment rights and benefits slowly built up by trade union action in the course of past decades and to the legitimacy of trade unions as representative institutions. Australian trade unions are still struggling to come to grips with this threat. Traditional policies remain dominant, but recent trade union policy and practical efforts point towards a new approach that builds on a less hostile and more discriminating attitude to non-standard employment. In relation to the crucial issue of labour regulation the new approach pivots on the important theme of decasualization. The direction of change is promising. But the article argues that the new approach remains weak and underdeveloped as a result of its narrow orientation to the redesign of agreements within the shrinking sphere of effective regulation, its focus on casual status rather than casual conditions of employment and its inability to find effective levers for implementation

scholarly journals From Global Unions to the Shop Floor: Trade Union Networks in Transnational Corporations in Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Framil Filho ◽  
Leonardo Mello e Silva
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Local Labour ◽  
Transnational Connections ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Traditional Structures ◽  
Labour Power

This article analyses the origins, development and organisation of cross-union, company-based trade union networks in transnational corporations in the metal and chemical industries in Brazil. Collectively developed by local, national, foreign and international trade union organisations, this kind of union action was introduced in the country in the early 2000s as a way to connect local labour representatives organising workers in different locations within the same company. Networks strengthen local labour power and stimulate transnational connections. Promoting solidarity among workers across multiple factories, they offer the perspective for a global unionism connected to shop-floor organisation. Despite these achievements, networks face important challenges. Power imbalances, the reliance on restrictive social dialogue arrangements and the compromise with traditional structures limit the reach of the strategy.  KEY WORDS: globalisation; trade unions; new labour transnationalism; trade union networks; Brazil

scholarly journals The changing face of union action put to the test by neo-liberal reforms in France

Tempo Social ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Baptiste Giraud
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Union Action ◽  
The Relationship

This article reviews how French trade union are coping with the neo-liberal policies since the early 1980s. It shows their divergent reactions, and how these liberal reforms are implemented in a context of transformation of trade union action: the use of strikes is more difficult at the same time as the relationship between trade unions and collective bargaining is transformed in a logic of depoliticizing their strategies of action. These developments did not prevent a resurgence of strikes in the 2000s. It reveals the limits of the trade unions’ power of political influence, that implies the use of collective action. However, strikes have declined further in recent years, revealing the weakening of trade union mobilisation power.

Disputes Arising from. Non-Disclosure of Financial Information to Trade Unions

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Russell Craig ◽  
Geoffrey George
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Financial Information ◽  
Employment Protection ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Second Tier

Australian trade union use of financial information in second-tier bargaining may lead to information-disclosure disputes with employers. United Kingdom experience with the Employment Protection Act, 1975 is reviewed to identify the type of financial information likely to be the focus of such disputes. Prospects for resolution and policy options for mitigating the effects of similar financial information disclosure disputes in Australia are discussed.

scholarly journals THE ITALIAN WAY TO INTERNAL DEVALUATION AND SOCIAL ACTORS’ STRATEGIES AGAINST AUSTERITY AND THE FLEXIBILIZATION OF THE LABOUR MARKET

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-151
Author(s):  
Giulia Giulia ◽  
Giovanni Orlandini
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Labour Costs ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Union Action

Introduction: the Italian way to internal devaluation; 1.a Precarization of labour and weakening of trade union action at company level (amendment of dismissal law); 1.b Circumvention of the CCNL by means of exceptional employment contracts; 1.c Downward competition on labour costs by means of outsourcing and value chains; 1.d Promotion of decentralized collective bargaining and its power to derogate from the law and freezing of collective bargaining in the public sector; 2. The trade union(s) strategies; 2.a Bargaining strategy; 2.b Judicial strategy; 2.c Confrontational strategy; 3. New challenges for workers and new challenges for their organization(s); 3.a Italian trade unions’ strategies; 3.b Alternative experiences of (and in favour of) precarious workers; 4. Anti-austerity protests: the involvement of trade unions and social movements; 5. Concluding remarks; Bibliography.

scholarly journals DETERMINING THE THRESHOLD FOR ORGANIZATIONAL RIGHTS: THE LEGAL QUAGMIRE FACING MINORITY UNIONS RESOLVED – South African Post Office v Commissioner Nowosenetz No (2013) 2 BLLR 216 (LC)

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarence Tshoose
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
South African ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Industry Level ◽  
Pluralistic Approach ◽  
The Right ◽  
Conditions Of Employment

The issue of organizational rights facing minority unions has been a quagmire since the advent of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995(hereinafter “the LRA”). This quagmire exists, notwithstanding the fact that the Constitution affords every trade union the right to engage in collective bargaining (s 23 of the Constitution, 1996). The acquisition of organizational rights by trade unions plays a crucial rolein as far as collective bargaining is concerned. It is through collective bargaining that unions are able to negotiate with employers regarding the terms and conditions of employment. Commentators have often viewed the LRA as favouring larger unions and as conferring clear advantages on unions with majority support at the industry level. Chapter III of the LRA regulates collective bargaining. Whereas this chapterostensibly promotes a pluralistic approach to organizational rights it is unequivocally biased towards majoritarianism. This is the case despite minority trade unions fulfilling an important role in the current labour system especially when it comes to the balance of powerin the employment arena. In light of the above, the legal quagmire faced by the minority unions in the quest for acquiring organisation rights in terms of the relevant provisions of the LRA is clearly illustrated by the decision in South African Post Office v Commissioner Nowosenetz No ((2013) 2 BLLR 216 (LC) (hereinafter “ the South African Post Office case”)).

The Politics of Social Inclusion and Labor Representation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Connolly ◽  
Miguel Martínez Lucio ◽  
Stefania Marino
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Immigrant Workers ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
European Level ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Union Renewal ◽  
Union Action

The book explores the question of social inclusion and trade union responses to immigration in the European context, comparing the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research the book focuses on how trade unions - particularly more established and institutionalised trade unions - respond to immigrant workers and what they perceive to be the important points of renewal and change that are required for a more integrated and supported immigrant community to emerge. The book also considers the role of European level trade union relations on the question of immigration and how trade unionists have attempted to deal with very different national configurations of trade union action. The book argues that we need to appreciate the complexity of trade union traditions, paths to renewal and competing trajectories of solidarity. While trade union organisations remain wedded to specific trajectories, trade union renewal remains an innovative if at times problematic set of choices and aspirations.

scholarly journals A problem of embeddedness

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 500-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Brandl ◽  
Alex Lehr
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Autonomous Agents ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Common Behaviour ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Transnational Trade

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a general micro-theoretical framework that helps to understand the embeddedness of trade unions within the European system of industrial relations, and the consequences of this embeddedness for industrial relations outcomes. First, starting from the paradoxical observation of a trend towards homogeneity within a complex, multi-layered European industrial relations system consisting of heterogeneous and autonomous agents, the paper aims to explicate the mechanisms which produce these similarities. Second, the paper seeks to analyse potential mechanisms for transnational trade union cooperation and, third, it concludes by outlining its applicability as the basis for methodological approaches which enable realistic and policy relevant analyses. Design/methodology/approach This paper is conceptual and focusses on the development of a general micro-theoretical framework which captures European industrial relations actors’ behaviour and outcomes. It integrates theoretical and empirical accounts from differing social science disciplines and from various methodological starting points on trade union action and interaction into one general micro-theoretical framework. Findings Starting from a typology of trade union goals, the authors show how various social mechanisms lead to interdependencies between trade unions and review empirical evidence for their consequences. The authors, then, identify a set of motives for transnational cooperation that would allow outcomes that are in line with trade union objectives. Originality/value Against the background that previous studies on trade union action and cross-national interaction have paid less attention to the puzzling stylised fact that industrial relations outcomes are mimicked by heterogeneous and autonomous agents actors in different countries, the authors address this research gap by developing a novel general micro-theoretical framework for the analysis of transnational trade union action and interaction in order to better understand the underlying causal mechanisms for the common behaviour and outcomes of autonomous actors.

scholarly journals Direct democracy and trade union action

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland Erne ◽  
Markus Blaser
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Federation ◽  
Transport Workers ◽  
Union Action

Until recently, the political influence of trade unions primarily relied on ties to labour-friendly political parties. Since the 1990s, however, party-union relations have deteriorated, forcing unions to consider complementary political strategies. This article reviews different direct democratic instruments at local, national and EU levels. We distinguish popular consultations initiated by government from above from citizens’ initiatives initiated from below and discuss corresponding trade union experiences in Germany, Italy, Ireland, Slovenia and Switzerland. We also analyse the successful right2water European Citizens Initiative (ECI) of the European Federation of Public Service Unions and the failed fair transport ECI of the European Transport Workers’ Federation at EU level. Whereas unions have successfully used direct democratic instruments to (i) defend social achievements or (ii) as a lever to extract policy concessions, direct democracy is also challenging. Successful direct democratic campaigns require unions that are able to mobilise their own rank-and-file and to inspire larger sections of society.

scholarly journals Guaranteed Minimum Income: New Spaces for Trade Union Action

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-127
Author(s):  
Eusebi Colàs-Neila ◽  
Josep Fargas
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Minimum Wages ◽  
Labour Law ◽  
Common Trends ◽  
Minimum Income ◽  
Union Action ◽  
Guaranteed Minimum Income

Trade unions have developed a very important role guaranteeing minimum incomes through collective bargaining. However, after the last Great Recession and austerity policies imposed by the Troika on many countries, among which Spain, the traditional mechanism of fixing minimum wages has become less effective on many occasions. Nonetheless, it has been argued that trade unions are following various new paths in order to guarantee minimum wages, both in Spain and in comparative labour law, and these share several common trends. This paper aims to analyse these paths and which convergences in trade union practices and strategies can be detected in this field. Los sindicatos han desarrollado un papel muy importante en garantizar ingresos mínimos a través de la negociación colectiva. No obstante, tras la gran recesión y las políticas de austeridad impuestas por la Troika a muchos países, entre ellos España, el mecanismo tradicional de fijación de salarios mínimos ha sido menos eficaz en muchas ocasiones. A pesar de ello, se sostiene que los sindicatos están siguiendo diversos nuevos caminos para garantizar ingresos mínimos, tanto en España como en el derecho del trabajo comparado, que comparten muchas tendencias comunes. Este artículo se centra en analizar esas vías y las convergencias en las prácticas y estrategias de los sindicatos en este terreno.

scholarly journals Trade union responses to precarious employment: the role of power resources in defending precarious flight attendants at Ryanair

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-445
Author(s):  
Pedro Mendonça
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Airline Industry ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Flight Attendants ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Trade Unionism ◽  
International Solidarity ◽  
Union Action ◽  
The Impact

Drawing on a case study on the civil airline industry in Portugal, this article addresses the impact of precarious employment on trade union action and examines the conditions under which trade unions defend precarious workers’ interests. Using a power-resource theoretical framework, findings in this article highlight that cost-cutting employment practices are used strategically by employers to curb collectivisation and trade unionism. In addition, this article shows that when trade unions engage in an inclusive strategy to defend precarious workers’ interests, the compounded and inter-linked effect of trade union power resources, network embeddedness and international solidarity may be key to achieving success. S’appuyant sur une étude de cas portant sur l’industrie du transport aérien civil au Portugal, cet article traite de l’impact de l’emploi précaire sur l’action syndicale et examine les conditions dans lesquelles les syndicats défendent les intérêts des travailleurs précaires. À partir d’un cadre théorique fondé sur les ressources du pouvoir, les conclusions de cet article soulignent que les pratiques de réduction des coûts de l’emploi sont utilisées de manière stratégique par les employeurs pour freiner la collectivisation et le syndicalisme. En outre, cet article montre que lorsque les syndicats s’engagent dans une stratégie inclusive pour défendre les intérêts des travailleurs précaires, les effets combinés et interdépendants des ressources de pouvoir des syndicats, de leur ancrage dans les réseaux et de la solidarité internationale peuvent être la clé du succès. Der vorliegende Artikel beruht auf einer Fallstudie über die zivile Luftfahrt in Portugal und befasst sich mit den Auswirkungen prekärer Beschäftigung auf gewerkschaftliches Handeln sowie mit den Bedingungen, unter denen die Gewerkschaften die Interessen prekär beschäftigter Arbeitnehmer wahrnehmen. Die Autoren nutzen den Rahmen der Machtressourcentheorie für ihre Untersuchung und kommen zu dem Schluss, dass kostensenkende Beschäftigungspraktiken von Arbeitgebern strategisch genutzt werden, um gegen kollektives Handeln und Gewerkschaftsbewegung zu agieren. Darüber hinaus zeigt der Artikel, dass es für die Gewerkschaften ein Schlüssel zum Erfolg sein kann, wenn sie zur Wahrnehmung der Interessen prekär beschäftigter Arbeitnehmer eine inklusive Strategie nutzen, die auf sich gegenseitig verstärkende und ergänzende gewerkschaftliche Machtressourcen, Einbettung in Netzwerke und internationale Solidarität setzt.

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