scholarly journals Work and Industrial Relations

2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell D. Lansbury
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Employee Voice ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
Community Groups ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Government Organizations ◽  
Workplace Relations ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Multi Level

The relevance and continuing existence of industrial relations, as a field of academic study, is facing a number of challenges, particularly in English-speaking countries, as union membership declines, collective bargaining coverage shrinks and the number of strikes wanes each year. Yet issues of employment and workplace relations remain significant to economic prosperity and social harmony, particularly with the changing nature of work and of employment contracts. Furthermore, there are a number of other means by which employee voice is heard, through the agency of non-government organizations, community groups and various consultative bodies. In order to reinforce its relevance, industrial relations needs to include new actors, cover a wider range of issues and adopt a multi-level approach which incorporates both local and global dimensions.

scholarly journals The Structure of Bargaining under the Employment Contracts Act

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian McAndrew
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Employment Contracts

Under the Employment Contracts Act 1991, the stucture of contracting is left for negotiation beteeen the parties, rhetorically so that the parties can fashion mutually satisfactory arrangements attuned to their particular ne,eds and circumstances. This paper presents survey data that dernonstrates thatJ while the extent of employee concessions differs benveen individual and collective contracts patterns of contract structures are developing by workforce size and pre-Act union strength and show no relationship to the market circunzstances or cost pr,essures under "which firms operate. "Decisions on bargaining structure are at the hean of the management of industrial relations" (Kinnie, 1987:463). The purpose of this paper is to report, through the presentation of research data, on the structure of bargaining, and associated contract structures, emerging under New Zealand's Employment Contracts Act of 1991.

The role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Paolucci
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Multi Level

This article examines the role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector in Italy and Denmark. My multi-level and comparative focus on collective bargaining highlights that sector-level industrial relations institutions account for a considerable degree of within-country homogeneity in the content of company agreements over issues of flexibility and security. Moreover, it shows that the degree of company-level heterogeneity is conditioned primarily by firm-level contingencies: union representation and organizational characteristics. This means that at company level, both institutional and non-institutional structures are important explanatory variables.

challenge-hindrance stressor and employee voice: the role of multi-level empowerment

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 13763
Author(s):  
Pengcheng Zhang ◽  
Mingze Li ◽  
Silu Chen ◽  
Guanglei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Employee Voice ◽  
Multi Level

Employer Strategies Towards Non‐Union Collective Voice

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Gollan
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Non Union ◽  
Collective Voice ◽  
Dual Channel ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Legislative Changes ◽  
Union Voice

Non-union collective voice (NCV) has tended to play a minimal role in many Anglo industrial relations systems, with few formal processes or legal requirements. However, the lack of representative structures covering increasing numbers of non-union employees due to declining levels of trade union density and legislative changes banning closed shop or compulsory union arrangements have prompted the current interest in NCV arrangements. This article explores management strategies towards, and the development of, NCV arrangements and union responses to such arrangements in predominately English-speaking countries. It also tracks the development of dual-channel NCV and union voice arrangements, and examines the interplay between channels of NCV and trade unions. Overall, the article reviews this theory and raises debates around management strategies and issues involved in the process of transition from NCV to unionism.

Taking the Low Road: Minimum Wage Determination under Work Choices

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 741-756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Cowling ◽  
William Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Minimum Wage ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
Wage Determination ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Wage Setting ◽  
Workplace Relations ◽  
Work Choices

The Workplace Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005 changes the architecture of labour market regulation in Australia in a significant way. The focus of this article is on changes to the regulatory framework for minimum wage determination and the rationale for, and likely consequences of, conferring this power on the Australian Fair Pay Commission. Underpinning the Work Choices package is the view that Safety Net wage rises awarded by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission have had negative effects on employment. In this article we establish that the evidence to support this claim is weak, and is being used to engineer a historic shift in the objectives of the Australian wage setting process. We argue that the new legislation will act as a downward drag on the pay and conditions of minimum wage workers and advance an alternative policy approach in which attaining full employment does not require us to abandon the principle of fairness or a decent wage floor.

scholarly journals Pacts for employment and competitiveness – an opportunity to reflect on the role and practice of collective bargaining

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Sisson
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Level System ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
National Systems

Pacts for employment and competitiveness (PECs) raise understandable concerns about the potential for ‘concession bargaining', ‘regime competition’ and the fragmentation of the inclusive collective bargaining structures characteristic of most European national systems. PECs are not themselves the source of the problem, however, and are unlikely to be a temporary phenomenon. Rather PECs are a manifestation of wider changes taking place in the process and structure of collective bargaining, reflecting the more complex role collective bargaining is playing in the light of ‘globalisation’ in general and ‘Europeanisation’ in particular. These developments are also bringing about a measure of convergence across EU countries in the form of substantial changes in the levels, scope, form and output of collective bargaining, all of which are being encouraged by the emerging multi-level system of industrial relations in Europe.

Missionaries of science: provincial lectures in nineteenth-century Ireland

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (135) ◽  
pp. 266-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enda Leaney
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
National Development ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
National Education ◽  
Secular Education ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Differences

For social reformers in nineteenth-century Ireland, science had an important role to play in national development. Non-denominational or secular education was targeted by the government as a possible panacea for the Irish problem, submerging sectarian and political differences. In order to promote this secular ethos, the government established agencies such as the Board of National Education (B.N.E.) in 1831 and the Queen’s Colleges of Belfast, Cork and Galway in 1845. Science seemed to be an area of discourse particularly appropriate to the promotion of economic prosperity and social harmony through the common cause of education. The rhetoric of cultural transcendence was long associated with the advancement of science — from the Royal Society of London (1660) to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1831) — and took root in nineteenth-century Ireland.

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