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This report summarises the literature on the costs and benefits to business of adopting work-life balance practices including: flexible working (flexi-time, working from home, reduced hours, job sharing and term-time working); and policies specifically directed at families (maternity, paternity, parental leave/pay, and childcare support provision such as onsite nurseries).

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Following concerns raised about the Subclass 457 visa program, this inquiry was commissioned to recommend changes to the scheme. This report recommends that the government should: (1) abolish the minimum salary level in favour of market rates of pay for all temporary visa holders on salaries less than $100,000; (2) develop an accreditation system or risk matrix to ensure rapid processing of low-risk visa applications so employers can meet skills needs quickly; (3) develop new lists setting out the skilled occupations for which temporary work visas can be granted; and (4) limit visa holders to a stay of no longer than eight years in Australia (that is, two four-year visas or four two-year visas) while providing a pathway to permanent residency for those who have the required language skills. Show less

Two labour-market variables, wages and hours, are used to review the gender relations record of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and its predecessors. This review informs an assessment of what features of Commission practice and capacity should and can be replicated by Fair Work Australia. Arbitration has been most decisive for women in paid work when it has enjoyed national and industry distribution. Advances in equal pay and leave linked to reproduction are two relevant examples, although these advances have been confronted more recently by frailties in federal gender pay equity regulation and policy shifts to enterprise and individual bargaining. The findings suggest an agenda for Fair Work Australia, notwithstanding the possibilities and limitations posed by the Fair Work Act 2009 and the tendency for changes to the gender contract to be highly contested.

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Since the 1980s, the number of Asians migrating for employment has tripled to more than three million annually. This large flow of workers has enormous consequences for the migrants and their countries of origin and destination. Migrants achieve dramatic boosts in their incomes, and their home countries benefit from remittances, which amount to billions of dollars for the region as a whole, and in many countries dwarf official development assistance and foreign direct investment. At the same time, destination countries’ economies are boosted by the arrival of hardworking and flexible labour forces. However, migration also has costs. Migrant workers can be exposed to exploitation and discrimination - especially the increasing numbers of women migrants who are vulnerable to labour trafficking. For source countries, the income from remittances has to be offset against the departure of many of their most energetic and skilled workers who could be contributing to national development. How can the Asia-Pacific region maximize the benefits of labour migration and minimize the costs? The International Labour Organization (ILO) can assist countries in their efforts to create more orderly and equitable migration systems. This document provides an introduction to the services that ILO can offer.

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This publication is a compilation of write-ups covering basic points on issues related to labor issues and labor policies in Japan. The chapters are: Japanese economy and labor situation; Labor market; Human resource management; Labor-management relations; Labor administration and legislation; Social security system.

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Evidence is presented suggesting that about 600,000 workers, or 0.4 per cent of total US employment, work with an online intermediary in the gig economy. The authors propose the creation of a new legal category of workers, to be called 'independent workers', to address the current legal uncertainty regarding whether workers in the online gig economy should receive employment and tax benefits and protections. Independent workers typically work with intermediaries who match workers to customers. The independent worker and the intermediary have some elements of the arms-length independent business relationships that characterize 'independent contractor' status, and some elements of a traditional employee-employer relationship. The authors' proposal would allow independent workers to gain access to collective bargaining, various forms of insurance, civil rights protections, employer-provided benefits, and tax withholding.

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This article raises some of the issues for human resource development (HRD) arising from globalisation of the marketplace. Growth, diversification and technological development make business decision-making more complex and an increasingly large number of companies are now planning to meet these challenges. Aneja maintains that there is often conflict between the role of HRD and the role of industrial relations (IR) particularly as the employer-employee relationship in India is 'contractual, combative, political, legalistic and sometimes contradictory'. He presents some ideas to encourage HRD to become more proactive, discusses emerging techniques and suggests a new role as part of the total management system so that there is an integrated approach towards HRD and IR to form a cooperative work culture. Show less

In December 2021, the Australian Government asked the Productivity Commission to examine the long-term factors affecting the productivity, efficiency and dependability of Australia's maritime logistics system and to identify mechanisms to address issues raised through this work. This report summarises the Commission's draft advice against its terms of reference which include: to consider operational cost drivers, and specifically to examine: the performance of Australia's ports, including in comparison with ports internationally; impacts of the maritime logistics system on Australian consumers, business and industries; workforce issues in the system, covering industrial relations, labour supply and skills; infrastructure challenges in ports and connected landside supply chains; and technology uptake, innovation and data capture and sharing within the system.

Chapter 1 of the draft report includes information about the inquiry; chapter 2 overviews Australia's maritime logistics system (section 2.1), reviews trade flows (section 2.2) and describes key system actors (section 2.3); chapter 3 explores the performance of Australian container ports; chapter 4 considers the state of competition in the various markets that make up the maritime logistics system and sets out the Commission's framework for analysing competition; chapter 5 uses the framework to analyse whether port operators have market power, and if so, whether they exercise it; chapter 6 applies the framework for assessing market power developed in chapter 4 to the maritime logistics system excluding ports; and chapter 7 assesses port capacity and landside infrastructure.

Chapter 8 begins with a snapshot of Australia's port workforce (section 8.1), then describes the relevant parts of Australia's system of workplace relations (section 8.2). Section 8.3 sets out the structures that confer bargaining power to employees or employers. Section 8.4 discusses the link between workplace relations and productivity. Finally, section 8.5 describes how the Commission has given weight to the interests of all Australians in assessing whether changes are needed to the operations of workplace relations in Australian ports. Chapter 9 examines the operation and impacts of workplace relations in the ports and makes draft recommendations designed to promote productivity and reduce harm to third parties.

Chapter 10 focuses on skills, training and labour supply in on-water roles within ports and in stevedoring roles within container terminal operations because these are the parts of the system that inquiry participants have provided information on to date. The chapter: outlines how skills are acquired in on-water roles within ports and stevedoring roles (section 10.1); examines whether there are skills shortages in the ports and impediments to labour supply (section 10.2); and assesses the training system's capacity to adapt to future skills needs (section 10.3).

Chapter 11 provides a snapshot of how technology, data, information and innovation are used overseas and in Australia's maritime logistics system, identifying technologies, information and innovations that appear to be the most significant in the pursuit of productivity, efficiency and resilience, and it also examines frameworks that can support the development and use of technology and information; and chapter 12 looks at issues surrounding coastal trading and its regulation (section 12.1), and at proposals for a national 'strategic' fleet that seek to address concerns about Australia's reliance on overseas shipping operators and international trading vessels (section 12.2). Final submissions to the inquiry are due by Friday 14 October 2022.

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This article describes the ways in which teachers' efforts to incorporate vocational education and training (VET) programmes into the school curriculum are being hampered by lack of coordination and support from education authorities. Show less

This article describes the research undertaken by the Partnership and Investment in Europe (PIE) research project into the potential for social dialogue in the crucial process of human capital renewal and development. The project sought to establish a multi-dimensional approach to the examination of human resource development and organisational change. Primary research was conducted in twelve corporate sites across the automotive assembly, banking and telecommunications sectors in Germany, Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom. Four major findings emerged: a shift from formal training to non-formal learning with an emphasis on more generic skills; the shift covers the three domains of individual, group and organisational learning; the centrality of learning is accompanied by more developed systems of social partnership and initiatives to establish active and meaningful dialogue; and there is a trend towards human resource development strategies that combine learning and social dialogue. In European Union terms, social dialogue refers to the formal institutional relationship between the social partners (trade unions, employers bodies at European, national and sectoral level). Show less