Search Results

This is the first major review of industrial relations legislation in Queensland since the Hanger Report in 1988. The review was commissioned by the Minister of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations to evaluate those previous changes and to consider a way forward for Queensland. Show less

The focus of this book is on labour education, and how it can contribute to a democratic and liberatory future for working people in the twenty-first century. It provides context, discusses issues and examples, and reports on new initiatives, programming and courses. The list of chapters is as follows: Labour education: an introduction / Bruce Spence (p. 17-24); Trade union education in Europe: emerging from the gloom / John Stirling (p. 26-36); Union education in the new South African democracy / Linda Cooper (p. 37-49); Education for labour's professionals: Britain, Canada and the USA / Tom Nesbit (p. 50-60); A Chinese perspective on workers' rights in labour education / Rita Kwok Hoi Yee (p. 61-68); Labour education for immigrant workers in the USA / Kent Wong (p. 70-78); Research circles in Sweden: strengthening the double democratic function of trade unions / Gunilla Harnsten and Lars Holmstrand (p. 79-88); Basic skills and union activity in the UK and Australia / Chris Holland and Geraldine Castleton (p. 89-98); Organizer training in two hemispheres: the experience in the USA and Australia / Marcus Widenor and Lynn Feekin (p. 100-111); Equipping the next wave of union leaders: Quebec's college FTQ-Fronds / France Laurendeau and D'Arcy Martin (p. 112-119); Programa Integrar in Brazil: union intervention in employment, development and education / Fernando Augusto Moreira Lopes (p. 120-128); Training transitional worker representatives: the European works councils / Doug Miller (p. 130-137); Unions and workplace learning: the British experience / Keith Forrester (p. 138-148); Union e-learning in Canada / Jeffrey Taylor (p. 149-158); Part of the system or part of civil society: unions in Australia / Michael Newman (p. 160-168); Unions and learning in a global economy / Bruce Spencer and Naomi Frankel (p. 169-177). Show less

There are empirical and theoretical reasons to doubt whether German firms wholly transfer their ‘high-road’ employment practices and industrial relations when shifting production to countries in central and eastern Europe. Yet neither are they likely radically to abandon these patterns. This article examines German subsidiaries in Poland and the Czech Republic, highlighting three important labour practices (working-time accounts, vocational training and approaches to industrial relations). The empirical findings reveal that highly internationalised firms, namely the large multinational corporations, appear most inclined to retain the German pattern, since they are still firmly embedded in the German institutional system of industrial relations.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

The Jobs and Skills Summit (the Summit) will bring together Australians, including unions, employers, civil society, and government, to discuss our shared economic challenges and propose both immediate and long-term solutions. The goal of the Summit is to find common ground on how Australia can build a bigger, better trained and more productive workforce; boost real wages and living standards; and create more opportunities for more Australians.

The Summit will cover five broad themes: (1) Maintaining full employment and growing productivity; (2) Boosting job security and wages; (3) Lifting participation and reducing barriers to employment; (4) Delivering a high-quality labour force through skills, training and migration; and (5) Maximising opportunities in the industries of the future. Throughout the Summit there will be a strong overarching focus on women's experiences of the labour market and ensuring women have equal opportunities and equal pay.

This Issues Paper outlines the labour market challenges associated with these five themes. It is intended to provide Summit participants and the broader community with a common understanding of these issues so that we can begin working towards solutions to our shared economic challenges and ensure the labour market delivers good outcomes for all. The Summit is the first stage in the process. Ideas raised at the Summit may also be explored further through the White Paper on Employment (the White Paper), which will map a comprehensive blueprint for Australia's future labour market.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

This paper argues that different systems of industrial relations foster or discourage social dialogue in relation to training and other matters. Countries which have more cooperative or consensual based systems of industrial relations tend to have greater dialogue between the social partners on training than those which do not. They also appear to have more comprehensive and integrated approaches to training at micro and macro levels. It should be emphasised that while industrial relations do not act in a deterministic way to create particular training outcomes, they appear to have an important influence on these issues. Furthermore, while the institutional bases of industrial relations systems are in the process of change and the concept of social partnership is becoming broader, social dialogue is likely to continue to play an important role in skill formation and development.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Through the example of the construction sector, [this] paper seeks to explain the sharp divergence in the two systems of vocational education and training (VET) in Britain and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) through the social relations and wage systems on which each was constructed, denoting the very different nature of wage relations. In the British case, in the post-war years construction labour was increasingly regarded as a commodity, a form of property, or what Biernacki (1995) termed 'embodied labour', paid according to its output, whose reproduction was not regarded either by the employers or the state as their own responsibility, despite the 1964 Industrial Training Act. In contrast in the FRG, labour was employed as 'labour power', for its capacity rather than its output, whose development was inevitably a shared responsibility of the state and the social partners, as embodied in the 1969 regulations. For the VET systems this meant that in the FRG different qualification levels, each associated with a particular quality of VET, were recognised through wage, whilst in Britain the increasingly unregulated wage was indifferent to skills and qualification and hence divorced from VET. The nature of VET essentially rests on the wage relations in place.

Published abstract. Show less

This study takes a closer look at platform-based digital business models and their implications for the economy and for society. While digital platforms have come to play a role in many branches of the economy, the present publication is focussed on the socio-politically most contested ones, namely digital labour platforms. These new platforms are increasingly beset by criticism. Usually they rely on a workforce of independent contractors, who work on their own account and at their own risk, for low wages and without social security. Neither the platform providers nor their clients take on the role and responsibilities of an employer. Labour laws, worker protection, health and safety regulations, quality of work and social security contributions mostly fall to the responsibility of the independent contractors alone, who are also not entitled to the kind of workers' participation common in other sectors. The clients of the platforms essentially gain access to an on-demand workforce, while the independent contractors who provide the labour are subject to precarious working conditions.

The study explains the basic mechanisms of three-sided digital labour markets and compares its variants and subcategories. It also explains the specific features and challenges of the different categories and proposes starting points for political measures. The study defines six basic types of digital labour platform. Under the category of cloud work (web-based digital labour) there are freelance marketplaces, microtasking crowd work and context-based creative crowd work. The category of gig work (location-based digital labour) encompasses accommodation, transportation and delivery services (gig work), and household services and personal services (gig work).

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less

This issues paper provides information and discussion to assist in the review of Queensland industrial relations legislation. Fundamental assumptions about Australian industrial relations have been challenged and modified in recent industrial relations legislation. Show less

This report and the accompanying sectoral information sheets aim to capture the diversity prevalent across sectors in Europe in terms of working conditions and job quality. The three information sheets indicate how workers in each sector compare to the European average for all workers, as well as highlighting differences and similarities among different groups of workers. The report pinpoints trends across sectors in areas such as working time and work-life balance, work organisation, skills and training, employee representation and the psychosocial and physical environment. It identifies sectors that score particularly well or particularly poorly in terms of job quality and sheds light on differences between sectors in terms of health and well-being.

Abstract from publisher’s website. Show less

New understandings of the problems of workforce and economic development have led to innovative, regionally focused industry-labour-public sector partnerships. The United States-based Industry Action Project (IAP) represents an innovative public sector program designed to reverse the decline of mature industries and their employees in economically challenged regions of the state of Massachusetts during the 1980s. The IAP model was organised around the development of industry sectors and was based on the ideas that all regional stakeholders needed to participate in regional and workforce economic development. Industry, labour and community leaders were brought together to identify and solve the problems of a key regional industry. Collaboratively, they developed a regional sector-focused stabilisation plan and formed a lasting relationship. This study focuses on two projects from IAP, one targeting the garment and sewing industry and the other focusing on the machine tool industry. The study examines the effect that social relations have on social partnerships and how the partnerships themselves can bring about change in regional social relations in the public interest. The study suggests that social partnerships are not simply technical problem solving forums. They can lead to development, rather than unconnected technical problem-solving activities, when they restructure regional social relations through which new opportunities emerge. Show less