The book examines ethics and employment issues in contemporary Human Resource Management (HRM). Written by an international team of academics from universities in the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand, it examines the problems and opportunities facing employers and employees. The book subdivides into three sections: Part I assesses the context of HRM; Part II analyses contemporary debates, continuity and change in HRM; and Part III proposes likely developments for the future seeking to identify a more proactive HRM approach towards ethical issues arising in employment. Distinctive features include: Comprehensive analysis of continuity and change in employment and HRM; In-depth assessment of the ethical contribution and potential of HRM; Timely evaluation of the ethical achievements to-date of HRM in individualized employment relations, HRM partnerships, HRM and employee performance, and strategic HRM; Detailed recommendations for HR managers and general managers encouraging more ethically aware practice; Guidance on ethical approaches to leadership, knowledge management and collective employment relations; Analysis of alternative futures for HRM as a profession and advice on how to create more rigorous and independent professional practice; A vision of a more innovative, cooperative and ethically sensitive set of HRM practices; Clear proposals for HRM on how to attain more ethical conduct.

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Human Resource Management: Ethics and Employment

Since the beginning of the 1990s Australia has experienced a gradual but far-reaching process of labour market deregulation. Labour market deregulation has proceeded primarily through the dismantling of the distinctive system of awards-the main avenue of external, protective regulation in Australia for much of the 20th century. This paper examines labour market deregulation and its implications for the Australian workforce. It situates the changes in terms of their institutional starting point in the award system and the growing pressures in the 1980s for increased labour market flexibility. It argues that labour market deregulation is amplifying existing trends to growth in precarious employment, wage dispersion and the development of a low-pay sector amongst full-time employees. In addition, it is sponsoring a significant fragmentation of working-time arrangements.

Labour Market Deregulation in Australia: The slow combustion approach to workplace change

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...

Casual Employment, Labour Regulation and Australian Trade Unions:

Over the past 20 years there has been a significant refashioning of the labour market within Australia and other industrialised countries. This paper examines the implications of the growth of more flexible work arrangements for mechanisms designed to facilitate worker involvement in occupational health and safety at the workplace—a pivotal feature of post-Robens OHS legislation in Australia. It is argued that the growth of subcontracting, casual and home-based work has undermined both coverage and the effectiveness of these provisions, especially in a context where union membership and influence has also been declining. Looking at international experience, the paper examines a number of ways of remedying these deficiencies.

Statutory Occupational Health and Safety Workplace Arrangements for the Modern Labour Market

There has been a move to decentralized determination of wages and conditions in Australia. The impact of this on groups such as women depends on a number of actors, including the legal and institutional framework under which such proc esses occur. This paper explores the implications of different regulatory systems or women. It argues that factors such as how the bargaining process is regulated, and the nature of the enforcement regime, will help determine how particular groups of workers, such as women, fare. It concludes that existing regulatory systems will not protect women from the adverse effects of enterprise bargaining. Deficiencies in the legislative schemes regulating the decentralized determination of wages and conditions, moreover, will not be overcome by equity measures such is anti-discrimination legislation or affirmative action.

Laura Bennett

Papers

Making labour law in Australia: Industrial relations, politics and law