Showing papers by "Griffith University published in 1970"

Finding the N Largest Itemsets

Abstract: The largest itemset in a given collection of transactions £> is the itemset that occurs most frequently in T>. This paper studies the problem of finding the A/" largest itemsets, whose solution can be used to generate an appropriate number of interesting itemsets for mining association rules. We present an efficient algorithm for finding the jV largest itemsets. The algorithm is implemented and compared with the naive solution using the Apriori approach. We present experimental results as well as theoretical analysis showing that our algorithm has a much better performance than the naive solution. We also analyze the cost of our algorithm and observe that it has a polynomial time complexity in most cases of practical applications.

Plus Ca Chage...: The Employment Contracts Act and Non-standard Employment in New Zealand, 1991-1995

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to discuss and analyse changes in the incidence and distribution of non-standard employment in New Zealand since the introduction of the Employment Contracts Act in May 1991. Non-standard employment is defined as employment that is not permanent and full-time. The analysis is based upon data from national surveys, one of 2000 workplaces in May 1991 and another of 5,200 workplaces in May 1995. One of the chief policy objectives of the Employment Contracts Act was to enhance labour market flexibility. Non-standard employment is one indicator of labour market flexibility. Accordingly, the degree of change in non-standard employment is one indicator of the Act's success or lack of it in achieving its policy objectives. The results show that the Act has not been associated with a substantial growth in non-standard employment. The 1995 New Zealand labour force looks a lot like the 1991 labour force. The proportion of permanent full-time employees has hardly changed since 1991, and remains at more than two-thirds of the workforce. The two areas of employment to show substantial change were casual employment, which has declined since 1991 and fixed term employment which has increased. The change in casual employment is in the reverse direction from that expected by both critics and supporters of the Act. The data also show, however, that while employers expect permanent full-time employment to remain predominant, they also expect non-standard employment to rise considerably in the next five years.

Explicating Literacy Activities at Work: The use of ‘okay’ as an effective topic-changing device in service request calls

Abstract: There is evidence from different spheres that the grounding of understandings of literacy within social practices has gradually become accepted within the adult literacy field in Australia. However, what has been not been sufficiently considered are those tacit literacies that underpin such practices in both everyday and work settings. This has been the case particularly for those literacies that are deployed through an oral communication mode in workplaces. This article offers a way of explicating such literacies by showing how the analysis of an audio-recording of a particular occupational activity, namely the reporting of a service request, can render visible particular key literacy features. In this case, such an analysis shows how the marker ‘okay’ is used in a critical way to close off segments of an interaction and to mark verbally that agreement about a particular aspect of the request has been reached. It is argued that the use of recordings, both audio and video, for the purpose of highlighting tacit competencies has implications not only for adult literacy teachers but for trainers, assessors and curriculum developers within the broader vocational education and training sector.

Reading the world of work: a learner-centred approach to workplace literacy and esl

Abstract: As the title of this book suggests, Gallo advocates a learner-centred approach in framing workplace literacy programs. She claims that such an approach can change conventional notions of workplace literacy, improve communication practices throughout enterprises and help adult learners realise they have acquired much useful information in their lives that can be built on in their workplace learning. In addition, through further learning using learner-centred methods, they will be able to ‘transform’ rather than ‘adapt to’ conditions in their workplace.

Adapting to the Recession: Labour Force Changes and Labour Costs Reductions

Abstract: This paper will examine two aspects of the labour market flexibility, namely the ability of the workplaces to adjust their workforce and to reduce their relative labour costs. The survey covers the period ending in May 1991 during which firms faced considerable economic uncertainty and financial pressure. As with the above studies it confirms that considerable flexibility existed in the New Zealand labour market prior to the Employment Contracts Act.

Re-conceptualising Labour Market Regulationin Australia and New Zealand

Abstract: This paper seeks to broaden traditional assumptions that the study of industrial relations makes about regulation. Industrial relations researchers have been interested in institutional regulation since the Webbs and Commons examined the development of unions, minimum standards and collective bargaining in the United Kingdom and the United States. This tradition provides a narrow conception of institutions as structures rather than processes, norms, rituals or habits. A contemporary manifestation of this narrow conception is the preoccupation of industrial relations researchers with changing institutional structures, such as declining levels of trade union density and the decentralization of bargaining structures. Often overlooked in such analyses are important questions about the functions institutions perform, and how these functions endure in times of institutional change. This paper outlines changes to the Australian and New Zealand systems of industrial relations from the 1990s, and examines how the systems' traditional regulatory functions continue 10 be performed following the introduction of new institutions and bargaining structures.

Minimum Wage Systems: An Asia Pacific Perspective

Abstract: Modern minimum wage systems have operated for more than a century. Some Pacific countries were among the pioneers in establishing minimum wages. This paper discusses the many aims that minimus wages are designed to achieve. These include promoting social justice, alleviating poverty, promoting economic development, setting benchmarks for other wages and social security payments, and controlling inflation. The Asia Pacific region has only a small number of countries with adequate minimum wage systems. There are many deficiencies in the various systems. They often do not cover all workers, are often set at unrealistically low levels, or are enforced inadequately. The paper discusses the causes of these deficiencies and the consequences of them for those who rely on minimum wages.

Why are Casual Enployment and Casualisation Less Significant in New Zealand than in Australia

Abstract: New Zealand and Australia seem to share a common experience of casual work. In both countries a category of 'casual' has long been permitted under labour regulation, and in both countries this has led in practice to both 'irregular ' and 'regular' casuals. At least up until the recent period, labour regulation in both countries sought to limit casual employment in similar ways through quantitative restrictions and through prescription of a 'casual loading ' on the hourly rate of pay. Yet, in spite of these strong parallels, casual employment is less significant in New Zealand as a proportion of the total workforce and it has failed to show the same pace of growth as in Australia. This paper asks why there should be this difference. It sketches out an answer that focuses on employer calculations and choices (within the framework of labour regulation, including custom and practice). We suggest that the relative advantages of casual employment to employers are narrower and less imposing in New Zealand. This is partly because of compression at the bottom, as a result of the fact that all employees can claim access to basic rights and benefits under a statutory 'minimum code’. But also crucial is compression from the top. Permanent workers in New Zealand have fewer benefits than permanent workers in Australia, but their situation was markedly worsened as a result of the radical program of labour market deregulation in the 1990s. As a result of this narrowing of the shortfall in rights and benefits, employers have less incentive to replace permanent workers with casual workers.