Showing papers in "Labour and industry: A journal of the social and economic relations of work in 2016"

The living wage: concepts, contexts and future concerns

Abstract: Editorial for special issue on the Living wage : The living wage : concepts, contexts and future concerns.

From living wage to living hours – the Nordic version of the working poor

Abstract: The development of service economies in the Western world has led to a debate on the quality of new service jobs as many are low-wage jobs with poor working conditions and career opportunities. Although the incidence of low-wage service work is somewhat lower in the Nordic countries than elsewhere in Europe, it is increasingly addressed and debated. Employees find it hard to make a living from their job and to work the working hours requested, whereas employers find it hard to attract and retain employees. This article introduces the concept of ‘living hours’ to capture the segmentation processes in low-wage service work in the private sector of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The concept of living hours is used to explain developments in low-wage service jobs that are not explained by the concept of a living wage. On the basis of cross-sectional data from the European Labour Force Survey, the article demonstrates how the increasing use of part-time and Sunday work since the crisis interacts with the ...

Can a ‘living wage’ springboard human capability? An exploratory study from New Zealand

Abstract: ‘Living’ wage campaigns are more than calls for higher basic minima rates of pay. They are predicated on the notion that there is a discrete income below which people risk further deprivation, but above which there should be a qualitative upward shift in human capability. Problematically, however, the theory of diminishing marginal returns predicts that the function linking freedom from deprivation with income will form a smooth curve with no clear pivot (i.e. no discrete ‘living’ wage at all). Living wages thus remain controversial in that tests of these competing views are rare. A cross-sectional online survey of over 1000 working adults in New Zealand was undertaken to explore these two competing propositions. Household income was compared with measures of life and work capability. It emerged that the function linking life and work capabilities to household income was ‘spiked’ rather than continuous; the spike traversed scalar midpoints (e.g. from job dissatisfaction to satisfaction), making th...

Causes of missed nursing care: qualitative responses to a survey of Australian nurses

Abstract: There is a growing nursing literature that views missed nursing care as an inevitable consequence of work intensification associated with the rationing of the human and material resources required to deliver care. A modified MISSCARE survey was administered to 4431 nurses and midwives in New South Wales in November 2014. This paper reports on 947 responses to an open question contained in the survey which asked respondents ‘Is there anything else you would like to tell us about missed care?’ Responses were analysed using qualitative content analysis and focused upon both the causes and impact of missed care. Analysis identified two major causes of missed care: the impact of work intensification and staffing issues. Participants associated work intensification with patient acuity and cost containment, while the staffing issues identified included: undermining prescribed staffing ratios; skill mix; changing workloads across shifts; and poor support from other staff. Respondents identified insufficie...

The living wage in the UK – an analysis of the GMB campaign in local government

Abstract: The adoption of a statutory national minimum wage policy in the UK is proving ineffective in resolving the problem of low pay. The emergence of living wage campaigns in the UK follows similar developments in the USA, and more recently, New Zealand. Rather than focus on a particular employer-specific campaign, this paper explores the campaign of the General and Municipal Boilermakers Union (GMB) in local government which recruits members from low-paid occupations. The 11 local government sector cases examine contracted workers allied to local government services, drawing on interviews with full-time officers, lay representatives and members involved in the campaigns. Nine campaigns were successful and two were not. The Union’s strategy revealed an interplay between industrial and political influences and, despite the social-economic nature of the issue, the limited extent of involvement of social movements in the campaign.

What explains trends in Australian working-time arrangements in the 2000s?

Abstract: The 1980s and 1990s witnessed a deterioration in working-time arrangements for employees in Australia, driven by globalisation, demographic and structural change and labour market deregulation. Yet, working-time arrangements in the first decade of the 2000s have either improved for employees or stayed relatively unchanged despite continued global pressures and further reforms of domestic labour law. Fewer employees are working long hours or at antisocial times, hours variability has fallen and employee control over working time has increased. This paper attempts to explain the apparent levelling out of previous downward working time trends using data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Decomposition analysis shows that the improvement in working-time arrangements can be partly attributed to an increase in the skill level and earnings potential of the workforce and a general improvement in economic conditions. We show that the Fair Work industrial relations re...

How is employees’ input and influence over collective agreements shaped by Australia’s Fair Work Act?

Abstract: Employees appear as relatively passive figures in most analyses of the Fair Work Act’s collective agreement-making process because official bargaining representatives negotiating in formal meetings have been the focus of attention. This article re-examines how the Act structures employee participation in the agreement-making process, with a particular focus on the degree or depth of employee input and influence over the agreement’s terms. Drawing on Flanders’ ‘political view of collective bargaining’, the formalistic legal analysis indicates that the Act facilitates different kinds of employee input and influence at different stages of the agreement-making process. The article concludes that employee input through a yes/no vote to be bound by an employer’s proposed agreement is prioritised the Act. While the legitimacy of an agreement is premised on this level of employee input, the Act allows employee influence over the terms and content of an agreement to vary considerably between cases.

Intra-industry competition among employer associations: a case study of the retail sector

Abstract: There is sizeable literature on how trade unions have responded to structural changes in the labour market and the re-regulation of labour laws in Australia. In comparison, however, there is little coverage on the responses of employer associations – even though they face many of the same challenges as unions in the new industrial landscape. Literature on employer associations’ adaptive mechanisms highlights the need for employer bodies to manage the tension between offering traditional ‘collective goods’ while responding to the changing needs of individual members by offering tailored services for additional fees. We know that the provision of these individualised services creates competition between employer groups and professional services firms. But competition, resulting from regulatory changes, also occurs between associations themselves. This article explores such competition among Australia’s three major national retail bodies. Product market competition between industry-based employer ass...

Worker mutualism in an age of entrepreneurial capitalism

Abstract: In this Keynote Address to the 30th AIRAANZ Conference in Sydney, the author identifies three vital and promising models of worker mutualism. These models show that worker mutualism is thriving, even in an era of entrepreneurial and hyper-individualistic capitalism. Indeed, we are at a moment of recovery and reconfiguration for labour and labour movements globally. The three models of worker mutualism are set within a larger context. The author challenges three mythic narratives: labour decline, working-class conservatism and the association of the rise of new forms of work with rising economic inequality that keep scholars from thinking clearly about worker mutualism and entrepreneurial capitalism.

‘It’s difficult to forecast your longer term career milestone’: career development and insecure employment for research academics in Australian universities

Abstract: Universities globally have undergone significant changes in the past three decades and Australia is no exception. The importance to universities of research has resulted in a surge in the employment of research focused academics in Australian universities. Findings from the 2011 Work and Careers in Australian Universities (WCAU) survey revealed 84% of research academics were employed on fixed-term contracts. To explore the impact of insecure employment for research academics we used the labour market segmentation literature to determine whether these academics constitute a ‘secondary’ labour force. Interviews with 18 research academics revealed insecure employment had negatively affected their career development. Responses indicated that it affected particularly their ability to publish productively, develop an independent research profile and form networks and collaborative connections. Insecure employment has a largely negative impact on research academics’ careers and as a result they have beco...

On the role of collegiality, civility and collectivism in shaping academic identity

Abstract: This paper considers how the values of industrial relations scholars affect their academic identity. The specific values considered are collegiality, civility and collectivism. The meaning of these values in academia is reviewed, along with some of their inherent contradictions and the challenges posed by their implementation in contemporary academic working life. The paper concludes with suggestions about how a scholarly association can help support and strengthen academic values, and a call for scholars to reflect on what makes academic life rewarding and how to retain it.

Exploring worker consciousness in China

Abstract: This paper presents findings from a study that has explored how the lived experience of everyday Chinese workers influenced their struggle to improve their working conditions. We argue that because the consciousness of everyday Chinese workers remains at an embryonic level, their ability to campaign and change their working conditions remains constrained. We inform this argument by engaging with Foucault’s power–knowledge framework (1980). The study draws on original interviews with n = 74 Chinese workers gathered across two phases of data collection conducted between 2011 and 2014.

Working fathers: determinants of time allocation to work and family roles

Abstract: Time is a valuable but scarce resource in both work and family domains. The ‘zero-sum’ nature of time means that an increase in hours allocated to work decreases that which is available for family responsibilities and vice versa. The work-family literature indicates that there are gender differences in work-family decision-making; however, the time use decisions of working fathers has received limited attention. This research considers behavioural changes in time allocation to work and non-work activities of male employees after their transition to fatherhood. The determinants of time allocated to work and family roles for fathers are considered via an analysis of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Results indicated that fathers’ country of birth and satisfaction with their partner were associated with most of their time use decisions.

Setting the New Zealand living wage: complexities and practicalities

Abstract: This article describes the approach taken to determine the New Zealand living wage rate when it was first calculated in 2013. A two-part approach was adopted, involving estimating the weekly cost of a basic but decent life style for a target household of two adults and two children using a range of official and independent data sources dealing with household expenditure. The necessary level of gross income to be paid by an employer as a living wage was determined using a model that incorporated income tax and government transfers. The research resulted in the recommendation of an hourly living wage rate of NZ$18.40. The necessary detail of the calculation gives legitimacy to the living wage campaign but poses a challenge for on-going calculation while also highlighting the interaction between labour market and non-market policies that address the situation of the low-paid worker.

From ‘opportunity’ to ‘insecurity’: the psychological contract of highly skilled immigrants in Western Australia

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework and provide empirical support from a study that has explored the lived employment experience of highly skilled immigrants (HSIs) in Western Australia (WA), and how this experience influences their decision to remain or leave the WA labour market. To provide this analysis, we ask how the wider context has affected the psychological contract (PC) of HSIs. A qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) case-study design that draws on three phases of semi-structured in-depth interviews with participants (n = 26) that was conducted between 2010 and 2014 informs the discussion. We contribute to the employment relations and PC literature by highlighting the influence of context in understanding the PC; and to labour migration literature by providing an understanding of HSIs’ work experiences.

Youth as a reserve army of labour: Australia’s regional unemployment conundrum

Abstract: This article seeks to apply Marx’s Reserve Army of Labour theory to explain youth labour market trends with a case study of the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. Statistical analysis of regional ABS labour force data reveals both persistently high youth unemployment rates as well as dominant cyclical activity. Dominant neoclassical economic theory, which implies that any unemployment observed should be infrequent and quickly solved by market forces, fails to adequately account for our observations. In contrast, our findings are congruent with the reserve army and segmented labour market theories. The article contributes new understandings of Marxist concepts to an important regional issue of contemporary policy relevance.

Employee voice in enterprise bargaining: what managers miss when they fail to listen

Abstract: Despite being reregulated several times, the Australian system of ‘enterprise bargaining’ has remained adversarial in nature and thus has failed to live up to the potential promised. This article examines a case study where employees hold a great deal of power through a strong union. Additionally and separate from the institutional arrangements, employees identify a number of ways that they identify currently affect productivity in their workplace(s), but poorly integrated employee voice systems and a low level of trust means that the benefits of bargaining are somewhat limited. Evidence from this case study suggests that improved trust and a process of listening to, and learning from employee voice are required for employers and employees to better capitalise on bargaining opportunities and shift from distributive bargaining to integrative bargaining models.

To ask or not to ask? Investigating workers’ flexibility requests and the phenomenon of discontented non-requesters

Abstract: Flexible working arrangements have attracted growing attention in workplaces across Australia and in many other countries in recent years. This contribution utilises the results of two large Australian employee surveys to analyse who asks for flexibility, why, and with what effects on work-life interference. This analysis is set in the context of Australia’s ‘Right to Request’ (RTR) provisions which, at the time of the study, gave parents of preschool children and those with a disabled child aged up to 18 the RTR flexibility. The analysis also draws on a set of qualitative interviews of those we term ‘discontented non-requesters’ (that is, those who are not content with current arrangements but who do not ask for flexibility) to probe beneath the survey results to consider explanations about why some people do not ask for flexibility despite desiring different working arrangements. We conclude with the implications for policy and regulation.

Dead quiet in the hinterlands: the construction of workplace injuries in western Canadian newspapers, 2009-2014

Abstract: Media reports profoundly misrepresent the nature of workplace injuries and fatalities in Canada. This study uses a new dataset comprising 409 urban and rural newspaper reports in western Canada to confirm the over-representation of fatalities, injuries to men, acute physical injuries, and injuries in blue-collar occupations found in earlier exploratory work. This misleading social construction of injuries may skew public policy and management decision-making about injury prevention. The study also confirms the existence of three key media frames: injuries are “under investigation,” “human tragedies,” and “before the court.” Together, these frames cast workplace injuries as isolated events that happen to “others” for which no one is responsible (except maybe the worker), thereby suggesting that the public need not be concerned about workplace safety. Contrary to expectations, no significant differences were found between the reporting of urban and rural newspapers.

The structure of collective contracting in China

Abstract: The use of ‘collective contracts’, established through the process of ‘collective consultation’, to set the wages and working conditions of employees in China has increased dramatically over recent years. This paper offers an analysis of this important trend that is distinctive in three ways. First, we reflect on the meaning of collective contracting and collective consultation and distinguish them more conventional Western concepts of collective agreements and bargaining. Second, we suggest a framework – drawn from the well-established literature on the structure of collective bargaining – for analysing collective contracting in China. Third, by applying this framework to the existing empirical evidence – derived from publicly available data and published scholarly research – we provide an account of collective contracting in China that is more comprehensive than the existing literature and which clearly identifies the role of the state as central.

Building sustainable workforce futures

Abstract: This is the annual special issue of Labour and Industry, arising from the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) Conference in February. The conference...