Australia at Work
Paperback, 200 pages
ISBN: 0 7248 0289 4
This publication can only be ordered through bookstores. It is not available through WRC.
Please note that this book is printed on demand so may take 2-3 weeks from time of order.

There are few workplaces where working arrangements have not been dramatically altered over the last 15 years - changes affecting earnings, hours worked and job security, issues which play a central role in our working lives. These are issues upon which we, and others, will judge our quality of life. But are these changes solving Australia's Social and economic problems or are they simply creating new ones? Are our industries really more efficient and our workplaces more equitable?

Are We Actually Better Off?
This Study of the changing nature of work describes the changes that have affected working life since 1983, examines their causes and consequences, and maps the future path to workplace justice and efficiency.

Australia at Work examines:

• The emerging divide in the Australian Labour market - the affluent elite or 'gold collar' workers and low paid service class;
• The diminishing role of third parties in workplace relations as enterprise bargaining leaves union in a weakened position;
• The managerialisation of the workforce forcing ordinary workers to negotiate salary packages in competition with fellow workers;
• Work intensification, people working longer and harder than ever, whether consenting or conscripted;
• Work places, and whole industries, faced with technological change, job cuts and new workplace ideologies;
• The rising consciousness of job security as a source of social anxiety, and rise of casualisation, temporary jobs and outwork.

The final part of the book discusses policy and argues for innovative solutions which recognise both the new realities of modern Australia and the importance of peoples needs and priorities, not just productivity and competitiveness.

The book draws on ten years of commissioned research undertaken by the WRC, and WRC's extensive database of registered agreements, ADAM (Agreements Database and Monitor). Also uses independent data drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey of 1990 and 1995.

Table of Contents:
1. The Human Face of Workplace Change
2. What's behind the changes
3. Bargaining for change
4. Wages: winners and losers
5. Working longer and harder
6. Job security in a changing labour market
7. A new policy approach for working life in Australia

Bargained Out: Negotiating without Unions in Australia
John Campling and Paul Gollan
Publlished December 1999
Paperback/ 156pp/ ISBN 1862873461
Order a copy from Federation Press

The pursuit of non-union employee relations and human resource strategies by private and public sector employers has been a consistent theme of the industrial landscape in the Australia in the past decade. This book analyses the organisational impact of such changes and focuses on their motivations, processes and outcomes in lightly and non-unionised workplaces.

The book draws primarily upon twelve case studies where the major outcomes were the nature of the non-union agreements, productivity, remuneration and workplace equity. The case studies revealed a number of positive outcomes for both employers and employees. On the other hand, there was evidence that the shift to lightly or non-unionised work places represented attempt by corporate Australia to manage without the constraints imposed by trade union activity, and to capture anticipated reductions in labour costs and improvements in productivity.

The study also draws upon a wealth of recent quantitative survey information on Australian workplaces conduced by they Australian government and independent university based research organisations such as the WRC. While unique in its utilisation of a multi-dimensional analysis of lightly and non unionised workplaces in Australia, it also links these developments with broader trends in the global economy towards greater non union employee relations and human resource management.

The book clearly has important policy implications. Governments, employers, employees and trade unions will need to develop appropriate macro and micro level policies and practices to respond to a more heterogeneous and diverse employee relations landscape. Students researchers and professional managers interested in employee relations, human resources and the management of organisational change will find this book both illuminating and relevant.

Employment Security Proceedings from Second Annual Labour Law Conference
Edited by Ron McCallum, Greg McCarry, and Paul Ronfeldt
Paperback/ 144pp/ ISBN 1862870993
Order a copy from Federation Press

Focusing upon one major and controversial aspect of industrial law - the role of law in providing security of employment - this book concentrates upon issues of individual employment rights and notions of justice and fairness in employment.

Distinguished authors analyse the changes made by the Industrial Relations (Reform) Act 1993 within the context of the totality of the subject on which they write.

Fragmented Futures, New Challenges in Working Life