Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Expansion in Non-Standard Employment in Australia and the Extension of Employers’ Control

  • Chapter
Global Trends in Flexible Labour

Part of the book series: Critical Perspectives on Work and Organisations ((CPWE))

Abstract

Employment insecurity is hardly a new phenomenon, nor is it a new means for extending employer control over the labour process. What is new, in Australia at least, is the extent and speed associated with the deregulation of employment conditions and the associated erosion of standard employment arrangements. The centralised employment regulatory regime, based on industry/occupational awards, so long a characteristic of Australian industrial relations, is being dismantled. In conjunction with this deregulatory process the security of employment is also diminishing rapidly through the growth in non-standard employment arrangements together with the decline in trade union presence at the workplace. More workers find themselves located outside of the employment regulatory regime, outside of trade uruion representation and in forms of marginal and insecure employment.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Teaching (ACIRRT) (1995) ADAM: Agreements Data Base and Monitor, Sydney: ACIRRT, University of Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, L. (1994) ‘Women and Enterprise Bargaining: The Legal and Institutional framework’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 36: 2, 191–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benyon, H. (1975) Working for Ford, Wakefield: EP Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bray, M. (1991) ‘Conclusions’, in Bray, M. and Taylor, M. (eds) The Other Side of Flexibility: Unions and Marginal Workers in Australia, Sydney: ACIRRT, University of Sydney.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brosnan, P. and Campbell, I. (1995) ‘Labour Market Regulation in Australia: Towards New Forms of Workforce Division’, paper presented at Conference of the International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation, Sienna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, J. (1990) ‘Non-Employee Status in Australia: Trends and Issues’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 17: 4, 233–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, J. (1997) ‘Workforce Casualisation in Australia’, in Mortimer, D., Leece, P. and Morris, R. (eds) Readings in Contemporary Employment Relations, Sydney: Harcourt, Brace and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, J. and Ryan, S. (1996) ‘Non-Standard Employment: The Growing Challenge for Trade Unions’, in Griffin, G. (ed.) Contemporary Research on Trade Unions: Theory, Membership, Organisation and Non-standard Employment, 1: 152–72, Melbourne: National Key Centre for Industrial Relations, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, I. (1993) ‘Labour Market Flexibility in Australia: Enhancing Managerial Prerogatives?’, Labour and Industry, 5: 3, 1–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, I. (1996) ‘Casual Employment, Labour Regulation and Australian Trade Unions’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 38: 4, 571–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, I. and Burgess, J. (1996) ‘Precarious Employment: Concept and Application’, paper presented at Conference on Precarious Employment in Australia, Centre for Research on Employment and Work, Griffith University, Brisbane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, I. and Burgess, J. (1997) ‘National Patterns of Temporary Employment: The Distinctive Care of Casual Employment in Australia’, paper presented at 19th Conference of the International Working Party on Labour Market Segmentation, Porto, Portugal, July.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, B. (1989) ‘The Extent and Nature of Temporary Employment in Britain’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 12: 487–509.

    Google Scholar 

  • Catanzariti, J. and Baragwanath, M. (1997) The Workplace Relations Act, Sydney: Newsletter Information Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crosby, M. (1992) ‘Organising a Mobile Workforce’, in Crosby, M. and Easson, M. (eds) What Should Unions Do?, Sydney: Pluto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dabscheck, B. (1989) Australian Industrial Relations in the 1980s, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dabscheck, B. (1995) The Struggle for Australian Industrial Relations, Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. and Long, S. (1997) ‘Employers Seek Fast Action on Awards’, Australian Financial Review, 20 February.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Industrial Relations (1995) Enterprise Bargaining in Australia: 1994. Annual Report, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Industrial Relations (1996) ‘Changes in Federal Workplace Relations Law-Legislation Guide’, http://www.nla.gov.au/dir/faq/faq.htm#technical.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fevre, R. (1991) ‘Emerging Alternatives to Full-Time and Permanent Employment’, in Brown, P. and Scase, R. (eds) Poor Work: Disadvantage and the Division of Labour, Milton Keynes: Open University Press: 56–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frances, R. (1993) The Politics of Work: Gender and Labour in Victoria, 1880–1939, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory, R. (1997) ‘Wage Deregulation, Low-Paid Workers and Unemployment’, in Sheehan, P., Grewal, B. and Kumnick, M. (eds) Dialogues on Australia’s Future, Melbourne: Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, M. and Franzway, S. (1993) ‘Gender, Unions and the New Workplace: Realising the Promise?’, in Probert, B. and Wilson, B. (eds) Pink Collar Blues: Work, Gender and Technology, Melbourne: Melbourne University: 126–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hepple, R. (1992) ‘Labour Law and the New Labour Force’, in Gladstone, A. (ed.) Labour Relations in a Changing Environment, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter: 287–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ireland, D. (1973) The Unknown Industrial Prisoner, Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kane, E. and Marsden, D. (1988) ‘The Future of Trade Unions in Industrialised Market Economies’, Labour and Society, 13: 2, 109–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leighton, P. (1986) ‘Marginal Workers’, in Lewis, R. (ed.) Labour Law in Britain, Oxford: Basil Blackwell: 501–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lever-Tracy, C. (1988) ‘The Flexibility Debate: Part-Time Work’, Labour and Industry, 1: 2, 210–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, H. (1990) Part-time Work: Trends and Issues, Canberra: Department of Industrial Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipietz, A. (1992) Towards a New Economic Order: Post-Fordism, Ecology and Democracy, London: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald, D. and Burgess, J. (1996) ‘Globalisation, Restructuring and Industrial Relations in the Hunter Region of Australia’, paper presented at Conference on Globalisation of Production and the Regulation of Labour, University of Warwick.

    Google Scholar 

  • McDonald, J. and Timmo, N. (1996) ‘Killing the Union? Individualised Contracts and CRA’, in Griffin, G. (ed.) Contemporary Research on Trade Unions: Theory, Membership, Organisation and Non-standard Employment, Melbourne: National Key Centre for Industrial Relations: 422–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mückenberger, U. (1989) ‘Non-Standard Forms of Work and the Role of Changes in Labour and Social Security’, International Journal of the Sociology of the Law, 17: 381–402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (1993) Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD (1996) Employment Outlook, Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plowman, D. (1992) ‘Arresting Union Decline: Membership Retention and Recruitment Strategies’, in Crosby, M. and Easson, M. (eds) What Should Unions Do?, Sydney: Pluto: 266–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Probert, B. (1995) Part-time Work and Managerial Strategy: Flexibility in the New Industrial Relations Framework, Canberra: Department of Education, Employment and Training.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawson, D. (1992) ‘Has Unionism a Future?’ in Crosby, M. and Easson, M. (eds) What Should Unions Do?, Sydney: Pluto, pp. 2–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reith, P. (1996a) Better Pay for Better Work: The Coalition’s Industrial Relations Policy, np.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reith, P. (1996b) Workplace and other Legislation Amendment Bill: Second Reading Speech.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rimmer, S. (1994) The Australian Labour Market and Microeconomic Reform, Melbourne: La Trobe University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romeyn, J. (1992) Flexible Working Time: Part-time and Casual Employment, Canberra: Department of Industrial Relations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strachan, G. and Burgess, J. (1997) ‘Employment Restructuring, Enterprise Bargaining and Employment Conditions for Women Workers’, in Bramble, T., Harley, W., Hall, R. and Whitehouse, G. (eds) Current Research in Industrial Relations, Brisbane: Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand: 321–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strachan, G. and Winter, M. (1995) Overcoming Barriers to Women’s Employment and Advancement in Information Technology Intensive Industries in Queensland, Brisbane: Department of Business, Industry and Regional Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stricker, P. and Sheehan, P. (1981) Hidden Unemployment: The Australian Experience, Melbourne: Melbourne University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Women’s Bureau, Department of Employment, Education and Training (1989) New Brooms: Restructuring and Training Issues for Women in the Service Sector, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. John Burgess
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Glenda Strachan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leicester, UK

    Alan Felstead (Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow Center for Labour Market Studies) & Nick Jewson (Director of the Ethnicity Research Center Department of Sociology) (Director of Research and Senior Research Fellow Center for Labour Market Studies) &  (Director of the Ethnicity Research Center Department of Sociology)

Copyright information

© 1999 John Burgess and Glenda Strachan

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Burgess, J., Strachan, G. (1999). The Expansion in Non-Standard Employment in Australia and the Extension of Employers’ Control. In: Felstead, A., Jewson, N. (eds) Global Trends in Flexible Labour. Critical Perspectives on Work and Organisations. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27396-6_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation