Griffith University 2001EHR Management Employee Relations Lecture note.pptVIP

Management - Employee Relations Management - Employee Relations 2. Changing context of MER 2001EHR Management - Employee Relations * Learning objectives To understand the differences between national employment relations systems historical context main features of Australia’s ER system and implications for employment relations impact of Australian constitution on ER Management - Employee Relations * The employment relationship An employment relationship is created when one person sells his/her labour Employees essentially sell their promise to work in the future and their ability to work – rather than their completed labour Managers ensure that employees deliver on their promise to work the way an employer desires – coercion or enticements Management - Employee Relations * Workplace of the future? /watch?v=ZmfXksLir1gfeature=related Management - Employee Relations * Contextual factors - International Economic Legal Political Cultural Management - Employee Relations * Australian arbitration system almost unique in world (NZ had similar system) Australia still has an arbitration system but changed in last ten years when Howard govt introduced WorkChoices only 10% of cases went to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) Contextual factors – National Management - Employee Relations * Globalisation, the national economy and the State Globalisation not a recent phenomena End of the long postwar boom in the 1970s in industrialising countries End of the ‘Cold War’ Australia ‘open’ economy – reduced protectionism Accord Neo-liberal ascendancy Management - Employee Relations * * 1900s–1960s: the government protected economy Early policy reflected a protected approach Wage regulation Control of the labour supply Residual social policy Management - Employee Relations * Collective industrial relations The story begins with: strikes in the 1890s in shearing, mining and the maritime industry Growing union movement wanted ‘closed shop’ and to work under union con