Bulletin

Issue: March/April 2008

News

Conference helps workplace reform debate

From left, opening keynote speakers Professor Andrew Pendleton, University of York, UK, Professor Sanford Jacoby from the University of California, Los Angeles, US, with La Trobe's Dr Stanton, foreground, and Dr Young.

'Timing is everything – and in the case of this conference your timing is spot on.'

With those words, Victorian Parliamentary Secretary for Industrial Relations Jaala Pulford opened one of the year's key IR events – the conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand.

Titled 'Workers, Corporations and Community: Facing Choices for a Sustainable Future', the three-day event was organised by La Trobe University's Faculty of Law and Management.

Ms Pulford said Australia's industrial relations system had been 'shaken to its core' by Work Choices. The labour movement had combined as never before to defeat Work Choices. The academic community also played its part, she said. Research which pointed out that Work Choices would 'undermine the conditions and rights of the most vulnerable had been totally vindicated'.

'I wish you well in your deliberations about what has gone before, and what should take us forward in the vital area of workplace reform,' Ms Pulford concluded.

Conference convenor Dr Pauline Stanton, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Management, said the conference brought together 167 international and Australian academics, policy makers and practitioners. They debated industrial relations issues, many of which had been ignored in Australia over the past decade. More than 120 papers covered research from 15 countries.

Speakers included international experts on corporate governance and labour, trade union organising, restructured working arrangements and gender and equity. Papers also focused on Work Choices and changed bargaining arrangements in Australia.

Professor Malcolm Rimmer, Head of the School of Business, said last year's Federal election proved industrial relations was a pressing concern for the Australian community.

'This was the first gathering of academics and practitioners in Australia since the change of government. It highlighted questions surrounding the real impact of the changing nature of work as well as the more complex global industrial landscape on workers and communities,' he said.

Health sector and corporate governance

Presentations by La Trobe staff included a study of cancer workers in a public hospital, examining the effects of workfamily conflict, stress and burnout, and how these issues influenced their intentions to leave their jobs.

This research, involving Dr Timothy Bartram and Dr Rosaria Burchielli, provided important insights for the healthcare industry, both in Australia and internationally, which faces critical shortages of cancer clinicians – nurses, oncologists and radiation therapists – as well other para-professionals, and has great difficulty in retaining workers.

Another study, in rural hospitals, explored the attitudes of employees to 'high performance work practices'. A key From left, opening keynote speakers Professor Andrew Pendleton, University of York, UK, Professor Sanford Jacoby from the University of California, Los Angeles, US, with La Trobe's Dr Stanton, foreground, and Dr Young. feature of such practices, says Dr Stanton, is improved team work to improve social relationships and job satisfaction, thereby helping retain much-needed health professionals in rural areas.

Turning to the corporate sector, two presentations involved senior lecturer Dr Suzanne Young and a group of coresearchers. One, with Nina Hasic, asked whether there was a 'Path to Corporate Social Responsibility?' arguing it was wrong to see 'growing environmental and societal concerns as impediments which slowed down business'.

The researchers said 'high-profile events, corporate governance scandals, accounting failures and contribution to global warming and environmental damage were serious problems for western society which operated in accordance with "shareholder value maximisation".

'The sheer number of corporate scandals such as Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom and others came under unprecedented criticism for committing ethical violations in the name of shareholders, and prompted a new era focusing on social responsibilities.'

Their study concluded that organisations 'had indeed started to move toward the "stakeholder" approach that focuses on a long-term sustainable business, whilst attempting to balance economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social well-being'.

The other study, with Vijaya Thyil and titled 'Formalised Partners in Success or Marginalised Instruments for Profits?,' examined the role of employees in corporate governance in 20 Australian companies.

Its conclusions were less optimistic: despite talk of 'employee participation', the reality was that employees continued to be viewed as 'outsiders' to governance systems. Even where the rhetoric and systems appeared to integrate employees as a stakeholder – as in employees being offered share ownership schemes – they were not included in the 'strategy, vision and mission or in decision-making structures of the firms'.

'Thus we conclude that Australian corporate governance reforms in the last few years have clearly not resulted in any significant advance in the recognition of employees' interests.'