Australian industrial relations in 2016

Abstract

This article introduces the Journal of Industrial Relations Annual Review of Industrial Relations in 2016. It first discusses key industrial relations developments over the past year in Australia, with a particular focus on the federal election and its aftermath. The article then examines the growing challenges relating to inequality in the Australian labour market and the declining effectiveness of industrial relations actors and institutions in addressing these challenges. It then considers the implications for Australian industrial relations of two seismic international political developments over the past year heralding the ascent of a protectionist policy paradigm: the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum and Donald Trump’s election as US President. Finally, the article provides an overview of the articles contained in the Annual Review issue.

Australian industrial relations in 2017

“…Low wages and persistent inequality in Australia and elsewhere ‘could be a sign that, after thirty years, the age of flexible labour markets has run its course’, as Oliver and Yu (2018) suggest. However, in the United States, the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, the dominant reaction to similar yet deeper trends of this nature has not been to restore the collective and inclusive institutions associated with the Fordist wage-driven growth models of the postwar era (Baccaro and Howell, 2017), but rather towards nationalist solutions where the blame for inequality and displacement is apportioned to migrants (Wright, 2017). Here, there are some parallels with recent developments in Australia.…”

Australian industrial relations in 2018: Inequality, policy stagnation and a brewing storm

“…Indeed, over this period, constant change has been a characteristic of Australian industrial relations policy, including departure from the longstanding system of conciliation and arbitration in favour of decentralised bargaining. Australia's various reforms have been motivated by numerous factors, including party politics (Wright, 2018) and neoliberal ideology (Cooper and Ellem, 2008), and following the pendulum swinging on the continuum between equity and flexibility (Befort and Budd, 2009;Buchanan and Callus, 1993;Wright, 2017).…”

“…Certainly Rawling and Schofield-Georgeson (2019) observe that 2018 was a quiet year for industrial relations in the federal legislature. While there has been some policy adjustment at the margins, such as the 'protecting vulnerable workers' amendments to the Fair Work Act, there has been no major overhaul of the Fair Work legislative framework (Clibborn and Wright, 2018;Wright, 2017). Some state governments have returned to regulating private sector enterprise industrial relations, which has been the primary domain of the federal government since the WorkChoices legislation of 2005, addressing in particular labour hire registration, modern slavery and wage theft.…”