Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T18:39:25.462Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contingent Work and Gender in Australia: Evidence from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Richard Hall ,
Bill Harley  and
Gillian Whitehouse
Richard Hall
Affiliation:
The Department of Management at the University of Melbourne
Bill Harley
Affiliation:
The Department of Management at the University of Melbourne
Gillian Whitehouse
Affiliation:
Department of Government at the University of Queensland
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The decreasing prevalence of the standard model of employment embodied by the ‘typical male full-time employee on a permanent contract’ can be seen both as risking the erosion of hard won labour rights and as offering the potential for a more flexible, less ‘male’ model. This paper addresses some of the ways in which this tension is played out, drawing on data from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations (AWIRS95) Employee Survey to examine the implications for women workers of recent trends in contingent employment in Australia. Our analysis suggests that the growth in contingent employment in Australia has had little positive impact on women’s experience of work. We conclude that if the disadvantage faced by women in irregular employment is to be countered, greater regulation of such employment is required. However, key features of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 make the regulation of the conditions of contingent employment even more difficult to achieve than in the past. The result of current policy settings is likely to be the further institutionalisation of women’s disadvantage at work and in the labour market.

Type
Symposium on Dimensions of Precarious Employment
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , June 1998 , pp. 55 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1998

Footnotes

*

Authors’ names are listed alphabetically. Each made an equal contribution to the paper.

References

ABS (1997) Weekly Earnings of Employees (Distribution), Australia. Cat. No. 6310.0. Canberra, AGPSGoogle Scholar
Allen, C., Brosnan, P., Walsh, P. (1998) ‘Non-Standard Working Time Arrangements in Australia and New Zealand’. In Current Research in Industrial Relations. Proceedings of the 12th AIRAANZ Conference, eds Harbridge, Raymond, Gadd, Claire, Crawford, Aaron . Wellington, NZ, AIRAANZGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, J (1987) ‘Flexibility or Fragmentation?: The United Kingdom Labour Market in the Eighties’ Labour and Society, 12, 1, pp. 87–105Google Scholar
Campbell, I (1998) Labour Restructuring and the Growth of Casual Employment in Australia, 1982–1996, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of MelbourneGoogle Scholar
Campbell, I., Burgess, J. (1996) National Patterns of Temporary Employment: the Distinctive Case of Casual Employment in Australia. Working Paper No.53. National Key Centre In Industrial Relations. Melbourne, NKCIRGoogle Scholar
Charlesworth, S (1997) ‘Enterprise Bargaining and Women Workers: The Seven Perils of Flexibility’ Labour & Industry 8, 2, pp. 101–115Google Scholar
Charlesworth, S (1996) Stretching Flexibility: Enterprise Bargaining, Women Workers and Changes to Working Hours. Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, SydneyGoogle Scholar
Christensen, K (1995) Contingent Work Arrangements in Family-Sensitive Corporations. Work-Family Policy Paper Series, Center on Work & Family Boston UniversityGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, P., Norris, K. (1990) ‘Casual Employment in Australia’, Australian Bulletin of Labour, 16, 3, September, pp. 156–173Google Scholar
Deery, S., Mahoney, A. (1994) ‘Temporal Flexibility: Management Strategies and Employee Preferences in the Retail Industry’ Journal of Industrial Relations, 36, 3, pp. 332–352CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) (1996) Enterprise Bargaining in Australia: 1995 Annual Report of the Department of Industrial Relations. Canberra, AGPSGoogle Scholar
European Commission (1997) ‘Women and Employment in the European Union’, supplement to Equal Opportunities Magazine, 3, DecemberGoogle Scholar
Fagan, C., O’Reilly, J. (forthcoming) ‘Conceptualising Part-Time Work: the Value of an Integrated Comparative Perspective’ in Fagan, C., O’Reilly, J. (eds), Part-Time Prospects: an International Comparison of Part-Time Work, London, RoutledgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junor, A (1998) ‘Permanent Part-Time Work: Win-Win or Double Whammy?’. In Current Research in Industrial Relations. Proceedings of the 12th AIRAANZ Conference, eds Harbridge, Raymond, Gadd, Claire, Crawford, Aaron . Wellington, NZ, AIRAANZGoogle Scholar
Junor, A., Barlow, K., Patterson, M. (1993) Service Productivity: Part-Time Women Workers and the Finance Sector Workplace, Equal Pay Research Series, no.5, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing ServiceGoogle Scholar
Lewis, H (1989) Part-Time Work: Trends and Issues. Women’s Research and Employment Initiatives Program. Department of Employment, Education and Training. Canberra, AGPSGoogle Scholar
Morehead, A., Steele, M., Alexander, M., Stephen, K., Duffin, L. (1997) Changes at Work: The 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. Melbourne, LongmanGoogle Scholar
Norris, K (1996) The Economics of Australian Labour Markets, Fourth Edition. Melbourne, LongmanGoogle Scholar
Smith, M., Newell, S., Alcorso, C. (1997) Working Out Time in Cafes and Restaurants, Residential Care, Travel and Real Estate. Paramatta, New South Wales Working Women’s CentreGoogle Scholar
Tergeist, P. (ed) (1995) Flexible Working Time: Collective Bargaining and Government Intervention. Paris, OECDGoogle Scholar
Tilly, C (1992a) ‘Dualism in Part-time Employment’ Industrial Relations: a Journal of Economy and Society, 31, (Spring), pp. 330–347CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, C (1992b) ‘Two Faces of Part-time Work: Good and Bad Part-time Jobs in US Service Industries’ in Warme, Barbara, Lundy, Katherina, Lundy, Larry (eds), Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, New York, Westport Connecticut & London, Praeger, 227–238Google Scholar
Warme, B., Lundy, K., Lundy, L. (eds) (1992) Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities, New York, Westport Connecticut & London, PraegerGoogle Scholar
Whitehouse, G., Lafferty, G., Boreham, P. (1997) ‘From Casual to Permanent Part-Time? Non-Standard Employment in Retail and Hospitality’ Labour & Industry, 8, 2, pp. 33–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooden, M (1993) ‘Underemployment in Australia’, Labour Economics and Productivity, 5, 2, pp. 95–110Google Scholar
Wooden, M (1996) ‘The Australian Labour Market - March 1996’, Australian Bulletin of Labour 22, 1, pp. 3–27Google Scholar