Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T12:21:00.208Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘We’ve Got This New Legislation’: A Review Article on Australia@Work and other 2007 Reports on WorkChoices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Diane Fieldes
Diane Fieldes*
Affiliation:
The University of New South Wales
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 WorkChoices legislation was controversial at the time of its introduction. The controversy has continued as to what its outcomes have been, and in whose interests it has operated. One outcome of the legislation has been a proliferation of extremely comprehensive analyses of its effects to date. This review article on those reports concludes that the overwhelming weight of evidence is that the legislation has benefited employers at the expense of employees. However, this article provides a materialist analysis of WorkChoices and the wider employer offensive which contrasts with the dominant interpretations amongst the critics of WorkChoices. The paper situates WorkChoices as part of a longer-term employer offensive designed to maintain profitability by increasing the rate of labour exploitation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , November 2007 , pp. 143 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2007

References

ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics) (2007) Australian System of National Accounts, 2006–07, Catalogue No. 5204.0, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) (2007) ‘Real wages go backwards under Work Choices: Harvester decision anniversary’, 5 November, available: http://www.actu.asn.au/Campaigns/YourRightsatWork/YourRightsatWorknews/RealwagesgobackwardsunderWorkChoicesHarvesterdecisionanniversary.aspx [accessed 5 November 2007].Google Scholar
Baird, M., Cooper, R., Oliver, D. (2007) Down and out with WorkChoices: The impact of WorkChoices on the work and lives of women in low paid employment. A Report to the Office of Industrial Relations, Department of Commerce, New South Wales. Prepared by the Women and Work Research Group, University of Sydney, June, available: http://wwrg.econ.usyd.edu.au/Events/2007/Women_and_Work_Choices_Report_2007.pdf [accessed 17 November 2007].Google Scholar
Bramble, T. (2004) ‘Contradictions in Australia’s “Miracle Economy”’, Journal of Australian Political Economy, 54, pp. 5–31.Google Scholar
Braverman, H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital. The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, Monthly Review Press, New York.Google Scholar
Callinicos, A. (2004) The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx, Bookmarks, London.Google Scholar
Charlesworth, S., Macdonald, F. (2007) Going too far: WorkChoices and the experience of 30 Victorian workers in minimum wage sectors. A Report to Industrial Relations Victoria, prepared by the Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University, available: http://www.nfaw.org/social/www/2007/Going_too_far.pdf [accessed 17 November 2007].Google Scholar
Ellem, B. and Women and Work Research Group (2007) More work, less choice: the impact of national labour re-regulation on low-paid women workers in the Australian Capital Territory, A Report to the Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services, prepared by Work and Organisational Studies and Women and Work Research Group, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Elton, J. Bailey, Baird, J., Charlesworth, M., Cooper, S., Ellem, R., Jefferson, B., Macdonald, T., Oliver, F., Pocock, D., Preston, B., Whitehouse, A., Whitehouse, G. (2007) Women and WorkChoices: Impacts on the low pay sector: Summary report. Centre for Work + Life, Adelaide, August.Google Scholar
Elton, J., Pocock, B. (2007) Not fair, no choice. The impact of WorkChoices on twenty South Australian workers and their households. A Report to SafeWork SA and The Office for Women. Prepared by the Centre for Life + Work, University of South Australia, July, available: http://www.nfaw.org/social/www/2007/WandWC_Summary.pdf [accessed 17 November 2007].Google Scholar
Evesson, J. Buchanan, Bamberry, J., Frino, L., Oliver, D. (2007) Lowering the standards: From awards to WorkChoices in retail and hospitality collective agreements: Synthesis report. Report prepared for the Queensland, New South Wales, and Victorian Governments. Workplace Research Centre, Sydney, September.Google Scholar
Forsyth, A. (2007) Freedom to fire: Economic dismissals under WorkChoices. Report for the Victorian Office of the Workplace Rights Advocate, August.Google Scholar
Gahan, P. (2007) Employer Greenfields agreements under WorkChoices: Interim report. Office of the Workplace Rights Advocate, Melbourne, August.Google Scholar
Harman, C. (1999) Explaining the Crisis. A Marxist Re-appraisal, Bookmarks, London.Google Scholar
Hockey, J. (2007) Transcripts. AM, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2 October, available: http://www.joehockey.com/mediahub/transcriptDetail.aspx?prID=547 [accessed 14 October 2007].Google Scholar
Hyman, R. (1972) Strikes, Fontana/Collins, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Industrial Relations Commission (SA) (2007) Inquiry into the impact of WorkChoices in South Australia, Interim report, Industrial Relations Commission of SA, Adelaide.Google Scholar
Knox, A. (2007) Fear and loathing in Australia: Gauging employee responses to the WorkChoices act, paper presented to 21st conference of Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Auckland, 7–9 February.Google Scholar
Jefferson, T. Preston, Chapple-Fahlesson, A., Mitchell, S. (2007) A study of low paid work and low paid workers in Western Australia. Prepared by WiSER (Women in Social and Economic Research), Curtin University of Technology, August.Google Scholar
Macdonald, F., Whitehouse, G., Bailey, J. (2007) Tipping the scales: A qualitative study of the impact of WorkChoices on women in low-paid employment in Queensland, A Report to the Queensland Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, prepared by the School of Political science and International Studies, University of Queensland and Department of Industrial Relations, Griffith University, June.Google Scholar
Marx, K, Engels, F. (1986) Manifesto of the Communist Party, Progress Publishers, Moscow.Google Scholar
Mohun, S. (2003) ‘The Australian rate of profit 1965–2001’, Journal of Australian Political Economy, 52, December, pp. 83–112.Google Scholar
National Foundation for Australian Women [NFAW] (2007) What Women Want: Consultations on Welfare to Work and Work Choices, 1 June 2007.Google Scholar
Oakley, C. (2007) ‘Nurses show the way to fight’, Socialist Alternative, 122, November.Google Scholar
Peetz, D. (1998) Unions in a Contrary World. The Future of the Australian Trade Union Movement, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peetz, D. (2007a) Brave new WorkChoices: What is the story so far?, paper presented to 21st conference of Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Auckland, 7–9 February.Google Scholar
Peetz, D. (2007b) Collateral damage: Women and the WorkChoices battlefield, Diverging employment relations patterns in Australia and New Zealand? Paper presented to 21st conference of Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Auckland, 7–9 February.Google Scholar
Peetz, D. (2007c) Assessing the impact of WorkChoices — One year on. Report to the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development Victoria. Industrial Relations Victoria, Melbourne, March.Google Scholar
Peetz, D., Preston, A. (2007) AWAs, collective agreements and earnings: Beneath the aggregate data. A report prepared for Industrial Relations Victoria. Industrial Relations Victoria, Melbourne, March, available: http://www.business.vic.gov.au/busvicwr/_assets/main/lib60013/awa-ca-earnings-paper.pdf [accessed 17 November 2007].Google Scholar
Preston, A. (2007) ABS data most comprehensive guide to employee earnings under AWAs, WiSER Information Sheet, October, available: http://www.asu.asn.au/data_man/campaigns/rightsatwork/preston-infosheet2007.pdf [accessed 27 November 2007].Google Scholar
Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (2007) Final report — Inquiry into the impact of WorkChoices on Queensland workplaces, employees and employers, January.Google Scholar
van Wanrooy, B. Oxenbridge, Buchanan, S., Jakubauskas, M. (2007) Australia@Work. The Benchmark Report, Workplace Research Centre, Sydney, September.Google Scholar
West, A. (2007) ‘Inside the work laws demolition’, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 November, available: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/andrew-west/2007/11/25/1195975870579.html [accessed 30 November 2007].Google Scholar