Contributing to the broader topic of minimum wage determination in developing countries, this article discusses the shaping and implementation of minimum wage policy in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It begins by outlining the institutional arrangements under which minimum wage rates are determined in PNG. It then critically examines the argument that wage levels in the country are unsustainably high – a claim that has perennially characterised Papua New Guinea (PNG) minimum wage fixing. The article argues that, on the contrary, wage levels are indeed low and not adequate to reasonably support a single worker, let alone a family in an urban setting. This counter-argument is discussed in the context of debates over minimum wage levels and their relationship to economic growth, employment creation, international competitiveness, and capacity to pay. Whilst focusing on the PNG wage fixing system, the article thus sheds light on the dilemmas and challenges facing wages policy generally in a developing country setting.

The implications of the Liberal-National Party Coalition’s policy with regard to wage determination in Australia are assessed in relation to appropriate goals for wages policy. Although the current Accord-based system has shifted its focus over the last decade, from generally applied wage determination principles aimed at inflation control to an enterprise based system aimed at productivity enhancement, the Coalition’s policy should not be seen as merely an extension of the current system. This is because, in pursuit of faster productivity gains, the Coalition policy aims at the permanent exclusion from the wage determination process of the two institutional elements which provide the scope for an anti-inflation incomes policy in Australia — the Industrial Relations Commission and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

This paper provides a preliminary review of the effrects of closed shop arrangements on trade unions. In doing os it addresses four hypotheses: whether the closed shop reduces union militancy; whether it leads to poorer services; whether it affects bargaining power; and whether it leads to increased membership.

In this paper, changes in Norwegian bargaining and participation since the end of the eighties are discussed in a twenty year perspective. It is argued that a corporatist bargaining structure has been reinstated as a pragmatic measure to handle a difficult economic situation. This is contrary to the general political sentiments which have prevailed since the beginning of the eighties. However, a new constellation of actors are emerging on the organisational level who may irreversibly change the bargaining structure. With regard to participation, the laws and institutions that were introduced during the 1970s are still in place. However, their content is changing from democratisation as a value by itself to a focus on productivity-improvement as the ultimate goal.

The era of incomes policy agreements appears to have ended in Finland, with negotiations focused at sectoral and local levels, although this could change with a return to a Social Democratic-led Government. While representative systems of participation have not been abandoned, the authority of unions delegates at the workplace appears to have declined. There has also been a growth in direct forms of participation, initiated by management, and associated new forms of work organisation.

Recent years have seen Australian unions suffer major membership losses. Unions now represent only 46 per cent of the workforce and less than one third of the private sector workforce. The paper examines union membership trends and analysis the appropriate environment, structures and strategies for addressing union decline.

In this paper, we introduce a unique dataset derived from a survey conducted among 450 Syrian refugee workers and the owners/managers of the firms in which they are employed in Istanbul, Turkey. We utilise this data to investigate the connection between the wage-productivity gap and perceived economic and social discrimination. The findings of the study indicate that individuals facing a wider wage-productivity gap tend to report higher levels of economic and social discrimination. These results remain consistent even after incorporating various variables at both the worker and firm levels into the analysis. These findings imply potential policy recommendations that policymakers should take into account.

This essay examines a significant event in Australia’s economic and labour relations history in which an industrial relations court acted against government policy but in line with the advice of professional economists to impose a general wage reduction. This determination, unique during the period of central wage fixation, was made as the country fell into deep depression in 1930–1931. Arguments that a reduction in purchasing power would exacerbate the depression did not prevail over expert economic advice that wage reduction would lessen the structural consequences of reduced rural export income. The Court determined that the loss of real national income had to be accommodated without a wider package of measures such as exchange rate depreciation or expansionary monetary and fiscal policies. The impressive endeavours of the Court to understand and respond to a difficult economic reality represented a significant elevation of the status of wages policy in macroeconomic management – one that was to last for 60 years.

While the 1980s saw major changes to the Australian tax system which sought both to reduce avoidance and evasion and to reform the base structure of income tax, there are design deficiencies in some of these changes which must be attended to. Also a much closer approach to comprehensive and consistent taxation of investment income should be attempted. On the side of indirect tax the replacement of the wholesale sales tax by a broadly based value added tax is highly desirable, but is unlikely to be achievable politically unless lpart of a strategy which combines sales tax reform, tax mix change and income tax reform. In any case, meaningful and durable reform of the tax system requires a basic community consensus which cuts across sectional interest groups and political parties.

This paper examines the nature of the ‘convergence of vision’ that is said to have existed within mainstream macroeconomics prior to the ‘global economic recession’, and which has been the subject of strong criticism in recent times from Nobel Laureates such as Krugman, Akerlof and Solow. The nature of a proposed ‘Keynesian revival’ is also examined, and it is concluded that while the required changes in theoretical content and methodological perspective are substantial, the most significant obstacle to be overcome is to be found in what Keynes had referred to as the ‘metaphysical principles’ upon which laissez faire has been founded.

A number of well-publicised submissions advocating a ‘Job Creation Levy’ were made to the Committee. In its report, however, the Committee is lukewarm in relation to this option. The case for a levy in the form of an income tax surcharge can be made in terms of conventional welfare economics criteria and considerations of equity. The main case against the levy is that it will merely reshuffle the dole queue and, at the same time, create ‘artificial’ jobs at the expense of ‘real’ jobs. Moreover, there may be some undesirable implications for aggregate labour supply.

Over several decades Liberal-National Governments have encouraged Australian Public Service (APS) employers to uphold managerial prerogative by offering individual employment arrangements to employees. During the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Morrison Liberal-National Government’s Workplace Bargaining Policy reinforced this agenda. In place of collective bargaining, APS agency heads were encouraged to determine pay rises and new employment conditions for employees using Section 24 of the Public Service Act (PS Act) 1999. Workplace determinations did not need to be negotiated with public sector unions and some 85,500 employees across 57 APS agencies, or approximately 63% of the APS workforce, had accepted pay increases via workplace determinations by 31 December 2020. The widespread adoption of workplace determinations in the APS poses significant challenges for public sector unions and for the future of APS collective bargaining.

Regulatory agencies, the financial community and the investing public need to be aware that more effective investment recommendations and decisions require human capital analysis. It is important to the work of securities analysts, their clients and their industry. Bassi, Lev, Mcmurrer and Sissfield (2001) suggest that non-financial insights, particularly human capital related insights, make up a large proportion of investment decisions. More rigorous qualitative human capital analysis can illuminate the working of an organisation in a way that primary financial data on its own cannot achieve need. A model for outlining the human resource drivers of sustainable human capital is introduced and discussed in response to this need. In essence, an integrated approach is needed for the purpose of making more transparent investment recommendations. In Australia the Regulatory Agency, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission can assist in the adoption of this integrated investment process through the Training of Financial Product Advisors, Licensing Policy Statement 146.

The part played by unemployment in the rise to power of Hitler weighed on the minds of leaders in Western democracies. There was a determination to create a world in which large-scale unemployment was abnormal and at worst only a temporary phenomenon. The war had shown that this was possible in a community united to pursue a common goal and the aim was to create such a community in a world free from the horrors of war, by creating communities in which the welfare of every person was important. Australia was remarkably successful in achieving this for 30 years. Its success depended on governments responding to any sustained increase in unemployment by undertaking large increases in public sector expenditure supported by accommodating monetary policy and tax cuts if desirable. In bad times as well as good, there was a determination to ensure that both the incomes and prices paid for necessities by the less well-off did not force anyone to live in poverty. The biggest obstacle to achieving this today is the growth of neoliberalism with its emphasis on ‘freedom’ or giving individuals the ability to act as they please with minimal constraints and an ideological commitment to small government.

This paper evaluates the impacts of 2017’s labour law liberalisation on labour market flexibility in Lithuania. While employment did grow rapidly in 2017–2019, there was little change in labour market flexibility. Against expectations, part-time employment declined as labour relations continued to be administered under path-dependent institutional inertia inherited from previous decades. The prevalence of full-time, dual-earner employment was shaped by the country’s socialist legacy and was reflected in high employment rates and permanent open-ended contracts for both men and women. Analysis also showed that the revised labour law lowered the probability for women with family care responsibilities to be hired. Once hired, they were offered permanent employment albeit with the reduced protections that such contracts now provide. Impacts of the new labour law on shaping what is considered to be ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s work’ in Lithuania are discussed.