In Australia, industrial relations system has been shaped by diverse legislative Acts and political forces coupled with judicial decisions at both the state and federal level. This evident in the sense that there have been diverse amendments of the 1904 Act in light of increased pressures in the industrial sector. This elicited mixed reactions from the employees and employers, among other stakeholders in the industry. However, due to the disadvantages and/or drawbacks of the centralized system of collective bargaining in comparison to the advantages or positive aspects of the decentralized approach of collective bargaining, employers have favored departure from the centralized wage-fixing. Against this backdrop, it behooves us to explore the reasons as why employers have favored the decentralization of Collective bargaining in Australia.
Instructively, it behooves to set the premise on the background of the industrial relation system in the within the territorial jurisdiction of the Federation of Australia. Pursuant to section 51 under the Australian Constitution, the Federal Government has the powers to legislate with regard to conciliation as well as arbitration with a view to prevent and settle industrial disputes that step out of the confines of any given state (Fleming, 2004). Previously, the Conciliation and Arbitration Act of1904 had been the relevant Act in this respect, and it provided for the existence of trade unions and instituted the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act Court (Fleming, 2004). The commonwealth Court lost powers to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in 1956; subsequently, it was renamed to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) which serves to resolve dis...
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...e Bargaining, Managerial Prerogative and the Protection of Workers Rights: An Argument on the Role of the Law and Regulatory Strategy in Australia under the Workplace Act 1996 (Cth). Retrieved on April 9, 2013, from http://www.google.co.ke/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.law.unimelb.edu.au%2FE8812500-7599-11E2-84E10050568D0140&ei=t0RkUdT0K62V7Ab48IC4Bw&usg=AFQjCNEfV17R8n5eNatsPXKQRxB9bqvUig&bvm=bv.44990110,d.ZGU.
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To conclude this analysis on the basis of the labor’s extensive history, Sloane & Witney (2010) propose, “it is entirely possible that labor’s remarkable staying power has been because of the simple fact that to many workers, from the nineteenth century to the present, there really has been no acceptable substitute for collective bargaining as a means of maintaining and improving employment conditions” (p.80). In the end, it is important to anticipate unions and employers presently work together to find solutions that will enhance collective bargaining strategies and practices to serve the interest of both parties.
David Brody argues that the rise of contractual or collective bargaining relationships during the post WWII era formalized the relationship between employers and unions, but simultaneously began to put a break on shop floor activism. Explain Brody’s argument and, where relevant, incorporate Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.
Holley, Jr., W., Jennings, K. & Wolters, R. (2012). The labor relations process. (10th ed.). Fort
Factories were known for their ill treatment of their employees, long hours and dirty and unsafe conditions. In 1866, unions started to form to improve working conditions for the workers. A fundamental problem faced by democratic societies is as long as people live their lives individually and go their separate ways and be selfish individuals, they are unlikely to meet collectively to resolve issues. There needs to be meaningful unity among people to alleviate this problem to get people obliged to one another, so there is a willingness to sacrifice for shared goals. Bonding of its citizens creates a democracy. Unions seemed to offer the middle class a chance to become a crucial part of fostering institutions of constitutional democracy. The unions have went through several transitions, but have always worked for the working force. I will discuss the history of the various unions, their wins and losses, and the struggle of the employee to achieve democracy in the workplace.
In this paper, I focused on the major differences between the US and EU regulations of the following labor issues:
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NZ’s industrial relations developed by protection of the employment relationship through acts passed by government, particularly the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act (IC&A). This is fundamental to NZ’s employment relations and set the right for trade unions to arrange and negotiate collectively with employers, as well as producing awards, wage rates and handling disputes (Bryson, 2011c).
An arbitrator’s function is usually to interpret the collective bargaining agreement between the parties, not to apply his or her standards of what is right in a given situation. The courts have sought to compel labour and management to a peaceful resolution of grievances through arbitration. The Supreme Court has given support to the arbitration process in a series of decisions, and judicial deferral to arbitration has become a basic tenet of national labour policy. Bibliography Byars, L. L. (1997). The.
The laws and regulations surrounding Industrial Relations since the 1900’s have, at each reform, placed tighter constraints on the amount of power unions are able to exert. The reforms have also radically increased managerial prerogative, through an increased use of individual bargaining, contracts and restrictions imposed on unions (Bray and Waring, 2006). Bray and W...
Collective bargaining may happen in several kinds of fields, ranging politics to sports. It allows appropriate settlement of disputes and issues that benefit both parties involved, producing a result that is not one-sided. Collective bargaining is “the negotiation of wages and other conditions of employment by an organized body of employees” (Beal, Wickersham, & Kienast 5). Four issues that are probable components of a collective bargaining agreement are:
Industrial Relations is a multidisciplinary field dealing with the study of employment relationship in union and non-union organizations. There have been various theories of industrial relations in place, but the first and most influential theory was put forward by John Thomas Dunlop. Dunlop, as a labor economist, remodelled the work of sociologists and developed a framework of industrial relations system. He developed the System’s Theory which stressed on the interrelationship of institutions and behaviors that enables one to understand and explain industrial relation rules.
There are many different approaches and theories regarding industrial relations nowadays. In order to mount an opinion on which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory of industrial relations, each theory will have to be analyzed. The three most prevalent theories of industrial relations which exist are The Unitarist theory, The Pluralist theory and The Marxist theory. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of trade unions and job regulation very differently. I will examine each of these theories in turn and then formulate my own opinion regarding which is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory.
Godfrey et al. (2014) refer to collective bargaining as a confrontational process that involves negotiation between conflicting parties in order to find a mutually acceptable agreement. The LRA acknowledges trade unions and employers’ organisations as representatives of employers and employees by providing them with specific organisational rights as well as methods to create forums in which bargaining can take place (Grogan 2015).