Introduction
The labour market is dominated by two schools of thoughts, the first one supports the centralised system of labour market also known as arbitration. This is where we have well structured labour unions that bring together the workers, employers and the society thus trying to reduce social inequalities. The second school supports free market structures with its notion of supply and demand under the system that has weakened the labour unions and the means of representing the interest of the workers.
According to Shedwin (1970) Australia is a good example of countries that began with the practise of a well structured labour market, but later moved to the decentralised system with the need of surviving competition in the global regime. The decentralised system of government contributes to a lot of social inequalities in major countries like Australia. It has lead to people been overworked in the work places, poor health conditions and insecure jobs. Despite being a wealthy country, Australia has a lot of casual labourers whose interests are rarely protected and this leads to stress and also sicknesses at the place of work.
A decentralised system in the field of industrial relations has weakened the safeguards that were used to protect workers under the previous agreements and awards. This as expressed by Russel (2003) it has in effect exemplified various arrangements that were award based in employment arrangements, for example maternity leave or even the sick leave which have been incorporated in enterprise arrangements. Workers have been left without any representation either from the workers representatives or the trade unions. The legislative changes put in place by the federal government are what has assisted the process. The government has been hostile and has weakened trade unions and their unionisations.
The powers of the commission of Australian Industrialised relations has also been weakened while its major tasks included protecting workers whose bargaining powers are weak this hypothesis was expressed by Isaac ( 1998).
Supporters of the individualised and deregulated forms of relations in the industrial world argue that globalisation forces have provided no alternative. However countries like Northern Europe have maintained very active institutions of labour market to provide enough social protection and they still perform very well in competing with the international economy. According to MaCynter (1985) Australia should stop looking at globalisation as a threat and start to support international agencies for instance the ACTU which would in effect support small nations to improve in the protection of the rights of their workers in the working places and also in the labour market.
In order to ensure that a country has an adequate society which is also prosperous, there is need to have a social contract that would ensure even partnership between the community, employers, workers, organisations, unions and also the government. The three important pillars of a social contract as Bilson (1986) puts forward should be comprising policies that are used in all the societies that are advanced in industrialisation.
One of the pillars is a market policy that is active and one that OECD long advocated for which helps to invest resources in job creation instead of reducing job opportunities. The second policy pillar is rebuilding of Australia’s skills and the capacity of the intellectuals by encouraging training the workforce and developing it, the government should invest a lot in this. Lastly, the government should ensure that a pillar of national superannuation system is put in place to ensure secure entitlements and universal coverage prevails.
For the success of achieving the establishment of the above goals, Brewer (1976) the federal government should put in place industrial polices that are comprehensive, which would make good regulation of the labour market and those that are able to restrain the institutions of labour markets to ensure equitable working conditions as well as equitable wages. This would lead to achieving of economic efficiency, and avoid undermining social equalities which is the basis for a democratic society.
Challenges Facing Industrial Relations
According to, Douglas (1999) the relations in the industrial world face a challenge of unprecedented difficulty that involves from a system that has centralised wage fixation and also arbitration to that of the working place bargaining. This was a hypothesis by Isaack (1992). Moving to the level of enterprise focus would put a lot of strain in cohesion of parties that take part in the industrial relation’s system.
The coalition government has made very hostile legislations that have seen decline in unionisation. ACTU has been trying to come up with skills that would help to revitalize unionisation in the work places as expressed by Marshal (1950). The use of regional strategies have proved to be a success in instances of implementing unions and have helped to restore the trade union members and to bring back the strength of collective bargaining.
The ACTU has moved ahead to ensure that apart from the traditional structures and trade unions, employees access rights to consultation and information and a capability to establish work councils that are same to those in Europe as observed by Brewer (1976). An active union will be important to ensure a good social partnership between capital and labour markets is established.
Bob Hawkle proposed a solution to Australia on how they could maintain a hybrid approach and is very successful in the area of industrial relations, this would also include the elements of decentralised bargaining of wages as well as centralised bargaining, to contribute a lot to the control of inflation as well as assist to boost productivity. Marshal (1950) had in his writing urged that we should not completely abandon the arbitration system, but should rather develop a bargaining system that ensures conditions of work and wages are above minimum. He emphasised that the system of the federal government policies on industrial relations, which had dismantled the system of arbitration and of conciliation, had negatively affected people at work place and had also affected the whole Australian society.
Isaack (1982) emphasized that enterprise bargaining concept if correctly implemented has a lot of merit. He however complained that the means used to introduce enterprise bargaining end up excluding unions in the process, and that this has destructed workers whose jobs and wages are vulnerable. What is needed for Australia is a good enterprise approach that would help the workers who chose to use that particular approach. This approach should also ensure that it protects those who have weak barging powers and are vulnerable to exploitation.
Some issues are however best bargained for at the national level as most countries have discovered, issues like the income policies are better explained at the national levels. Other matters on the other hand would be best bargained at the industrial levels, for example training plans that are conducted at the industry level. The Federal government advocates for enterprise bargaining visa Vis all other systems.
Many promoters of decentralised and a more individualised industrialised system argue that globalisation leaves no other alternative to be followed. Globalisation means the changes that occur in the international economy that are related with the increased trade in services and also goods, and also changes that encourage increase in flows of foreign investment, and also promote operations of the multinational business Brewer (1976) expressed this view. Some scholars have argued that the essence of globalisation leaves small countries with no other option if they have to succeed in the competitive market, but there are still other small countries that do well in the labour structured markets, for instance the European countries and the they still perform very well in the competitive markets.
There is very good merit in the use of well regulated labour markets adopted by the European Union countries, and these countries put a lot of emphasis in the economic and the social equalities. This argument would go along with the debate that emphasizes on observation of human rights at work. The debate apart from emphasising a good bargain between workers and employers on the issues of wages and working conditions it also focuses on other interests of the workers.
The Need to Restore Social Contracts at Work Places
The social contract is of great essence as it helps to strengthen industrial tribunals and the labour markets like in Australia in order to improve the working conditions and to ensure equalities of workers in places with deregulated industrial systems. There is therefore need to improve the pillars of the social contracts of a country like Australia As MaCaynter ( 1985) put it forward.
The notion of a social contract has been formulated by philosophers such as like Hobbes, Loke and Rousseau. McCallum (1996) observed that, social contract is defined as the obligations and the mutual expectations that a society, the employers and employees have for the field of work on how the employers and employees relationships are to be conducted. It is a sort of a societal norm that makes one accountable to the quality of work they produce and to ensure they get value for that work.
In Australia, Shedwin (1970) used the word social settlement to show the compromise between capital and labour, and this helped to establish arbitration and conciliation methods that recognised the right of workers channelled through the trade unions as well as recognising the prerogative of the employers. The concept of social settlement should be improved in Australia to include establishment of good wages and fair conditions for the workers.
There is also need for establishment of new social contracts to enable those willing and able to work to get access to such employment opportunities. There is also need to give good protection to those unable to work, and the need to come up with a social contract that allows the citizens of Australia to access training and education while in the work places. Lastly the there should be a social contract that provides protection to the economic needs of workers during retirement time this was a view expressed by Douglas (1999). This are some of the points which have been overlooked by the neo-liberal advocates of free market system, yet these are the most required pillars to protect the interest of workers from exploitation in the industrial world.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that decentralised governments like Australia have been experiencing high economic growth in the last decade, it has had a lot of social and economic conflicts. According to Russell (1982), the employees at the bottom have really had a downward graphs in the in the relative and also in the absolute sense. The opposite of this is that at the top tier of property and income earning, businesses have had significant gains. There has been stagnation in the middle earning class in both their standards of living as well as the income capacity. There has been an increase in the number of unemployment as well as groups of people in debt and very little in the private savings Bilson (1986) made this keen observation.
This brings in a big question concerning the future economic prosperity of a country. It therefore calls for the need to put cheques and balances between the trade unions and the labour government to give room for comprehensive policies for the nation to be able to approach economic growths that are inflationary, income policies, industry restructuring, health care issues, superannuation, among other issues. There is need for the federal government to bring together unions, employees, employers, and other interest groups to a dialogue addressing the important issues touching the labour market.
References
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