1

WORK2203 Industrial Relations Policy

Semester Two 2014

Tutorial Guide


Tutorial format:

There are eleven tutorials scheduled over thirteen weeks.
In seven of these tutorials there will be student facilitation and leadership: you will
lead these tutorials as a part of a group. Your tutor will allocate you to a group and to
a topic as a group.
For the remainder of the tutorials we will work as a group on another exercise.
For assessment details, see Unit of Study Outline


Week One: No tutorials
Although there are no tutorial classes this week, we expect you to familiarise yourself with
the textbook and to be prepared to engage in a conversation in your first tutorial.

The textbook for this unit is available from the Coop. It is essential for your study:
Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An
Era of Change The Federation Press, Leichhardt.

We strongly recommend that you access the Journal of Industrial Relations Annual Review
Essays for 2010-2014 which appear in the June issues. The most recent is Volume 56,
Number 3, June 2014. It appears on our library online reserve site as the current issue of the
journal: http://jir.sagepub.com/content/current.


Week Two: Introductions, allocation of groups, discussion of the Unit of Study Outline
You need to attend this class in order to be allocated to groups.

This short reading provides an overview of the textbook and therefore of many of the
questions we will be addressing in this unit:

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapter 1.


Week Three: Understanding the state and the policy process
Note that there will be no leadership or facilitation activity in this week.

We will address the following questions in this class:

1. What do Hogwood and Gunn mean when they say that policy is best understood as a
process? What (if any) benefits does this offer us?
2. Why is there so much debate about what the state can do and what it should do in the
field of industrial relations?

2

Copies of these readings are available in learning resources on blackboard and in our library
reserve site:

Hogwood, B. W. and Gunn, L. A. (1984), Policy Analysis for the Real World, Oxford
University Press, London, pp. 12-31.
Hyman, R. (2008), The State in Industrial Relations, in P. Blyton, N. Bacon, J. Fiorito & E.
Heery (eds), The Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations, Sage, London, pp. 258-83.


Week Four: The development and importance of industrial relations policy
Note that there will be no leadership or facilitation activity in this week.

We will address the following questions in this class:

1. What are the connections between industrial relations policy and other areas of
government activity and other areas of policy?
2. Is there something distinctive about Australian industrial relations policy compared
with other countries?
3. Can you think of other categories, not covered by Befort and Budd, which might be
used to evaluate workplace policy?

Ellem, B. (2010), The Making of Industrial Relations Policy: Where Are We Now and How
Did We Get Here?, Labour and Industry, 21(1), pp. 353-368.
Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapter 11.
McCallum, R. (1996), The New Millennium and the Higgins Heritage: Industrial Relations
in the 21st Century, Journal of Industrial Relations, 38(2), pp. 294-312.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Objectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.


Week Five: From Work Choices to the Fair Work Act
Leadership and facilitation activities begin in this week.

1. What were the industrial relations policy goals of the Howard Government through its
Work Choices laws?
2. What were the goals of the Rudd/Gillard Governments industrial relations policies?
3. Can we use the Befort and Budd model to analyse these legislative frameworks?

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapters 2 & 3.
Cooper, R. and Ellem, B. (2008), The Neo-Liberal State, Trade Unions and Collective
Bargaining in Australia, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(3), pp. 532-54.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Objectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.

Depending upon your particular focus, several Annual Review papers in recent June issues of
the Journal of Industrial Relations provide vital overviews. See especially but not only:

Gillard, J. (2009), Foreword, Journal of Industrial Relations, 51(3), pp. 283-4.
3

Cooper, R. (2009), Forward with Fairness? Industrial Relations under Labor in 2008,
Journal of Industrial Relations, 51(3), pp. 285-96.


Week Six: Employers
Leadership and facilitation

1. How influential have employers been over policy-making in the last twenty years?
2. What are the major concerns facing employers in Australia in 2014 and have those
concerns changed?
3. What are employers demanding of industrial relations policy-makers and how might
their concerns be understood in terms of Befort and Budds framework?

The Annual Review papers on Employer and Employer Association Matters in the Journal
of Industrial Relations are indispensable for this topic.

Peetz, D. (2002) Decollectivist Strategies in Oceania, Relations Industrielles/Industrial
Relations, 57(2), pp. 25281.
Cooper, R. and Ellem, B. (2008), The Neo-Liberal State, Trade Unions and Collective
Bargaining in Australia, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(3), pp. 532-54.
Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapter 5.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Ojectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.


Week Seven: Policy debates today
Leadership and facilitation

In this class, in the light of guest-lectures in Week Six, we will draw together the unit so far
around some major themes and set up the more detailed analysis of policy areas which
occupies the rest of semester.

1. What have been the dominant assumptions about gender in industrial relations policy
and have they changed?
2. What are the core purposes of policy and what should they be?
3. Should governments have policies to encourage particular industries and what might
that mean for industrial relations?
4. Should governments have policies to set minimum standards of employment?

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapters 2, 9 & 13.

Further readings will be provided in the opening weeks of semester.

4

Week Eight: Unions, voice and policy
Leadership and facilitation

1. Is there a future for collective bargaining in Australia? Should there be?
2. What differences, if any, has the Fair Work Act made to unions?
3. Is the Commonwealth Government antagonistic towards unions? If so, why?
4. What are the key policy concerns for unions in Australia in 2014 (and how does this
problem link to Befort and Budds work?)

See several papers on unions in the June Annual Review papers in the Journal of Industrial
Relations but especially the current issue and:
Bailey J. and Peetz D., (2013), Unions and Collective Bargaining in Australia in 2012,
Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(4), pp. 403-420.
Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapters 4 & 12.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Ojectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.


Week Nine: Paid Parental Leave
There will be no facilitation this week. Instead the topic will be discussed by way of a class
debate.

1. How can work and life issues best be resolved today and what should be the role of
the state?
2. What do you see as the best mechanisms to facilitate workplace gender equality?

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapters 6 & 9.
Baird, M. (2004), Orientations to Paid Maternity Leave: Understanding the Australian
Debate, Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(3), pp. 259-74.
See the annual review articles Women, Work and Industrial Relations for 2009-2014 in the
Journal of Industrial Relations June issues as referred to above.
You may also find this public lecture useful:
http://sydney.edu.au/business/wos/laffer_lecture/2012


Week Ten: Essay week for WORK2203 no tutorials or lecture


Week Eleven: Policy and productivity
Leadership and facilitation

1. Why might changes in industrial relations lead to productivity growth?
2. Did Work Choices improve productivity and how is the Fair Work Act affecting
workplaces?
3. Why is improving productivity important and how might it be done?

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapter 10.
5

Peetz, D. (2005), Hollow Shells: The Link Between Individual Contracting and Productivity
Growth, Journal of Australian Political Economy, 56, pp. 32-55.
Sheldon, P. and Thornthwaite, L. (2013) Employer and Employer Association Matters in
Australia in 2012 Journal of Industrial Relations, 55(3), pp. 386-402.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Ojectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.


Week Twelve: Skills and immigration
Leadership and facilitation

1. To what extent is skills policy an issue for industrial relations policy?
2. How can we conceptualise policies in relation to skills by using Befort and Budds
model?
3. How and why has government policy about skilled immigration changed in recent
years?

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapters 7 & 8.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Ojectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.
Wright, C.F. (2014), Why Do States Adopt Liberal Immigration Policies? The Policymaking
Dynamics of Skilled Visa Reform in Australia, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies,
published online April, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2014.910446
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2014.910446


Week Thirteen: Industrial relations policy beyond Australia
Leadership and facilitation

1. How do the changes in Australian industrial relations policy over the last decade or so
compare with other countries?
2. Do minimum standards matter and what are the differences between Australia, the US
and the UK in this policy field?
3. Can we learn from and use other countries industrial relations policy?

Baird, M., Hancock, K. and Isaac J. (eds) (2011) Work and Employment Relations: An Era of
Change, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, Chapters 13-15.
Befort, S. and Budd, J. (2009), Invisible Hands, Invisible Ojectives, Stanford University
Press, Stanford, Chapter 1.

Other readings will be provided.