Workplace Industrial Relations and Deregulation: Challenging the New Orthodoxy

Australia offers an example of a formerly centralized system of industrial relations which is in the process of significant change towards a more decentralized and deregulated system. However, many of the criticisms of the previous system, which focused on its inflexibility and rigidity, were based largely on anecdotal evidence. The results of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey revealed that many of these criticisms did not appear to be supported. Presents further evidence, based on a series of detailed case studies,that there was a good deal of flexibility at the workplace level under the so‐called centralized system. It argues that many of the criticisms of the arbitration systems and of union resistance to change, especially by employer organizations, have been misplaced. Indeed, where management pursued a clear strategy to achieve greater efficiency, and actively involved both employees and unions in the process, their initiatives were generally well received and successful.