DETERMINACIÓN DE ÍNDICES DE MAYOR IMPACTO EN LA

In order to understand the extent to which employees participate in an Australian context it is necessary to examine the development of this concept in an Australian industrial context.

One of the key landmarks in Australian industrial relations that enshrined the principle of employee participation in the management of workplace change was the Australian Industrial Relations Commission 1984 ‘Termination, Change and Redundancy Decision’ (AIRC, [1984] 8 IR 34). This decision, now known as the TCR Decision, saw the incorporation into enterprise agreements of explicit clauses to guarantee employee consultation and participation in significant organisational change processes (Davis and Lansbury, 1989). Combet (2002), General-Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, described the importance of the outcome of this decision as ‘the Australian Industrial Relations Commission first created a legal basis for formalised consultation at work in Australia’ (2002:135).

Combet (2002) further described the impact of the change as far reaching in providing a foundation for ongoing employment participation in Australian workplaces. He described the TCR Decisions as providing a legal basis for employers to consult with their employees about a wide range of issues encompassing production, structure and technology.

Brown and Ainsworth (2000) described the TCR Decision as being a key development in relation to the participation of employees in the process of organisational change but one that in turn did not necessarily lead to any lasting increase in the participation of employees in wider workplace decision making. They stated that the TCR Decision provided employees with ‘contingency powers’ that they would be able to utilise in future periods of organisational change and further they provided access to key information sources that in the past they had not been privy to or had had to negotiate for.

The authors contrasted the access given to employees in workplace change decisions under the TCR Decision with the considerably greater employee participation afforded through the Federal and State occupational health and safety legislation (OHS) of the 1980s. In other words the OHS legislation provided a mandated basis upon which employees participated in decisions about workplace practices and were engaged as effective partners in the process whereas the TCR decision, whilst providing for employee participation, limited its applicability to a more consultative approach rather than a decision making approach.

Brown and Ainsworth (2000) further described the OHS legislation as providing a more developed form of participation by employees in workplace decision-making, albeit in a more limited area and argued that despite the fact that the participative requirements were relatively weak compared with other jurisdictions such as OHS, that participative practices were highly contested in the Australian workplace.

There was however no real enthusiasm for the incorporation of greater employee participation in organisational decision-making given the broader debate that was occurring in the Australian industrial relations context around award restructuring and enterprise bargaining which saw the introduction of negotiated conditions of work at the level of the enterprise rather than the sector or industry. Davis and Lansbury (1986) cited the preference by employers, as articulated through a Business Council of Australia report in the late 1980s, for a more limited form of employee participation as opposed to the desired position of the trade unions for a more developed form of industrial democracy:

Employee participation, with its primary focus on the individual employee, would contribute significantly to personal development, attitudinal change, healthy relationships at work, increased productivity and economic revitalisation. Industrial democracy, based on trade unions operating as the single channel of employee representation and communication and contractual or award based rights and entitlements, increases the risk of introducing further rigidities, conflicts, costs and counter-productive behaviour (1986:15).

This debate about the role of the employee in participating in the workplace and the extent to which this participation occurs at a direct level or in terms of an indirect union model gained greater attention following the TCR Decision where there was a statutory requirement for employee participation. Davis and Lansbury (1989) explored the extent to which employee participation in relation to workplace change was implemented following the TCR Decision in their analysis of the data recorded in the first of the Australian Workplace Industrial relations Survey (AWIRS) undertaken in 1990. This survey involved approximately 2,300 Australian workplaces, and in relation to issues of workplace change and employee participation, it found that whilst 86% of workplaces reported significant organisational change, over 75% of workplaces employees were not consulted or informed about the organisational changes which would affect employees (1989:114).

The subsequent AWIRS survey undertaken in 1995 found no real evidence of an increase in the use of employee participation in the process of workplace change although there was evidence of increased employee participation through union participation in enterprise bargaining and the development of greater workplace consultative mechanisms including consultative committees and joint bargaining teams (Bray, Waring, Macdonald and Le Queux, 2001:15).

The introduction of the concept of award restructuring in 1987 by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission was designed to move the national industrial relations system away from a more rigid award based centralised wage fixing environment to one where conditions of employment where negotiated between management and unions on an enterprise by enterprise basis. McBride (1996)

described this outcome in the context of the employment relationship when she wrote that: ‘award restructuring explicitly sought the co-operation of labour and management’ (1996:46).

The concept of co-operation between management and unions was consistent with the earlier debate about the use of employee participation as the basis for a more dynamic employment relationship. If award restructuring was to see conditions of employment negotiated between management and unions in a partnership then there would need to be an acceptance by management that employees, at least through their representatives, would directly participate in the negotiation of organisational decision making.

McBride (1996) further described the nature of an empowered workforce as one typified by: ‘cooperation and accommodation between management and employees’ (1996:42). The changes to the Australian workplaces brought about through the award restructuring process was clearly confirmed as moving the nature of workplace interaction to the level of the enterprise when the Australian Industrial Relations Commission released its statement of principles for enterprise bargaining (McBride, 1996).

The capacity to more effectively change programs within the workplace through the use and encouragement of employee participation was also articulated by Morgan and Zeffane (2003) who described the failure of many workplace change programs within Australia during the 1990s as a result of a lack of effective employee involvement:

The frequency and scope of organisational change have precipitated a new focus on the nature, antecedents and consequences of trust for organisations and human resource management. The absence of consultation in Australian organisations indicates reluctance by management to initiate trust-building practice and, by implication, an assumption that employees cannot be trusted to make important decisions about their work activities. Involving people in decisions that affect them, enhancing the credibility of management and keeping

‘surprising’ changes to a minimum are all key recommendations for managing ‘cynicism’ (2003:69).

The scope for further encouragement of employee participation in an Australian context came to a relatively abrupt halt with the election of the Coalition Government in 1996 and the introduction of the Workplace Relations Act (1996). Combet (2002) described the adverse impact of the new legislation on employee participation as follows: ‘The 1996 Workplace Relations Act unilaterally removed all provisions dealing with employee consultation from awards’ (2002:137).

The extent to which the introduction of this Act shifted the focus for a participative workplace was described by Bray et al (2001): ‘There is no longer any legislative requirement to consult with the workforce during the bargaining process for an enterprise agreement, or to establish a structure for any form of consultation during the operation of the agreement’ (2001:15).

Despite the overwhelming support for participation in change, the industrial relations laws and political climate, driven by HR practices which individualise the employment relationship has, it is argued, led to less and not more meaningful consultation over change.

Having considered employee participation in the management of workplace change within the context of the Australian industrial relations system, it is necessary to explore the concept further within the context of the HE sector.