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Australian government has had substantial influence on the employment of its people since 1980. Many reforms have been made since then that have benefited the employers and employees equally. The government’s flexibility to make agreement on reforms on industrial relations was a major stepping stone for Australian labor force. Most reforms were in accordance with the human resource requirements.
Employment is one critical organ of an economy. It is an important measurement for the development of an economy. Since 1980, Australia has received dramatic changes in its labor markets. Great changes in the employment contract lead to the facilitation of the labor regulations. The passage of the 1991 employment contract Act had the greatest impact which was positive.
Australia industrial relation reforms did not start with decentralization but rather centralized wage determination and varying national wage rates which were linked to prices directly. In Australia the labor force comprises those people of ages about sixteen and above and is actively involved in full or part time employment. The unemployed too are part of the labor force.
The government is involved in policy making. Its effect of policy making has a lot of influence on the sectors that man the economy of every country (Lunsbury & Nick 2011). In Australia, the chapter 3 reviews by the government in the early 80s did affect the labor force. For instance, the reviews led to a decline in central management of finances and the public service sector in general.
Agencies and individual departments had the liberty to control their work on their own. These reforms meant that the managers of organizations had the sole responsibility of directing their organizations towards achieving work performance and goals (Edge 2000).
This also meant that the concerned leaders of organizations were answerable to commissions, the government and the parliament. However, the organizations still retained their old ethical values.
Considering The Public Reform Service Act, This act was amended in about 1984. It gave more liberty to the employment section (Lunsbury & Nick 2011). Some of the good reports in the act included increased resource allocation methods, responsiveness to them new government, assessment of the roles of agencies and a competitive central government.
Another good report was on employment. This meant that there would be equal employment opportunities to every single citizen. Major strong focuses of the reform included frame works for employment and deregulation, devolution & integration of Australian Public Service (APS) in industrial relations (Niland, 1980).
In 1996, there were yet new reforms on the Public Service Act (Niland, 1980). This time round, the reforms were directed on innovation and more technological advancement. This meant a great improvement on the workforce for the government the Australian people. In addition to innovation, the reform was also to enhance professionalism and commitment of the public sector.
Provision of a good and enabling environment was also a part of the reform strategies. Providing a viable environment was to encourage commitment and creativity and also to create opportunities for the job seekers. These reforms of the early 90s however met several challenges. Some of the challenges were due to cultural background,
As for the economic status, Niland (1980) explains that the rate of employment and unemployment is closely related to the status of the economy. In 1980, Australia had a steady state decrease in the employment opportunities. By 2002, the status had shifted to more employment for the people. This decrease in employment rate continued until the mid years of the new millennium (Lewis 2006).
The decrease was very alarming as it escalated from good to bad. Recession was the main reason for the tremendous decrease in employment. The economy was having a reversed state of growth that affected the labor markets.
However, this economic issue was not inborn in Australia but originated from the United States and the global arena at large. The down slope of economy in the US and globally resulted into reduced growth in Australia (Lewis 2006). In addition, the exports also reduced disastrously influencing the rate of employment.
Considering Governments’ Role in Employment. In the period of early 1900, the Australian government had a centralized rule that governed almost every section of the country’s developmental aspects. There was more regulation that prevented the labor force from having liberty. The unions gave out a raw deal for employment hence; it was not one of the best choices for the people.
Decentralization became an open door of opportunity for the development of industrial relations. Formally the main body that regulated the labor force was the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission (Maitland 2004). This was later replaced by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
This body was responsible for the creation of awards from the commencement of its existence. It brought out a paradigm shift in the employment sector.
Some of the issues advocated for by this commission were on minimum wage number, equity in employment, favorable payment for workers and issues of unfair dismissal from work place. It is during this time of decentralization that there arose development of the manufacturing industries (Niland, 1980).
As for Functions of the Industrial Relations Commission, bargaining of agreements was the main focus of the Industrial relations Commission. Main changes have been experienced by the commission. These changes include the reduction in union power and density, structural change, legislative change and formation of more non standardized form of employment (Lewis 2006).
The GDP of Australia is over one Trillion US dollars (Lunsbury & Nick 2011). With a population of twenty one million, The Australian government has been able to provide employment for about eighty percent of its people. Employment patterns have shifted greatly since 1980.
There has been an expansion of non standard employment such as outsourcing, casual work, temporary jobs and labor market intermediaries in conjunction with agencies. The greatest of all was the rapid development of the part time jobs.
The establishment of the work choice act in 1996 resulted to more liberty to the employees and employers. The fair work act of 2009 included the bargaining of work choices by union leaders. They were not to allow imposition of laws to the employers without a thought out agreement by the two groups (Lunsbury & Nick 2011).
The union groups declined at a rapid state since the non standardized employment started encroaching into the country. The jobs that had much union regulation decreased for example employment from manufacturing industries.
On the other hand, the service industry improved a great deal and was less controlled by unions. Moreover, different industries resolved to have their own internal unions hence barring the external union deals.
Before decentralization there were no strikes in by the work force of Australia. This is because the laws then enacted in the early 1900s prohibited strikes. There was lots of working hours lost due to work disputes that could not be solved. But, at the inception of the right for the labor force to air the views, the work disputes reduced a great deal (Lunsbury & Nick 2011).
The agreement on strikes stated that workers could only strike at designated times and for various reasons presented to the respective labor force commission. These agreements led to amicable resolution of conflicts and misunderstanding in employment sector.
Considering types of Underemployment in Australia gives more information about the status of employment and industrial relations objective. Underemployment is a real issue that is present in all countries. Every government employs every strategy possible to reduce this state because it is used to describe stability of every nation.
Events of curbing the issue of unemployment cannot be underrated because they determine the way forward in dealing with employment issues. Discovering the issues that relate to underemployment can help solve the issue (Fan, 2005).
Moreover, government strategies are better off when working out the issue of underemployment. Therefore, it is important to highlight unemployment issues so as to know various ways of prevent its increase. Some of the notable forms of underemployment types and reasons are listed below.
As for, Structural Underemployment, rapid development in technology may result in loss of employment for a bigger percentage of a country. Rise in technology as displaced a number of work force mainly in the manufacturing industries.
For instance, an employee in a vehicle manufacturing industry may find it had to find a job in other industries after losing hi/her job. This is because he/she may not have the required skills of other industries. The use of novel technology has deprived many people of opportunities in work place.
Fan (2005) says that when real wage exceed productivity, employers do opt for equipments to substitute the work force. In this case there occurs reduction in employment and hence an increase in the unemployed people. Flexible labor market, reforms in the micro economy and increased efficiencies were the main reasons for unemployment in Australia in the early 1990s.
Moreover the increased rate of economic growth and reduction in structural unemployment resulted into a decrease in employment.
Considering Cyclical Underemployment In times when the economy is in boom state, the employment status is likely to increase due to increased demand for labor to sort out the increased job availability. In Australia the boom occurred in the period between 1999-2001 and 2006-2007. On the other hand, recession leads to decrease in employment therefore leading to cyclical unemployment.
As for Hidden Underemployment, this involved people who had lost hope seeking for a job opportunity. These people just sit back discouraged by recession and economic status. To cater for this habit of losing job, the government opted to advise employers to reduce working hours so as to save the jobs (Gauja, 1987). This strategy helped reduce unemployment during Australian recession in 2009.
As for the fictional unemployment, this type of unemployment is basically for school leavers. It is not real employment because there is a lot of sifting from one job to another with a lot of transition between new entrants or jobs to the labor force (Fan 2005).
Considering Natural State of Unemployment, This form of unemployment can change over a period of time. This is a state of unemployment that can be attained without inflation. In Australia, this state is called the Non Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (NAIRU) (Gauja, 1987). It nature that is dictated by structural unemployment can only be solved through microeconomic policy reforms.
When labor supply and demand are at equilibrium, there is no point for labor search. In such cases, employment rate reduces due to full employment. This prevents further employment since the whole labor force cannot be provided with employment opportunities at ago. Other forms of unemployment under this section include seasonal, cyclical, structural, hard core and frictional unemployment (Gauja, 1987).
As for Hard Core Underemployment, in every country there are people who suit employment and those who do not suit employment (Gauja, 1987). Requirements for employment vary from one place to another. There are people who do not fit the requirements totally. Such people do not get employed for the entire life. These group forms the group for the unemployed too.
Considering Regulation of Employer Employee Relations, Industrial regulations established by the government helped regulate the relations between government and employment sector. These activities were geared towards improving the relationship between the employees and employers (Niland 1980).
The judicial arm and legislative arm of government both participated into seeing the employment sector succeed in its operations. The introduction of a third part in the employment sector was to help see to it that there was no exploitation of employees by employers. This also resulted into equal employment provision for all.
The regulation of employment by government as third party is not an issue. The issue applies on trust. Another issue that was of more concern at the inception of regulations was the capacity of businesses in Australia to compete internationally. Most regulations could reduce productivity and hence affect the international markets negatively. Those employees that were mostly affected were the semiskilled and unskilled (Gauja 1987).
Therefore the changes in regulation benefited the employees at individual and enterprise level. This is because wages and conditions of employment were mainly determined by individual or enterprises.
According to Lewis (2008), Gender equality is a critical issue in every government. In Australia, forty two percent of people employed are female the rest are male. Although this ratio is not bad, the options for employment are not satisfactory. Women work in low paying jobs compared to men. However, the situation for employment in Australia is better off than most countries. Therefore, the issue of gender is not a big deal.
The government further perpetuated increased rate of economic growth by several reforms on different sectors for the benefit of the common individual. The great and steady state increase in economic growth can help retain workers in their job for a very long time. The creation of favorable conations for employees is also important if the government wants to prevent issues of unemployment (Stuart 1997).
The government of Australia acted prudently to allow the labor industry to have liberty of its activities. With the decentralization issue, the industrial relations stood at a better position to work out the discrepancies that were in the labor industry so as to create a new labor force.
In conclusion Employment issue is a very critical issue for every economy. The government should not have control of most of the basic issue of the labor force and industrial relations. Te government of Australia pulled away from decision making issues concerning the labor section. This was very important because it is the employees and employers themselves who can understand their strengths and weaknesses better.
The government sole purpose is to protect the employees and employers. It should only come in where there are misconceptions and issues of dictatorship or misunderstanding in the labor sector. Reduced government regulations can help in improving efficiency in the industrial relations sector.
Reference List
Edge, K 2000,“Structural Change and Microeconomic”, Journal of Economics Policy. Web.
Fan, L 2005, Work Place Relations, Routlegde, New York.
Gauja, A 1987,“Employment and Non-employment”, Australian Bureau of Statistic. Web.
Lewis, W 2006, “Employment in Australia”, Australian Economic Journal. Web.
Lunsbury, R and Nick, W 2011, International and Comparative Employment: Employment Relations in Australia, 5th edn, Sage Publications, Sydney.
Maitland, E 2004, Labor Force: Economics and Political Science, Routledge, Sydney.
Niland, J 1980, “Industrial Labor Relations”, Industrial Labor Relations Associations. Web.
Stuart, S 1997, “Work Force”, Australian Labor Movement. Web.
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