bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Grüneisen Tensor of an Anisotropic Composite
Authors: Perry F.C.
Published: March 2007

A phenomenological model of an anisotropic composite, quartz phe nolic, is presented. The model assumes that the quartz phenolic macro scopically has the same symmetry properties as a hexagonal single crystal. The formalism relating the Gruneisen tensor to elastic constants, coefficients of thermal expansion, and specific heat was applied to the composite, and the Gruneisen parameters were evaluated from measured values of these quantities. Further, direct measurements of the Gruneisen parameters were accomplished by means of an electron beam induced stress wave technique, and the resulting values were compared with those computed from the elastic and thermal data. Electron beam data produced values Γx = 0.23 ± 0.03 and r = 0.28 ± 0.03, while the values of the Gruneisen parameters computed from the elastic and thermal data were somewhat higher than the electron beam results. The analysis demonstrated the utility of symmetry properties for the characterization of heterogeneous materials.
The Impact of Two World Wars on the Decline of Colonialism
Authors: von Albertini Rudolf
Published: March 2007

All I can say is, everybody is in pretty much the same boat. A wave of unrest is sweeping over the Empire, as over the rest of the world. Almost every day brings news of some disturbance or other at our Imperial outposts. I hope the effervescence in Malta has for the time being subsided, though I expect that the agitation for constitutional change will continue and have to be dealt with. Lord Milner to the Governor of Malta, I3 August I9I9.1
Employer Matters in 1999
Authors: Thornthwaite Louise , Sheldon Peter
Published: March 2007

Employers in 1999 continued their learning under the 1996 Act, viewed it favourably but did not greatly change their use of the regulatory instruments it offers. For this, they fell foul of an interventionist minister. Faced with partial union resurgence, they sought legislative changes to further weaken unionism. Overall, employer attitudes, as expressed through their associations, continued to show conver gence, while competition among associations intensified. Divergence was related to operational strategies of single employers and to the national policy level, including the Coalition's amendment package. Legislative defeat turned a year of promise for the 'Workplace Relations Club' into one of worrying defeat.
The Australian Waterfront Dispute and Theories of the State
Authors: Dabscheck Braham
Published: March 2007

In the first half of 1998 Australia experienced a major dispute on the waterfront. In April unionised workers in the employ of the Patrick group of companies were dismissed. They were replaced with labour supplied by Producers and Consumers, a company backed by the National Farmers Federation. Following an interlocutory injunction mounted by the Maritime Union ofAustralia, the unionised workforce was reinstated by the Federal Court of Australia and, on appeal, by a majority of the High Court. The courts also found that there was a serious question to be tried as to whether the dismissals constituted a beach of the Freedom of Association provisions of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cwlth). The dispute is of interest, among other reasons, because of the different and contradictory roles played by various parts of the Australian state. This paper is concerned with providing a theoretical explanation of such phenomena. After initially examining writings from political science and jurisprudence, the paper develops and tests what is described as a discrete statist theory of the state.
Some Observations Upon the Logic of Participative Management
Authors: Vaughan Edward J.
Published: March 2007

Proposals for increasing employee participation in the management of organizations have become a feature of modern management literature. Whilst these proposals differ in detail the rationale for participation remains essentially the same, namely that increased participation in decision-making improves both individual and organizational effectiveness. This paper examines the logic of that rationale and concludes that it may not be very influential in attracting managers to the idea of participative management.
The Growth and Unionization of White- collar Workers in Australia: Some Recent Trends
Authors: Lansbury Russell
Published: March 2007

White collar workers have become an increasingly important element in the labour force during the past few years. The rapid expansion of the white collar sector has been accompanied by a trend toward greater unionization. A study of membership growth among eight major white collar unions in Australia, from 1970 to 1974, has revealed that women were a major con tributor to this development. There have also been significant changes in the activities of white collar unions including the use of direct industrial action and concern for issues beyond wages and conditions. Nevertheless, there are considerable variations between different white collar unions in this regard. This is partly due to the heterogeneity of the white collar sector which varies from highly-paid professionals to lower-paid clerical workers. The former have been the most militant and successful in pursuing their collective aims. It remains to be seen, however, whether their example is followed by other white collar workers in the future.
The Rate of Return to University Education for Males in the Australian Public Service
Authors: Chapman Bruce
Published: March 2007

So often individuals make decisions crucial to their lives which are based on scanty information of the consequences. Until recently, ignorance pervaded one particular area of individual decision-making, that of the economic returns to education. With the use of extensive income data, and armed with age-earnings profiles and internal rate of return formulae, the economist has attacked the lack of knowledge with varying degrees of success. This paper presents the results of one such investigation; that of the economic returns to university education for males in the Second and Third Divisions of the Australian Public Service. The pecuniary advantage of holding a degree is estimated under various assumptions of student earnings and time rates of preference for consumption and income. In addition, the economic return to a strategy of part-time univer sity study is compared with the paths of no study and full-time study. The data does not support the human capital hypothesis that individuals attempt to maxi mize the net present value of lifetime income but instead they maximize the sum of pecuniary and psychic incomes.
State Government Management-Union Relations in Victoria and New South Wales
Authors: Derber Milton
Published: March 2007

The increasing volume of literature on state government labour relations seems to have neglected a particularly fertile area—the Australian experience. The Australian situation is of special interest because of the early develop ment of government-union bargaining over wages and conditions of employ ment. This study will consider the systems that have evolved in two of the Australian states—New South Wales and Victoria—and highlight certain problem areas. Various implications for state government labour relations, generally, are discussed and it is shown that workable industrial relations in state government can be achieved through different forms and processes.
Neat-A Little More Than an Acronym
Authors: Teicher Julian
Published: March 2007

NEAT was conceived as the first major step in the direction of an Australian active manpower policy. Since its inception, in October 1974, there has been very little critical discussion of NEAT. This paper attempts to redress the situation. There are two basic themes: firstly, the necessity for a well articulated theory of the labour market with which to guide the development and evaluation of measures; and secondly, the likelihood that such a policy will become a casualty of political expediency despite, and because of, its planning orientation.
Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction of Supervisors
Authors: Knowles M.C. , Knowles Ann D.
Published: March 2007

Job satisfaction questionnaires are frequently used to establish prevailing levels of job satisfaction with respect to selected job aspects, normally with the intention of increasing satisfaction by attending to the areas of dissatisfaction revealed through the administration of the questionnaire. In the present study of job satisfaction among supervisors an analysis of the survey data showed that the job satisfaction scores on different job aspects were interrelated, so that some supervisors tended to have favourable attitudes towards most of the job aspects while others had generally negative attitudes towards the same job aspects. This consistency in attitude could not be explained by differences in the job aspects themselves, but was related both to certain cross-sectional problems affecting the sections to which the supervisors belonged, as well as to the cost performance of these sections. These latter findings suggested that job satisfaction was a product of both job design and organizational factors, and both would need altering if satisfaction were to be effectively increased.
Wages Polic in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Langmore John , Berry Roger
Published: March 2007

This article outlines the main developments in the area of wages policy in Papua New Guinea over the last ten years and describes some of the major influences on minimum wage determinations during this period. Between 1967 and 1970 wages changed little. Since that time while the minimum wage in the larger urban areas has increased by over 100 per cent in real terms the real minimum wage of those engaged in primary industry—the vast majority of rural wage earners, most of whom work on plantations—has increased much less. The rural-urban wage gap has thus widened markedly. At the same time differentials for skill have been considerably reduced.
Employee Share-Ownership and Motivation
Authors: Goldstein S.G.
Published: March 2007

The concept of employee share-ownership has been widely applied in Britain, Europe, America and Australia, yet there has been little research into the attitudes and expectations of the employee-shareholders. The author has attempted to provide research data on these variables by issuing a questionnaire to employees involved in a share-ownership scheme in a West Australian firm. The dimensions measured are challenge, support, responsibility, commitment, income, wealth, stability, career, satisfaction, application and participation. Based on the results, a model of motivation for employee shareholders has been. developed. There is a critical level of share-ownership required to produce favourable results on most, but not all variables. The conclusion is that employee share-ownership and employee motivation are related but the former is not sufficient to ensure the latter; a combination of employee share-ownership and employee participation in planning may be required to produce the desired results.
New Technology and Industrial Relations in the Retail Grocery Industry
Authors: Lansbury Russell D.
Published: March 2007

This paper examines implications for employment and industrial relations in the Australian retail grocery industry of new technology in the form of product numbers and optical scanning. Since scanning has not yet been fully implemented within the Australian retail grocery industry the paper focuses on overseas experience in this field. It is emphasised that scanning is only one of a wide range of important technological changes which have been introduced into the retail grocery industry in recent years. Many other innovations, such as "point of sale" equipment and automated warehouses, have overlapped and been interrelated with the development of scanning. It is therefore difficult to isolate the effects of scanning from other variables. Nevertheless, the paper analyses the experience of employers and unions involved with the introduction of scanning, especially in the US retail grocery industry and makes some recommendations concerning its introduction in Australia.
Modelling Occupational Choice: Non-pecuniary Employment Attributes and Endogenous Preferences
Authors: Chapman Bruce J.
Published: March 2007

This paper investigates occupational choice through a consideration of the deter minants of individual preferences related to non-pecuniary employment attributes. It is argued that tastes concerning such attributes are conditioned in part by family background, in particular the socio-economic class of individuals' parents. Such an approach represents a questioning of the implicit assumption of conventional labour economics that tastes are exogenous, or unrelated to economic characteristics. This, idea is subjected to empirical test through an examination of the job preferences of a large sample of young US males. With important qualifications the major hypotheses of the model are supported. The results cast doubt on the income maximisation framework of mainstream labour theory.
The 1980 Central Queensland Coal Industry Housing Tax Dispute
Authors: McCarthy Terry
Published: March 2007

Efforts by the Commonwealth Government to tax Central Queensland coal miners on the assessed value of housing rental subsidies provided by employers brought a sharp industrial reaction. The stoppage which arose was not an 'industrial' dispute in the legal sense and nor was it directed against the coal mining companies, The object of the industrial action was the Commonwealth Government and the aim of it was to have the proposed tax withdrawn in recognition of the difficult conditions in which Central Queensland miners live and work. The stoppage attracted much pliblicity, particularly in relation to the high level of costs being incurred. Factors of interest in the dispute were its 'political' nature, the determination of the strikers over a long period, the degree of organisation by the unions, the high level of public and financial support for the strikers and the concessions made by the Government. The final agreement strongly favoured the miners, The conclusions to this paper examine why the Government would have chosen to pursue this taxation matter in an election year.
Statutory Safety Representatives and Safety Committees: Legal and Industrial Relations Implications
Authors: Creighton W.B.
Published: March 2007

This article examines the increasingly important issue of the role of statutory safety representatives and safety committees in helping to promote and protect the health, safety and welfare of the Australian workforce. It consists first of an examination of the development of statutory provision in this area in the United Kingdom, culminating in the passing of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the introduction of the far-reaching Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations of 1977. It then describes and analyses the reception of these provisions, and the philosophy which underpins them, in Australia. Thirdly, it attempts to identify and discuss some of the more important legal and practical implications of this kind of statutory provision. There is reason to suppose that some of these issues have not been analysed in sufficient detail in either Britain or Australia, but overall it is clear that a properly structured system of statutory safety representatives/com mittees can play an important and constructive part in helping to promote a proper awareness of health and safety issues in this country.
Can Australia Learn from Austria About Incomes Policies?
Authors: Dunkley Graham
Published: March 2007

The notion of incomes policies remains contentious, despite many years of ex perimentation in a number of different countries. A few commentators are now distinguishing between `temporary' and 'permanent' forms of such policies, an example of the latter being presented in this article. It is argued that a working system of permanent incomes policies has been developed in Austria through a broadly based 'social partnership', which has led to a good deal of political and economic consensus. Evidence is adduced to suggest that, on a number of grounds, this system can be said to have successfully combated stagflation. It is hypothesised that at least six basic prerequisites are essential for the establishment of a permanent social-contract-based incomes policy, and although Austria has accomplished all of these, in Australia they are seriously under-developed. Recent Australian developments are pointing in the right direction, but there is a long way to go.
The Effect of Industrial Relations on Absence Attributed to Injury
Authors: Low Ian
Published: March 2007

Two possible results of disturbed industrial relations are industrial disputation and a worsening of the level of absence attributed to injury. To ascertain whether a relationship exists between these two results, correlation coefficients were calculated between industrial disputation data and injury statistics for Queensland. Correlations for each year of the study were indicative of a positive association between industrial disputation and absence attributed to injury. The results suggest that the relationship between industrial disputation and absence attributed to injury depends on a number of factors. The state of industrial relations, social and cultural characteristics, industry structure, and the type of work performed appear to affect the level of absence. These and other factors should be considered when lost-time injury statistics are used as an index of the efficacy of an accident-damage-control program or a particular countermeasure.
Industrial Relations Theory: Painting by Numbers
Authors: Guille Howard
Published: March 2007

Academic writers frequently aver a lack of a coherent theory of industrial relations and thus a lack of academic respectability for the discipline. An alternative emphasis is taken here, and the very idea of a single best theory rejected. The question of what is theorizing is addressed. In this, theory is considered as a process used to capture the practice of industrial relations and present it as an academic dialogue. The test of any theoretic account of practice is shown to be the extent to which it aids in understanding the practice. This is developed in a review of Australian and overseas literature. The criticisms of institutional writing by Marxists and of Marxist writing by institutionalists are noted. It is suggested that neither group fully avoids presenting industrial relations as a victimless crime. This may be overcome by considering industrial relations as one among a number of strategies used in capital-labour contestation.
The Introduction of Wage Indexation under the Whitlam Government
Authors: McGavin P.A.
Published: March 2007

The framework in which the Whitlam government argued the case for wage indexation is examined and critically reviewed. Particular critical attention is devoted to the appropriateness of automatic adjustment of wages for price changes and to the direction of causality in the inflationary process. It is argued that the government's wage indexation policy contributed to a wage outcome above what would otherwise have occurred; a slowing of the process of adjustment to economic imbalance in the Australian econorny; and a socially undesirable economization in the use of labour services. The employment implications of these conclusions are necessarily unfavourable.
The Hancock Report: The Last Hurrah of the Past
Authors: Blandy Richard
Published: March 2007

The Hancock Report is disappointing despite the quality of its research. It fails because of its lack of vision and imagination, its excessive preoccupation with the status quo, and its unwillingness to critically examine the degree of union power in Australia. The reasons given for the Committee's decisions are all negative ones concerning possible alternatives. No positive case is made for the arbitration system. The Committee's views are fundamentally conservative and risk-averse, despite the unsatisfactory state of industrial relations in Australia. The one concession to a less third-party-regulated environment—a revision of Part X 'opting out'—is not expected by the Committee to attract much use. The dynamic effects on productivity of 'opting out' seem likely to make this option attractive, contrary to the Committee's assessment of such effects as 'pure speculation.' In short, the Report represents the last hurrah of the past rather than a blueprint for the future.
The Hancock Report: The ACTU Response
Authors: Crean Simon
Published: March 2007

The Hancock Report has been welcomed by the Australian union movement as pointing the way towards the reform and improvement of industrial relations laws and systems. The real strength and value in the Report is that it is a practical document that deals with the major industrial relations issues facing the Australian community and makes recommendations as to how the industrial relations system should be modified and improved. It comes to grips with the major issues and puts forward sensible and workable proposals as to how these issues should be dealt with and how industrial relations in Australia can be improved. This is how the union movement views the Hancock Report. This is not to suggest that the union movement agrees with every conclusion or recommendation in the Hancock Report. The Report is recognized and accepted as providing the basis for making significant and lasting improvements to industrial relations machinery to the benefit of the Australian community.
The Hancock Report: Tradition Triumphant
Authors: Rawson Don
Published: March 2007

The Report of the Committee of Review into Australian Industrial Relations Law and Systems is in many ways an impressive document. It is the product of a great deal of expert knowledge and hard work. It deals with many aspects of our industrial relations system and, with a few notable exceptions, its proposals would be an improvement on the present situation. If, as seems likely, the federal government legislates to give effect to nearly all of its recommendations, we shall be much better off as a result. Nevertheless, it is a disappointment and a lost opportunity. It retains too many aspects of the federal conciliation and arbitration system that were always misconceived and are now entirely outdated. In some respects, it takes us further down the wrong path, entrenching the legal and court-type institutions and practices that have been the fundamental anomalies of the system. While it provides more flexibility in some respects, it could with advantage have gone very much further. It will leave us with far too rigid a system at a time when we need to encourage more participation.
Youth Unemployment and Intergenerational Immobility
Authors: Bradbury Bruce , Garde Pauline , Vipond Joan
Published: March 2007

The personal and family characteristics of those teenage workers and unemployed teenagers who were living with one or both parents at the time of the 1981 census are described and analysed. The 1 per cent sample of household records released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics was the data source. Unemployment rates were much higher among teenagers of sole-parent families than among other teenagers. However, in the case of teenagers who lived with their mothers only, this could be attributed to their low family incomes rather than their family structures. Teenagers who lived with both parents also had high unemployment rates when family incomes were low. Among youth who lived with both parents, high unemployment probabilities were associated with parental disadvantages, even when the personal characteristics of the youth, such as their education levels, were controlled. It was concluded that unemployment distribution among 15- to 19-year-olds reflects intergenerational rigidities with respect to labour market status.
The Determinants of Take-Up of SYETP Wage Subsidies for Youth
Authors: Vella Frank , Mackay Keith
Published: March 2007

The number (i.e. the supply) of young persons eligible for assistance under the SYETP scheme was large in relation to the number actually commencing employment under the scheme, which suggests that supply was unimportant in determining take-up. An alternative explanation of SYETP take-up is that the important factors were those that influenced employers' demand for young workers subsidized under SYETP. These alternative explanations are examined and tested using econometric techniques, and it is found that demand influences alone provide a satisfactory explanation for changes in the number of commencements over the period analysed. These demand-side factors include the proportion of youth wages subsidized under SYETP and the overall level of labour demand in the economy. This finding has a number of policy implications for the programme that recently replaced SYETP, the Jobstart programme, as it means that factors that determined the number of SYETP commencements can be influenced or altered by the Commonwealth government in a systematic manner in order to change the number of commencements.
Equal Pay—What Happened?
Authors: Short Christine
Published: March 2007

Following the equal pay decisions of 1969, 1972 and 1974, equality in award wages between the sexes was widely assumed to have been achieved in Australia, but this assumption may be incorrect. In this paper the historical discrimination inherent in Australia's wage fixing system is briefly described. Statistics on minimum award wages and the records of the federal and two state Industrial Commissions are used to show how equalpay was implemented from 1950 onwards. The implementation of the 1972 equal pay for work of equal value decision is examined in some detail to reveal how the decision was not fully applied to female-intensive work areas. This resulted from the way work value has been traditionally approached in Australia and the failure of unions to bring the necessary cases to the Commission. A nurses' award is compared with four male awards to show how the nurses soon lost most of what they gained from equal pay. Finally, the 1986 Australian Capital Territory and Victorian nurses' cases are used to show how, when unions press the case for equal pay, and present it competently, advances can be achieved within the present centralized wage fixing system.
RSI: Pain, Pretence or Patienthood?
Authors: Spillane Robert , Deves Leigh
Published: March 2007

What is RSI? The background to this industrial phenomenon is outlined, and it is suggested that the unprecedented increase in the official statistics in what is now called repetition strain injury begs an explanation. Four explanatory models are summarized: the medical model, the psychiatric model, malingering, and a pain-patient model. It is argued that the facts of this phenomenon lend support to a pain-patient model rather than the popularly extolled medical approaches. Finally, it is argued that those who promote RSI as a strategy for work reform confront a paradox—'RSI sufferers' are facing more standardized working conditions because their patient role encourages heteronomy rather than the principle of autonomy that underpins work reform theories and practices.
Rethinking Occupational Health and Safety Legislation
Authors: Brooks Adrian
Published: March 2007

The time has come—in fact, is overdue—to undertake a fundamental reappraisal of the style of occupational health and safety legislation being adopted in Australia. The Robens-style legislation, rather than individual pieces of legislation, is examined in context in all those states and territories that have adopted it, or moved to do so. This is important not only because no one Act is unique, but also because all these Acts and their implications cannot be properly understood or evaluated without seeing them as part of a process at work, both here and in Britain, of attempting to use legislation to prevent or limit occupational injury and disease.
The 'Sickie': A Public Sector Phenomenon?
Authors: Wooden Mark
Published: March 2007

It is popularly believed that employees in the public sector are more prone to taking sick leave compared with otherwise similar employees working in the private sector. The evidence to support this view, however, is sporadic and of dubious quality. In this article, data is used from a nation-wide survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics of a large representative cross-section of Australian employees-the 1983 Health Survey. It is found that public-sector-dominated industries do indeed have significantly higher rates of illness-related absence (only exceeded by rates in the mining industry). Moreover, such conclusions hold after controlling for a number of demographic and employment-related influences usually thought to be associated with non-attendance at work, and even after the imposition of the extreme assumption that all absence associated with a medical consultation or with the taking of medication is involuntary.
Malcolm Fraser's (Unsuccessful) 1977 Voluntary Wages and Prices Freeze
Authors: Dabscheck Braham , Kitay Jim
Published: March 2007

At the April 1977 Premiers' Conference Malcolm Fraser secured unanimous agreement from the premiers to call for a voluntary three-month freeze of wages and prices. The freeze was never implemented. It offrcially ended in May when the Arbitration Commission awarded a national wage case increase of 1.9 per cent in line with its wage indexation principles. This paper examines the economic and political context in which the Premiers' Conference took place, the interactions between the federal government and unions—particularly the role played by ACTU President Bob Hawke—and the Arbitration Commission's reasons for rejecting the wages side of the freeze.
Reaction of Radical and Co-operative Unions as Japan National Railways Prepares for Privatization
Authors: Wetzel Kurt , Ohtsu Makoto
Published: March 2007

The Japan National Railways was a major state-owned enterprise whose history was fraught with conflict between leftist unions and management. This paper addresses the labour relations impact of the Japanese government's decision to prepare it for privatization. This included trimming the workforce and restructuring the railway into a number of regional companies. As intended, the plan has had substantial conse quences for the structures, policies and relative well-being of rival unions, which represent orientations ranging from ideological leftism to pragmatic leftism and 'typical' Japanese unionism. While the most militant union has been crippled by management's use of the historically effective 'second union' strategy, the government's plan may only have succeeded in sowing the seeds for a more difficult situation in the future.
Multiskilling in Practice: Lessons from a Minerals Processing Firm
Authors: Cordery John L. , Mueller Walter S. , Sevastos Peter P.
Published: March 2007

Increasingly, multiskilling programmes are a key element in workplace reform. In this paper, the findings of a longitudinal case study of multiskilling involving process workers are presented. The study found that the multiskilling programme and associated changes to work organization only marginally altered skill requirements for jobs, although there was evidence of increased worker control over certain aspects of the work role. There was no evidence to suggest that these developments reflected a fundamental shift in the nature of management-employee relations. Conclusions are drawn as to the extent to which such innovations signal a departure from traditional Taylorist and Fordist orientations towards skills formation and work organization.
Public and Private Sector Absence: Does it Differ?
Authors: Vandenheuvel Audrey
Published: March 2007

Although common perceptions suggest that public sector employees are more prone to being absent from work, little empirical attention has been given to the issue. In this paper, sector differences in absence are examined using data from a large, recently collected national data set—the 1992 Australian Dependent Care Study. After controlling for various demographic, attitudinal and job-related variables, the results indicate that public sector employees are 1.6 times more likely than private sector employees to be absent from work at least once in the course of a year. Further, the findings show that a number of reasons that have been snggested in the past may not be important in explaining sector differences in absence. Instead, differences in absence behaviour are more likely related to sector variation in job security, competitive pressure and the absetice milieu.
The Duty to Provide a Harassment-Free Work Environment
Authors: Macdermott Therese
Published: March 2007

This article examines how a positive duty to provide a work environment free from sexual harassment can be constructed from the general obligations that apply with respect to maintaining and ensuring a healthy and safe work environment. It looks at the manner in which the duty has been interpreted as a positive obligation in the anti-discrimination context, and at how a positive duty can also be constructed from the common law duty to take reasonable care and the statutory formulation of this duty pursuant to occupational health and safety legislation. The relief pro vided by the new federal unlawful termination regime in the event of a dismissal as a consequence of harassment is also examined. The article considers the remedial consequences that flow from the potential application of each of these regulatory structures and their ability to address the structural nature of the problem. The article concludes that the regulatory framework with the most potential to facili tate workplace change is occupational health and safety.
Non-Union Bargaining: Enterprise Flexibility Agreements
Authors: Coulthard Amanda
Published: March 2007

One of the key objectives of the Industrial Relations Reform Act 1993 (Cwlth) is to develop an industrial relations system in Australia based on enterprise bargain ing. To make enterprise bargaining accessible to the non-union sector the legisla tive framework provides for the making of enterprise flexibility agreements. These agreements can be made directly between employer and employees without union involvement where the workforce is not unionized. It has thus been popularly referred to as the 'non-union' bargaining stream. This article examines the extent to which the legislation on enterprise flexibility agreements does provide for non- union workplace bargaining. It does so by examining the way in which the legislation provides for union involvement at the various stages in the process of negotiating and formalizing an enterprise flexibility agreement. The provision in the legislation of a formal system of non-union bargaining has been criticized as posing a threat to the traditional representational role played by unions in Austral ian industrial relations. In this context, the role of the Bargaining Division of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in facilitating bargaining and its decisions concerning the rights of a union to represent employees in their negotia tions with the employer are also considered. Finally, some conclusions are offered as to why only a relatively small number of enterprise flexibility agreements have been approved.
Playing the Team Game: Unions in Australian Professional Team sports
Authors: Dabscheck Braham
Published: March 2007

League and club officials in different Australian professional team sports have initiated a variety of labour market controls that have restricted the economic freedom and income-earning potential of players. Since before the First World War, different generations of players in a variety of sports have attempted to use collective action to respond to these and other employment problems. Most of these attempts were abortive or shortlived. It is only in the 1990s that Australian player associations have experienced the successes usually afforded to unionism.

This paper examines the historical and contemporary record of player associa tions in Australian team sports. It begins with an examination of the various labour market rules that have governed the employment of players. This is followed by an analysis of problems of organizational effectiveness that have traditionally dogged the operation of player associations. The next section focuses on developments in the 1990s. With the exception of rugby league and baseballers, player associations have solved organizational problems of the past, and have possessed leaders able to develop a bargaining relationship with their respective leagues and clubs.1
The Labour Relations of New Zealand's Health Reforms
Authors: Wetzel Kurt
Published: March 2007

This paper examines factors contributing to the environment within which reform of New Zealnnd's public health care and its industrial relations system occurred. These include radical state sector; health and labour law reforms that marketised the health sector, decentralised bargaining, the ending of compulsory union membership and the elimination of the requirement that employers bargain 'in good faith'. The paper examines the implementation of these changes and their impact on various unions. Domestic service workers have fared poorly, while medical specialists have benefited from the reforms. The impact on nursing and support staff unions has varied according to regional and market pressures for different occupations. Various union strategies and structures are examined. The paper concludes that reform has ended the exceptionalism of labour relations in New Zealand.
Government, Management and Unions: the Public Service Under the Workplace Relations Act
Authors: O'Brien John , O'Donnell Michael
Published: March 2007

The paper argues that when governments seek to regulate the working conditions and wages of their own employees in n decentralising industrial environment there is potential for tension between the roles of government as employer ; as policy generator and as financial controller. The paper discusses the federal coalition govern ment's agenda in the Australian Public Service under tbe Workplace Relations Act 1996, and the potential for tensions to arise from a process that simultaneously insists on oversight from the centre and requires the exercise of greater responsibility by agency managements. Moreover; the paper examines the ability of the Community and Public Sector Union to retain its legitimacy at a workplace level in this contradictory environ ment, and its capacity to counter managerial attempts to marginalise the union during the first round of agreement making.
Settlement Process or Tactical Opportunity? Mediation in Industrial Relations
Authors: Fells Ray
Published: March 2007

Mediation is often suggested as an alternative method of resolving industrial disputes. However, the precise nature of mediation in the industrial relations context is not clear, and although the emphasis is on a facilitative approach, the evidence from two case studies suggests that a more interventionist approach may be more typical. The case studies also suggest that mediation will be used tactically during the course of a negotiation as well as being a means of bringing the dispute to an end. This opportunity for a tactical recourse to mediation is increased where the legislation seeks to guide or control the conduct of negotiations, as in the case of the proposed amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996. Some implications that arise from this tactical opportunity are explored, including tbe development of a motivational perspective to mediation.
The Structure of Foreign News
Authors: Galtung Johan , Ruge Mari Holmboe
Published: March 2007

Using a simplified psychology of perception and some additional assumptions, a system of twelve factors describing events is presented that together are used as a definition of 'newsworthiness'. Three basic hypotheses are presented: the additivity hypothesis that the more factors an event satisfies, the higher the probability that it becomes news; the complementarity hypothesis that the factors will tend to exclude each other since if one factor is present it is less necessary for the other factors to be present for the event to become news; and the exclusion hypothesis that events that satisfy none or very few factors will not become news. This theory is then tested on the news presented in four different Norwegian newspapers from the Congo and Cuba crises of July 1960 and the Cyprus crisis of March-April 1964, and the data are in the majority of cases found to be consistent with the theory. A dozen additional hypotheses are then deduced from the theory and their social implications are discussed. Finally, some tentative policy impli cations are formulated.
Nationalistic Aspiration, Loyalty, and Internationalism
Authors: Terhune Kenneth W.
Published: March 2007

The objective of this study was to establish whether nationalism, treated as a psychologi cal variable, is incompatible with certain aspects of 'internationalism'. Using question naire data from foreign students in the United States, nationalistic aspiration, attitude toward international cooperation, and relative loyalty to nation and various other groups were assessed. Results indicated that nationalism is not incompatible with an attitude favoring international cooperation, although those high in nationalism do tend to place national interest before world interests in their order of loyalty. It was also found that those placing world interests before national interests usually favored inter national cooperation, but the latter does not necessarily imply the former.
The European Tradition of Asylum and the Development of Refugee Law
Authors: Grahl-Madsen Atle
Published: March 2007

The modem law relating to refugees has evolved from the habit of princes, free cities, and the church to grant asylum to people who have fled their native land for fear of persecution.

On the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, laws were enacted in Prussia and the United Kingdom authorizing the establishment and naturalization of French Huguenots. Subsequently America was opened for religious persecutees from Europe.

The establishment of republican government led to formalization of the acquisition and loss of the quality of citizen, and this, in turn, constituted refugees as a separate category: persons without any effective nationality. A French law relating to foreign refugees was promulgated as early as 1832.

In the second half of the nineteenth century international lawyers tended to restrict extradition and expulsion. True refugee law emerged in the wake of the First World War with the creation of a High Commissioner's Office for Refugees and the conclusion of international arrangements and conventions for the benefit of refugees. By the pro hibition of forcible return to the country of origin the 'right of suppliants' got a footing in international law.

In the period following the Second World War, constitutional or statutory provisions guaranteeing asylum have been adopted in a number of countries. It has been realized that refugees should not suffer because of their formal possession of the nationality of a country with which they have broken all ties, and the catalog of rights and benefits due to refugees has been greatly extended. The Refugee Convention of 1951 is partic ularly noteworthy in this respect.

The law of refugees is in constant development. To a great extent this development reflects the changing legal environment. The right of asylum and the status of refugees are presently under consideration in the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization of African Unity, and other august assemblies.
Pearl Harbor: Deterrence Theory and Decision Theory
Authors: Russett Bruce M.
Published: March 2007

According to most analyses, Japan's decision to attack the United States at Pearl Harbor in 1941 can only be explained as an act of irrationality, given the difference in relative power of the two nations. This article contends that for most purposes of analyzing national decision-making the rationality-irrationality distinction is not useful, and sug gests instead a detailed analysis of certain components of the decision and of the alterna tives considered. The Japanese decision must be seen in the context of their possible attack on third parties, notably the British and Dutch colonies in the Southwest Pacific, and the deterrent threat posed by some probability that the United States would resist the attack even though its own territory was not directly involved. A general decision- theory model was developed and tested on 17 cases in the earlier work of the author. It considers the utility to the decision-makers of each of three possible courses of action: no attack at all (retain the status quo), attack third party only, and attack also the major power which poses the deterrent threat to protect the third party. The utilities must be weighted by the probabilities attached by the decision-makers to the achievement of each out come. In this case the Japanese government attached strongly negative utilities to the status quo. Furthermore, though it would have greatly valued an unresisted attack on the European colonies, it considered it very unlikely that the United States would fail to respond militarily. It reached this assessment on the basis of extensive military, political, and economic ties between the United States and the Southwest Pacific area, despite the absence of an overt alliance. Hence, by comparison, attacking the United States directly had some attractions, given the vulnerability of the Pearl Harbor fleet and certain (mistaken) assumptions about United States willingness to conduct a long war.
Crucial Dimensions of the Attitu De Towards National and Supra-National Ideals
Authors: Kreitler Hans , Kreitler Shulamith
Published: March 2007

The aims of this study were, first, to explore various dimensions of the attitude towards ideals, i.e., relative importance of ideals, readiness to act for their realization, knowl edge about means of realization available to individuals and emotional relation to ideals; and second, to test an hypothesis about the interrelations of these attitude dimen sions. The method consisted of interviewing 200 Israelis (N = 100, 17-25/6 years, N = 100, 25/6-32 years), about their attitudes to 12 Israeli and 12 general ideals. Main findings concerning the attitude dimensions are the high evaluation of ideals such as peace or progress in education and standard of living, in comparison with the low evaluation of socio-political ideals; the readiness of the majority to act for the realiza tion of ideals; the relative ignorance about means of realization available to individuals, and the prominent tendency to regard institutions as responsible for realizing ideals; and the rather pronounced emotional relation to ideals. Main findings concerning interrelations between the dimensions are positive relatedness (a) of importance ranking with emotional relation to ideals, and (b) of readiness to act for realization with knowl edge about personal realization means; the non-relatedness of knowledge about per sonal realization means with either importance or with emotional relation; and the relatedness of evaluated importance and readiness to act for realization only on the level of ideals ranking low in both variables. The main practical implication is that pointing out courses of action available to individuals is a better means of arousing people to action for the realization of ideals than is merely convincing them of the importance of these ideals.