bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Australia’s Carbon Tax: A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing?
Authors: Spash Clive L. , Lo Alex Y. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe Australian Government has produced a CO2-equivalent tax proposal with a difference: it is a short prelude to an emission trading scheme that will allow the increasing rate of emissions to continue, while being a net cost to the Treasury. That cost extends to allowing major emitters to make guaranteed windfall profits from pollution permits. The emission trading scheme suffers numerous problems, but the issues raised in this article show that taxes can also be watered down and made ineffectual through concessions. Taxpayers will get no assets from the billions of dollars to be spent buying-off the coal generators or other polluters. The scheme seeks to stimulate private investors to create an additional 12 per cent in renewable electricity generation by 2020. A really serious emissions reducing alternative would need to create a nationalised electricity sector with 100 per cent renewable energy within a decade. We explore the limitations of Australia’s carbon tax plan which has now passed into law.
Who Cleans up? The Declining Earnings Position of Cleaners in Australia
Authors: Holley Sasha , Rainnie Al 
Published: March 2013

AbstractNeoliberal policies of industrial relations decentralisation and privatisation have transformed the economic landscape of Australia in the last 20 years. The primary objective of these policies has been to enhance wealth and prosperity by improving productivity and flexibility of the workforce and competition and accountability in the market. Yet the evidence suggests that precarious workers are not benefiting from this increased prosperity, indeed they suffer by comparison with all other workers. Cleaners are a subset of precarious workers who have been hard hit by the dual impacts of labour market decentralisation and privatisation. This study finds quantitative evidence of an increasing gap in earnings between cleaners and other workers in Australia since the onset of workplace relations decentralisation and the proliferation of privatisation in the mid 1990s. We locate our argument in recent debates about the nature of variegated neoliberalism, the emergence of the networked economy, and the implications of these developments for the nature of work and employment.
Medium-term Mortality of Dutch Professional Soccer Players
Authors: Koning Ruud H. , Amelink Remko 
Published: March 2013

AbstractProfessional athletes such as soccer players are expected to be in better health than the average member of their age cohort, if only because of the very demands imposed on them by their profession. Moreover, during their active career, their health is monitored on a regular basis. However, whenever a (former) well-known athlete dies, such an event is publicised widely. Perceived mortality among athletes may be distorted. In this article, we examine medium-term mortality of professional soccer players in The Netherlands. More specifically, we answer two questions. First, we examine if the mortality of soccer players is significantly different from mortality in the general population. Second, we assess whether mortality varies by team. We find that mortality among soccer players is significantly lower than in the general population, with no significant between teams variation. The methodology used in this article is easily extended to examine atypical mortality among other groups of athletes.
Governance in Sport: Outside the Box?
Authors: Healey Deborah 
Published: March 2013

Abstract‘Governance’ in its simplest form is the way that an organisation is directed and controlled, but the concept of governance also incorporates systems of rules, relationships, and processes to achieve that end. This article focuses on governance of sporting organisations in Australia. Sport in Australia is organised in a singular fashion when compared to other organisations and to sport in other countries. This has significant implications for assumptions about corporate structure, law and governance. The article examines governance of sporting organisations from a number of perspectives and draws distinctions between standard assumptions about governance and the realities of sports governance in Australia. It concludes that a number of assumptions made about organisations in law and governance theory do not apply to Australian sporting organisations. It asks how these anomalies in assumption and execution affect ultimate good governance in sport and impact on the way directors approach their duties.
The Labour Supply Curve: A Pluralist Approach to Investigate its Measurements
Authors: Cavagnoli Donatella 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe neoclassical theory of labour supply cannot unambiguously explain the decision of highly-skilled high-wage male workers to work longer and harder than their counterparts in the 1980s. We investigate the labour supply elasticities of these workers, over time, and across countries, within a ceteris paribus condition. The estimates reveal a shift rather than a movement along the supply curve. We find that ambiguities are due to the absence, in the theory, of a clear distinction between a change in consumption that is partly due to changes in the wage rate and partly due to changes in purchasing power. We apply a new pluralist approach to the standard income-leisure choice framework and provide for a more systematic and consistent method of measuring variations in labour supply, with policy implications.
Malaysian Firms’ Role in Retaining Engineers
Authors: Rahman Rabeatul Husna Abdull 
Published: March 2013

AbstractAn impediment to Malaysia’s drive for knowledge economy status is thought to be a very high rate of labour mobility — overseas, to Singapore, and inter-firm — by knowledge workers, particularly engineers. While a strong external labour market may be a sign of economic dynamism, very high turnover rates may indicate a failure of the sort of organisational attachment among professionals that is needed to foster organisational learning. Moreover a ‘brain drain’ from the country of Malaysian-educated engineers remains an ongoing concern. Although this phenomenon is popularly attributed to the ‘job-hopping’ propensities of young Malaysians, it is argued here that firms, through their human resource management (HRM) practices, have an important role to play in encouraging stronger rates of knowledge worker retention. The article reports on research findings indicating varying levels of organisational commitment by a sample of Malaysian engineers. It examines possible links between high turnover and HRM approaches that afford employees few other forms of voice than exiting the firm. Evidence is provided that employee participation in decision-making, particularly relating to training and development, and the perceived fairness of performance appraisal practices, contribute to feelings of perceived organisational support (POS), and that this sense of support influences engineers’ commitment and thus turnover intentions.
The Effects of District-Level Union Status on the Job Satisfaction of Teachers
Authors: Gius Mark 
Published: March 2013

AbstractIt is the purpose of this study to examine the effects of the unionisation status of US school districts on teacher job satisfaction. Using an ordered probit analysis and a sample of public school teachers, results of the present study suggest that teachers working in unionised districts are, overall, less satisfied with their jobs than are teachers in non-unionised districts. However, teachers in unionised districts were less likely to leave for better pay and were more enthusiastic about teaching than teachers in non-unionised districts. Hence, even though teachers in unionised districts were generally less satisfied with their jobs, they were more satisfied with regards to certain specific aspects of their positions.
Public housing in Australia: A case of advanced urban marginality?
Authors: Morris Alan 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe decision in the early 1990s to cut back on the building of public housing intensified the already dire shortage of affordable housing and increased the marginalisation of the sector. To be eligible for public housing, new entrants usually have to be in ‘greatest need’. This study argues that the shift in the eligibility criteria for accessing public housing means that public housing estates increasingly reflect what Loïc Wacquant calls ‘advanced urban marginality’. The article assesses whether the features of advanced urban marginality that are identified by Wacquant capture and can be usefully used to analyse the shifts and contemporary characteristics of public housing. The article draws on existing data and in-depth interviews with 33 older (aged more than 65 years) public housing tenants in Sydney, Australia, to analyse the residualisation of public housing using the features of advanced marginality identified by Wacquant – ‘wage labour as a vector of social instability and life insecurity’, ‘functional disconnection from macroeconomic trends’, ‘territorial fixation and stigmatisation’, ‘spatial alienation and the dissolution of place’, ‘loss of hinterland’ and ‘social fragmentation and symbolic splintering’. The study concludes that although Wacquant’s analysis is useful and captures much of what has occurred in public housing estates in Sydney, in many instances, public housing remains a source of pride for its tenants and provides them with the basis for a good life.
Wages Policy and the 1991 National Wage Case: An Economic Perspective
Authors: Stegman Trevor 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe National Wage Case decision of April 1991 has provided a crisis for the implementation of wages policy in Australia. Since 1983 wages policy has been implemented under a process which requires consistency between the principles under which the Industrial Relations Commission determines National Wage Case adjustments, and the elements of successive Commonwealth Government/ACTU Accords. The 1991 decision represents a rejection by the IRC of the thrust of the Government’s wages policy as presented in Accord V1. It is argued here that it is the shift in the primary goal of wages policy, from control of inflation to the promotion of allocative and operational efficiency, which has provoked the crisis. Unlike the Government, the IRC was not prepared to abandon control over the aggregate wage outcome in the pursuit of the uncertain productivity benefits of enterprise bargaining.
The 1991 National Wage Case: An Industrial Relations Perspective
Authors: Plowman D. H. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe recent National Wage Decision has the capacity to continue the structural efficiency thrust of recent National Wage Cases. It also has the potential to mark a major discontinuity in wage determination. The paper examines the major post-war discontinuities, the substance of the Accord Mark VI, the National Wage submissions, and the Commission’s attempts to harmonise macro-economic outcomes with enterprise bargaining.
Myths and Realities: A Review of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey
Authors: Angwin Michael 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThere has been little empirical research into enterprise and workplace industrial relations. The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey fills a major void. This paper examines the results of this Survey. It challenges the ‘industrial relations’ perspective adopted as well as some of the major conclusions, particularly those relating to industrial relations constraints upon flexibility. The paper also compares the findings with those of the Business Council’s Industrial Relations Study Commission.
State of the Union: An Assessment of Union Strategies
Authors: Lambert R. 
Published: March 2013

AbstractAccelerating global economic change reflected in the high degree of capital mobility and integrated global markets has intensified investment competition between states. The union movement reacted through a commitment to strategic unionism and award restructuring. However, the impact of the latter has been limited by the occupationally divided structure of Australian unions. The paper analyses attempts to change this structure through union amalgamations and considers the impact inter-union power struggles, shaped by factional alignments, have had on the process. The paper assesses the organizational problems of conglomerate unionism and evaluates possible counters to likely tendencies.
Unions and Sport: Australian Professional Players’ Associations
Authors: Dabscheck Braham 
Published: March 2013

AbstractSport has ceased to be an amateur pursuit: it has become a form of employment and subject to many of the legalities and insititutions encompassing employment relations — including unions. This ipaper traces the development of sporting associations, identifies the range of such associations, examines problems which are peculiar to employment in the ‘sports industry’ and future prospects for unions in that industry.
An Ever-Rising Tide? Poverty in Australia in the Eighties
Authors: Saunders Peter , Matheson George 
Published: March 2013

AbstractAs in many other countries, the eighties have seen the re-emergence of poverty as a political issue in Australia. Rising unemployment and the increased incidence of sole parenthood have put more children at risk of poverty, a development which has prompted increased policy concern. This paper presents estimates of the incidence and structure of poverty in Australia in 1981–82, 1985–86 and 1989–90, using the poverty standard developed by the Poverty Commission in the seventies. The estimates for 1989–90 are based on data generated from the 1986 Income Distribution Survey by a microsimulation model that allows for trends in demographic change, labour market participation and income during the second half of the eighties. The results indicate that the overall poverty rate has increased from 9.2 per cent in 1981–82 to 12.8 per cent in 1989–90. This is despite the fact that the incomes of many low income groups have increased in real terms, in many cases substantially. The reason for this apparent paradox is that the poverty standard is a relative one, and has thus itself been increased in line with average community incomes. One of the conclusions of the paper is that it may be necessary to reconsider the use of a relative poverty standard when assessing short-run trends in the extent of poverty.
Collective Bargaining and the Labour Market Flexibility Debate in New Zealand: A Review
Authors: Harbridge Raymond , Rea David 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper reviews the empirical evidence of rigidity in the New Zealand labour market over the period 1984–1990, with particular reference to collective bargaining. It demonstrates that labour market institutions displayed an important degree of flexibility over this period. Despite this, labour markets were stigmatized as ‘inflexible’ in public debate and labour market policy has been driven by the assumption that more flexibility was required.
The Political Economy of Privatisation
Authors: Rowthorn Bob , Chang Ha-Joon 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper examines some of the main arguments relating to the effect of privatisation on efficiency. It is concerned with both narrow economic issues and wider political issues. After a critical examination of some theories, which assert that private ownership is intrinsically more efficient than public ownership, it is argued that for large scale enterprise there are no strong economic reasons for believing in the superiority of private enterprise. As long as the government in question has the will and the power to make a public enterprise function in a socially efficient fashion, the public enterprise may be just as efficient as private enterprise whilst offering additional economic and social advantages.
Evaluating the Privatisation of the English and Welsh Water Industry
Authors: Johnson Michael 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe privatisation of the ten large water authorities in England and Wales is assessed in terms of some of its costs and benefits. Particular attention is paid to claims that privatisation would lead to less regulation, more competition and improved water services for consumers. The conclusions are that privatisation of water services was costly to taxpayers, led to more economic regulation and inadequate environmental regulation and did not significantly increase competition in the provision of water services.
Young People and Trade Union Membership: An International Comparative Study
Authors: Cregan Christina , Rudd Chris , Johnston Stewart 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper attempts to test the recent British Industrial Relations model of trade union membership by an examination of a survey of early school-leavers in Dunedin, New Zealand which was carried out in October 1989. The findings offer strong support for the model because the same distinct strands of core motivation and remainder attitudes were evident. This demonstrates that the model could be successfully applied in a different institutional, cultural and economic context. The major cross-national differences to emerge were that most Dunedin youngsters intended to join a union; for them, collective instrumental reasons were very important and values of little significance. Furthermore, there was little evidence of disinterest or ignorance amongst the minority which was negative towards trade union membership.A recent article on trade union membership (Cregan and Johnston, 1990) suggested that conventional neoclassical theories are flawed by the free rider paradox, whereby a rational individual will not bear the costs of joining a union to gain rewards that are available to all the workforce as public goods. It proposed that the dilemma could only be solved by a membership theory which takes into account several different sources of individual motivation drawn from several disciplines. These were identified in a longitudinal survey of London early school-leavers, 1979–1981, in reasons given by young people for their membership decision, positive or negative, from which employees could be categorised in social movement parlance as core and remainder. However, the authors proposed that further direct investigations should be made in different contexts. For example, it may be that some responses were culturally or institutionally specific, or were based on economic context. Accordingly, a similar survey of a single cohort of early school-leavers was carried out ten years later in Dunedin, New Zealand. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to test the validity of the framework of the model within a different national context.The article will be organised in the following way. First, a brief summary of the Industrial Relations model of trade union membership will be presented and two hypotheses will be drawn from it. Second, the latter will be tested by a discussion of the results of the Dunedin survey and a comparison with those of the London survey. Third, implications of the findings for the consequences of the 1991 Employment Contracts Act will be briefly examined.
The Economic Implications of Enterprise Bargaining
Authors: Sloan Judith 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe economic implications of enterprise bargaining depend critically on the precise version of enterprise bargaining being contemplated. One version sees enterprise bargaining as an add-on process, with the existing bank of awards retained, and trade unions playing a central and protected role. Another version sees enterprise bargaining as an holistic process, wherein all terms and conditions of employment can be negotiated subject to some minimum conditions. Trade unions may play some role, but not to the exclusion of other bargaining agents. Add-on enterprise bargaining may have only a small impact on productivity; there is a danger that wage (and price) inflation could increase; and the impact on employment is uncertain. Holistic enterprise bargaining is likely to have a more substantial impact on productivity; is unlikely to lead to inflation; and employment growth should be boosted. However, power-reducing policies and the abolition of awards are necessary correlates of holistic enterprise bargaining.
Enterprise Bargaining: An Overview
Authors: Blain Nicholas 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThe primary aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the merits of enterprise bargaining by providing a wideranging overview. It provides a comprehensive definition of enterprise bargaining which enables a broad range of perspectives to be encompassed and helps to structure the discussion of the immediate context and the wider policy settings of the debate. The paper demonstrates that enterprise bargaining is not new. It identifies a number of current or proposed systems of enterprise bargaining the present federal system, the New South Wales model the BCA proposal the Federal Liberal/National Party approach, and the New Zealand model. These are then evaluated, making use of a simple conceptual framework. The analysis indicates that each system has its advantages and disadvantages, its supporters and critics. Its findings suggest that positive and negative features of all models should be taken into account, not only in the continuing debate on enterprise bargaining, but also in the improvement of existing enterprise bargaining systems and in the design of new models.
Centralised vs. Decentralised Wage-Setting Systems and Capital Accumulation — Evidence from OECD Countries, 1960–1990
Authors: Chowdhury Anis 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThere has recently been intense debate about the relative merits of a centralised wage-setting system vis-a-vis a decentralised system. Most of the theoretical and empirical works on this issue focus on the static or current macroeconomic performance in terms of employment and inflation and microeconomic efficiency resulting from enhanced labour market flexibility. Following Lancaster’s work and subsequent extensions by Schott and Vartiainen, this paper regards wage bargaining as a dynamic game involving conflict over the distribution of current and future income. It is argued that the intertemporal decision makings of both workers and employers are influenced by so-called prisoners’ dilemma. In such situations, it is claimed that centralised or corporatist wage negotiations system leads to higher investment rates. This claim is corroborated with evidence from selected OECD countries.
Changing Employment Structures and their Effects on Industrial Relations in Malaysia
Authors: Ariffin Rohanna 
Published: March 2013

AbstractThis paper describes the various stages of industrialisation through which Malaysia has passed, beginning with import substitution in the 1960s, export-oriented industries of the 1970s to heavy industries in the 1980s. The public sector, which used to employ a substantial percentage of the labour force and a high percentage of ethnic Malays, has been reduced as a result of the government’s decision to corporatise and privatise many of its agencies. However, as more Malays have began working in the industrial sector, a new phenomena of an emerging Malay proletariat alongside the non-Malays has become evident. They now form more than half of the union leadership and are strongly represented among skilled workers. Whether the government will become more liberal with its laws and policies towards unions in the future is uncertain, as the democratic process in Malaysia has yet to gain a firm hold.