Compare the legislative and political environments in Australia and Britain to consider the importance of the regulation of employee involvement and the subsequent implications for the parties involved in the employment relationship and for HRM.

Australia

The election of a federal Labor government in 2008 brought about a significant change in industrial relations and HRM in Australia. Replacing a hostile, conservative neoliberal government that had been perceived to tip the balance of industrial relations regulation in favour of employers (Cooper and Ellem, 2008), the Labor government introduced the Fair Work Act (Cth) in 2009. This Act significantly changed industrial relations in Australia. The major object of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (Division 2, Section 3) is to provide a balanced framework for cooperative and productive relations that promotes national economic prosperity and social inclusion for all Australians by:

- providing workplace relations laws that are fair, flexible for businesses and promote productivity and economic growth;

- ensuring a guaranteed safety net of fair, relevant and enforceable minimum terms and conditions;

, ensuring that the above conditions cannot be undermined by individual employment agreements;

- assisting employees to balance their work and family responsibilities;

- enabling fairness and representation at work and the prevention of discrimination, providing protection against unfair treatment and discrimination, providing access to effective procedures to resolve grievances and disputes, and providing effective compliance mechanisms;

- achieving productivity and fairness through a focus on enterprise-level bargaining underpinned by good faith obligations and clear rules;

- acknowledging the special circumstances of small and medium-sized businesses.

Questions

In light of the objectives of the Fair Work Australia Act 2009 (Cth), consider the following questions:

1 How can you relate the objectives of the new legislation to the objectives of employee involvement as described by theory?

2 What are the likely future outcomes for employee involvement in Australia, given the objects and focus of the legislation introduced in 2009?