Employment Relations

Question:

"Unions are a vital protection for employees in a free market environment"

Provide a media portfolio as part of your answer

The state plays an important role in the deregulation of economies to promote the efficiency of market forces and to promote global competitiveness allowing countries to gain their comparative advantage in a global system of free trade (Ramasamy, 2005). The introduction of policies and legislation by the state that serve to tilt ideologies and politics towards capitalism can curb labour and trade unionism (Ramasamy, 2005). Free-market ideologists believe that the vast numbers of low-paid jobs will gradually become better-paid through investment and productivity, while societies are becoming increasingly polarised between those who have the wealth or skill to gain from global integration and those who remain trapped in poverty without productive employment (ICFTU, 2003). In a free market environment, unions must ensure that the rapid changes in the nature of work and in the labour market are achieved without compromising the goals of full employment and social justice (ICFTU, 2003).

Responding to economic pressures, Australia saw the Howard government introduce legislation that made it difficult for trade unions to engage in collective bargaining, a fundamental tool used to protect the wages and conditions of Australian workers (McCallum, 2002). As a result of this fundamental change in Australians industrial relations landscape, Australia saw the end of the Howard governments WorkChoices and the introduction of the Fair Work Act which represented a compromise in the eyes of unions, employers and the wider community (Bray et al., 2009). In considering the question of whether unions are vital protection for employees in a free market environment, this paper attempts to examine the role unions play in providing protection and highlights some of the alternatives employees can exploit to secure protection in the labour market. This paper examines the role of individual bargaining and collective bargaining, the climate in unionised and non-unionised workplaces, HRM practices and works councils as an alternative for employee voice and protection and the role unions and employees play in implementing workplace health and safety legislation and polices. This paper is underpinned by opinions provided in the media and how these opinions can influence the perceptions the public have of unions.

Trade unions have fought for the right to decent pay and conditions for men and women at their place of work and for improved social welfare through, for example, health care, education and social security for over half a century and today's free market environment much over what unions have achieved to date has and is being undermined by global financial, political and industrial decisions (ICFTU, 2003). Unions provide one mechanism by which employees can influence their terms and conditions of work and the process and practices employed in their workplace (Bray, Warring and Cooper, 2009). Unions can provide the mechanism for employees to bargain collectively rather than individually and can also assist in communicating to employers the concerns of their employees about their employment conditions (Bray et al, 2009). Some researchers suggest that unions provide workers both with protection against arbitrary management decisions and with a voice at the work place and in the political arena (Bennet and Kaufman, 2007). Research from a British report showed that dismissal rates in non-union workplaces were considerably higher than those of unionised workplaces, turnover rates were higher and in the absence of a trade union presence, it could be expected that management would impose harsher disciplinary sanctions on employees (Deery et al, 2001).

Evidence suggests that union workplaces were more likely to use collective negotiation, employee surveys and meetings, grievance and equal employment procedures, consultative and safety committees, task forces, health and safety representatives and HRM strategies than non-union workplaces (Verma, 2005). While employees certainly can 'voice' their concerns to management individually, it is nevertheless difficult for individual workers to have a direct impact on managerial policy or action, particularly if the focus of dissent represents a direct challenge to managerial authority (Benson, 2000). Union involvement in the workplace can provide protection to employees who individually may be unable to voice their concerns about pay and conditions to their employer (Pocock et al, 2008). As highlighted in (A1) union groups closely monitor those employers that intend strip entitlements and provide resources aimed to block such moves. Unions can also be an important voice for some of society's most vulnerable groups. Research suggests that low paid women workers who were unable to seek union representation during the WorkChoices period, were less likely to raise concerns individually with their employer fearing retribution (Pocock et al, 2008).

Some authors suggest that WorkChoices greatly diminished the ability of unions both to organise workers and to deliver improved employee conditions and protections via collective bargaining (Barnes, 2006). WorkChoices provided the means for employers to offer jobs with lower pay and poorer conditions, restricted the powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) and in some circumstances reduced the protection and support of trade unions (Hall, 2006). Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA's), introduced under WorkChoices, were found to undermine employment standards and limited the ability of unions to be involved in the bargaining process as found in some workplaces across Australia. The non-union collective agreements used during the WorkChoices period saw many workers with less income; penalty rates stripped and in many cases where employees refused to sign agreements they were penalised with fewer hours or in some cases dismissal (Pocock et al., 2008). The absence of unions in many workplaces during the reign of WorkChoices was felt by numerous working Australians as they saw their awards stripped to the bare minimum and protections removed (A2). There was a decline in union membership over a 10 year period to 2007 (ABS, 2007), however some research shows that this decline may be more closely linked to employees feeling that unions were rendered powerless under the WorkChoices legislation and it was pointless to join or renew their union dues (Pocock et al, 2008). This evidence suggests that many Australian workers feel unions can offer protection in the workplace, however as discussed their ability to assist employees is limited by the provisions of the industrial