Employee voice in enterprise bargaining: what managers miss when they fail to listen

Abstract

ABSTRACTDespite being reregulated several times, the Australian system of ‘enterprise bargaining’ has remained adversarial in nature and thus has failed to live up to the potential promised. This article examines a case study where employees hold a great deal of power through a strong union. Additionally and separate from the institutional arrangements, employees identify a number of ways that they identify currently affect productivity in their workplace(s), but poorly integrated employee voice systems and a low level of trust means that the benefits of bargaining are somewhat limited. Evidence from this case study suggests that improved trust and a process of listening to, and learning from employee voice are required for employers and employees to better capitalise on bargaining opportunities and shift from distributive bargaining to integrative bargaining models.