From Industrial Relations to Workplace Relations in the Australian Taxation Office: An Incomplete but Strategic Transition

Abstract

The impact of New Public Management reforms on industrial relations at the agency level of the Australian Public Service is a neglected area of research. To redress this deficiency, we examine the evolution of industrial relations in the second largest public service agency, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), an organisation that is in transition from a bureaucratised administration to a responsive provider of services. The employment relationship in the ATO has become more flexible and workplace focused, yet many characteristics of a collective form of regulation remain, suggesting an increasingly strategic response to complex demands. Although human resource management strategies of controlling work through values, behaviours and performance are on the ascendancy, their effective implementation faces significant barriers. In view of the size of the ATO, its policies and practices are likely to provide a reliable indicator of the evolution of industrial relations in the Australian Public Service at large.