Trade Unions—Enterprise Bargaining and Control at Work Evidence From The First Wave of Enterprise Agreements

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since the articulation of the Enterprise Bargaining principle by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission in 1991, and the reforms to the Industrial Relations Act passed in 1994, the pace of industrial relations deregulation in Australia has quickened considerably. This paper explores some of the characteristics of the first wave of enterprise bargains with particular reference to the role of trade unions in mediating the enterprise bargaining process and the results of workplace change. Following the claims of many in the federal government, the trade union movement and employer groups, we consider the extent to which enterprise bargaining has facilitated greater labour flexibility and employee participation in workplace decision-making using original data drawn from a survey of the first wave of federally and state registered enterprise agreements. In particular, we examine whether level of unionisation in specific workplaces appears to malre a dilference to the negotiatim of several key aspects of control and discretion at work. We consider whether unions appear to make a difference to the ways in which employment conditions are determined at the workplace, the way in which changes to work organisation are negotiated, the means by which employees are consulted through the change process, the level of employee involvement in decision-making and the methods by which pay is determined. On the basis of the survey evidence, we conclude that union presence and density appears to affect the results of enterprise bargaining especially with respect to matters of workplace control and the exercise of managerial prerogative at work.