Employee Voice in Australia - Case Study Example

EMPLOYEE VOICE’ IN AUSTRALIA Name: Course Instructor’s name Institution Date ‘EMPLOYEE VOICE’ IN AUSTRALIA A recent study of Australian health care sector claims that the total number of medical practitioners registered in labour unions is 610,148. This figure means that 57 % of all health practitioners in Australia are registered to a labour union. Despite the fact that the country is one with the highest registered workforce in labour union this, there is a tremendous fall in this number compared to another research carried out a decade ago. Judging by that research, it is evident that the number of health workers registered in labour unions has fallen by 29%.Therefore, paper below highlights on employee voice in Australian healthcare sector. Brief industrial relation on the background of Australian Health sector Union membership in Australia healthcare workforce has hit a record low in the past decade with just one in nine private-sector health care practitioners choosing to register to a labour union. Similarly, the public – sector healthcare practitioners are also adamant on joining a labour union an issue which has been blamed on the diminishing power and efficiency of labour unions in Australia. In a research carried out in August 2009, it was noted that the number of employees who had joined the labour union in relevance to their main job 1.8 million this is estimated to be 20% of all labour union members in Australia. This was a tremendous increase of 82,200 new registered workforce personnel’s from the research carried back in the year 2004. In line with this, it was also noted that there was an increase of 73,100 employees who registered labour union members however they were not in relation to their main job. This was estimated to make up for 4% of the total labour union members. The health industry recorded the highest employee’s proportion in the labour unions compared to the country’s other sectors. It was estimated that this was made up for 45% of the country’s total labour union membership (Markey, 2007). The Health Service Union is a federated labour union in which most a huge number of Australian health care sector’s workforces are members. It has branches strategically in every state in Australia with each branch covering different health care workers depending on their state of residence, workplace and occupation. Before their existences, there were multiple labour unions which seemed not to be effective in their role, therefore, the decision to merge two major labour unions was reached. The two labour unions that were merged to form the Health Service Union were; The Health and Research Employees Association (HREA) and Hospital Employees' Federation (WADDOUPS, 2008). The countries trade union density has been deteriorating gradually from the year 1999 when it was recorded to be 25% to the year 2014 where it has hit a new low of 15.5%. The significant decline in Union membership in Australia can be blamed on the fact that workers in the country have increasingly become sceptical about the unions and their effectiveness in administering their expected role. This is drawn from the evidently diminishing power of union strength; currently, unions have been secluded in labour policy and law making them irrelevant. Definition of ‘Employee voice' Employee’s voice is the notion that employees want a listening ear from their employers on their challenges and opinions concerning their job position and working condition. This means that the employees should be allowed to obsess about their working condition with no repercussion due to their openness. Employee’s voice can also be described as opinion and ideas passed by an employee to the employer which might either challenge the status quo or not with the main intention of improving their working condition and pay. The employee voice is meant to increase employee’s engagement with the employer in the course of creating employee advocacy. Employee voice also tends to be less bureaucratic compared to other ways in which employees try to communicate with employers. Employee voice may also appeal both to the employees seeking work condition and payment improvements and also those pursuing employee rights. However, an organisation has to believe in employees playing a significant role in contributing towards the business or company success in order for it to adopt employee voice. Over the past decade, employee voice has been one of the growing notions in industrial relations and human resource. The adoption of employee’s voice has increased the diminishing labour strength since employees have now autonomy to participate in a company’s or organisation’s decision making since they are willing to listen to them (Blanpain et al., 2009). Importance of ‘employee voice' Employee voice is a boost for business success since it increases employee engagement in a company or business, therefore, leading to formation of strong teamwork spirit that fosters productivity On the other hand employee voice also leads to effective decision making which boosts an organization policy making while also driving its innovation and diversification. The other importance of employee voice it the fact that it boosts authenticity and trust within the organization this helps in fostering interrelation in an organization creating a conducive environment for all parties to work effectively. Gives a boost in an employee’s self-esteem since they feel appreciated and important to an organization this will lead to increase in productivity at the long end (Dundon, Campling and Gollan, 2005). On the other hand, this will boost an employee’s job satisfaction and also since they are at liberty to develop their skills better due to the trust show by the organisation on them. Due to the openness and trust show by the organization through listening to the employees’ views and opinion employee voice creates an aspect of job security within the organization since the employees perceive that the organization views them highly. Significance of decline of Trade union representation in Australia A recent report by Australian Bureau of Statistics claims that the county’s trade union membership in the country’s workforce r has plunged from 40 per cent to 15 per cent over the past two decades. The report further claims that estimate of 140,000 workers have cancelled their trade union membership. This decline in the country’s workforce trade union members has best been revealed in the report finding which revealed that there was a fall of 400,000 registered professional’s to 280, 000, over the past 12 months. This shows how tremendously healthcare professionals are deregistering themselves in these trade unions. Australian union membership of the country’s workforce has fallen to its lowest level. It is estimated that currently 12 percent of professionals from the private sector have opted for organised labour as opposed to the recognised labour unions. In overall these unions have lost close to 200,000 members in a 12 months period (Dundon, Campling and Gollan, 2005). The country’s workforce in the public sector, on the other hand, has more members significantly with almost 22% of workers still registered. However, this sector has experienced a decline in membership. However, it is not as rampant as in the private sector. The current ACTU secretary Dave Oliver blamed this decline in union membership on job cuts and changes in the economy and ¬labour market. Mr Tony Abbott the number one trade union recruiter claimed that Australians were not sit back and watch the Abbott government businesses lobby go after their penalty rates, in effort to cut the country’s minimum wage every year” He blames this on the current decline in union membership he claims that this is the biggest assault on the social safety net that Australia has seen for a long time. The current decline in trade union This decline in trade union representation has also be blamed casualization deteriorating conditions in the labour market, on-going in balance in economic prosperity which has seen workers try their luck by self-representation in workplace negotiations (Ellem and Franks, 2008). This has led to a much further decline in confidence in the trade union in negotiating on their behalf. The fact that the Australian labour market has increasingly contracted out employment and various outsourced roles has made it difficult for the trade unions to retain and attract more members. Significance of decline in union membership among nurses and doctors in Australia The annual report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the country’s healthcare sector recorded the lowest proportion of union membership. Similar to the private sector workforce the healthcare sector’s private sector also recorded a quite rampant decline in membership compared to the public sector. The decline of membership from this union has been blamed on the current shenanigans at the Heath Sector Union. This is evident through the significant number of member’s resignations of health care members who make up the union’s membership. The lack of transparency in this union has caused it not only its reputation but also a huge lot of members who have already resigned from the union. Compared to a study carried out in the year 1992 the union had a 43 per cent of male workers and 35 per cent female’s workers this has significantly reduced with the male workers now making up 18 per cent while the female workers are 20 per cent (Markey, 2007). The decline in unionisation which has been estimated to be about 20 percentages has also been blamed on the fall in influence in the unions on negotiating its member’s better pay and improved working conditions. Australia is claimed to have considerably higher rates of bargaining coverage compared to other countries. This has driven workers in making the negotiation by themselves after the after seeing that they would come to an agreement of much better term and pay rise compared to when they were represented by unions. On the other hand privately formed union have achieved much success compared to the other union this is evident in The growing reputation of ACTU, which recently was successful in negoating the minimum wage for the Australian construction workers. The Changing nature of employee’s voice in Australia over the last couple of years Over the few couple of years, Australia’s employment sector has appreciated the importance of a good relationship between management and employees. This has led to various industries and businesses embracing communication through the implementation of employee’s voice. It has been realised that this is a vital component negotiation between the management and employees in the course of bettering of wages and improvement of working terms. The implementation of employee voice is blamed on the current decline in union membership since these workers have discovered that they can get much better deals in negotiating through employee voice method. This has also created an alternative way of the employees to express their views and opinions as opposes to the old methods were quite bureaucratic. Employee voice has also led to the embracement of dialogue in solving problems at the workplace; this has significantly reduced the level of job layoff since people consider dialogue as a better way of administering judgement on an issue considering that they have been given time to express themselves (Holland et al., 2011). On the other hand, employee voice fosters unity and good relationship within the organisation due to the trust and confidence built between the employees and employers. Trends in employee voice in Australia Employee voice has now formed the heart of Australian industrial relations ever since it was intercepted in the countries industries. Employee voice has been related to ‘industrial democracy’ a hugely successful concept that as first employed by the Webbs in 1898. The terms of employee voice have varied and expanded with time with more terms to improve this being discovered daily. These trends reflect to the dynamic disciplinary bases in industrial relations which entail; industrial relations, psychology, and human resource management. The changing socioeconomic contexts have also fostered the change of these terms which has led to consideration of competing goals between labour, management and government, and other variety of practices. However, this complexity has proven to be difficult considering that they will be problematical since the terms differ with their meaning and parameters (Holland et al., 2011). Grounds suggesting the need of Australian Federal government providing legal support for employee voice at workplace Despite the fact than employee voice gives the employee a hearing on their opinion and disregards there are some cases where these opinions and complaints from employees go an attended. This means that some organisations have taken advantage of employee voice by pretending to be concerned about their employees complaints and opinion but in real sense it is a strategy to fools them. The Australian Federal government should therefore intervene by coming up with policy that govern employee voice. On the other hand with the current changing dynamics in human resource employee voice has become a must have aspect in almost all organisations the Australian Federal government should also put in place legal mechanism that ensure this aspect is implemented in the country’s entire employment sector. Bibliography Blanpain, R., Bromwich, W., Rymkevich, O., Spattini, S. and Aparicio Valdez, L. (2009). The modernization of labour law and industrial relations in a comparative perspective. Austin: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business: Journal of Industrial Relations. Dundon, T., Campling, J. and Gollan, P. (2005). Bargained Out: Negotiating Without Unions in Australia. Labour Union History journal, (89), p.255. Ellem, B. and Franks, P. (2008). Trade Union Structure and Politics in Australia and New Zealand. Labour Union History Journal, (95), p.43. Holland, P., Pyman, A., Cooper, B. and Teicher, J. (2011). Employee voice and job satisfaction in Australia: The centrality of direct voice. Human Resource Management journal, 50(1), pp.95-111. Markey, R. (2007). Non-Union Employee Representation in Australia: A Case Study of the Suncorp Metway Employee Council Inc. (SMEC). Journal of Industrial Relations, 49(2), pp.187-209. Pyman, A., Cooper, B., Teicher, J. and Holland, P. (2006). A comparison of the effectiveness of employee voice arrangements in Australia. Industrial Relations Journal, 37(5), pp.543-559. WADDOUPS, C. (2008). Unions and Wages in Australia: Does Employer Size Matter?. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 47(1), pp.136-144. Read More