Liberal Partys Unitary Approach in Workplace and Employee Relations - Case Study Example

Liberal Party’s Unitary Approach in Workplace And Employee Relations [Name] [Professor Name] [Course] [Date] Introduction The employment relationship has always existed in the Australian employment relations. During the 2013 electioneering period, the Liberal Party Leader Mr. Tony Abbott’s emphasis was on the transforming the role of trade unions and collective bargaining. There was also an emphasis on strengthening connections with institutional analysis and unequivocally adopting policy reforms that recognize employment relations as the rules of the game that link performance and practice. This essay presents evidence that Liberal Party’s employment relations policy largely focused on unitarist perspective of managing employees. It further discusses the implications of the approach and outlines a range of ways that the policy reforms may influence employee flexibility in addition to reducing the influence of trade unions in the workplace. Position of the liberals on employment relations The Liberal Party promised to improve Fair Work laws to ensure that the laws provide an enforceable and strong safety net for employees while at the same time creating new jobs and to improve higher real wage growth (Griffiths 2013). Based on the Liberal Party’s employment relation’s policy, a number of reforms are highlighted. The Liberal Party promised to re-emphasize the significance of productivity bargaining and re-establish provisions for right of entry. The policy to improve the Fair Work Laws included keeping and improving the Fair Work Laws, restoring the Australian Building and Construction Commission, ensuring members of Registered Organizations are well protected, providing assistance to small business workplaces, guaranteeing employees the right o access fair flexibility, ensuring the provisions for unions right of entry are fair and ensuring that unemployed workers have a better deal among others (Liberal 2013). Institutional Change Perspectives Based on the types of employment relations reforms suggested, the Liberal Party can be classified as a unitarist. Throughout the electioneering period, the party was seen to seek a harmonious relationship between the employee and the employer and perceiving unions as having much power. The newly elected government frequently identified the need for reform before and during their sustained ideological campaign along these lines (Donnison 2013). Debate on Australian industrial relations in 2013 and the proposed changes by the Liberal Party leader Tony Abbot basically focused on two points of view on legislation as a structure that needed reforms in regulation of the workplace within Australia. These perspectives extensively followed the merits determined by Fox between pluralist and unitarist industrial relations (Colley 2005). The Liberals’ stance covered a wide range of issues, namely decentralizing the determination of employment terms and conditions, issues on whether the trade unions should be left as the principal agents for bargaining worker relations, the significant legal status of unions, wage fixing, matters of whether the strike action are justifiable and the role of Australian Building and Construction Commission (Liberal 2013). While there was a general consensus in Australia on the need for change in employee and employer relations, the debates were stimulated by divisions about how the particular change was to be effected and the extent to which the changes should range. A keynote element of Liberal party’s campaign was that in regard to the institutions’ conciliation, arbitration and wage-fixing was paramount. Mr. Abott is on record for stating that under the policy, the Liberal Party promised to extend access to the individual flexibility arrangement to all employees, while emphasizing that employees would not be exempted by enterprise bargaining agreements (Griffiths 2013). Mr. Abbot has further promised to restore the significance of productivity in enterprise bargaining under the Fair Work Act. The unitary perspective is identifiable by emphasis on cooperative relations at the workplace. The perspective is not in line with the assumption that hostility exists between the employees and the employers and that conflicts is greatly due to external trade unions or agitators whose intrusion upsets the harmonious state of relations (Sisson 2008). Proponents of unitary perspective depend on the liberal use of teamwork when conceiving the nature of the employment relationship (Colley, 2005). These characterize Liberal Party’s approach to employment relations. In particular, employers often apply the team analogy when describing relations in the organization basing on the premise that employees and employers share the same goals, which renders the trade union representation unnecessary. Indeed, one of the policy reforms promised by the Liberal party is ensuring the provisions for union’s right of entry are fair (Liberal 2013). Several theories have provided evidence that the unitary perspective motivates developments in the modern day employment relations (Ross and Bamber 2009). According to some studies, employers expressed opposition to trade unions and contempt to the employment relationship (FDS 2013). Further, they emphasized the extent to which an organization was generally a “happy team.” Criticism of Liberal Party’s Employment Policy However, assurances of Liberal Party’s policy reforms have failed to quell criticism by unions. ACTU president Ged Kearney expressed deep concern on the push for greater access to ‘individual flexibility arrangements. She seemed to emphasize the need for pluralist perspective, and the need for the Liberal Party to acknowledge that antagonism exists in the employment relationship, and hence it is potential for conflicts (Griffiths 2013). In relation to the employment relations, the pluralist perspective recognizes that employees and the employers may have divergent views and interests that will have to be reconciled if the organization has to function efficiently (Bourke 2013). The pluralist concern of this perspective is to ensure that any possible conflict may arise based on these differences that are managed in a manner that prevents them from causing disruptions (Sisson 2008). There is also an emphasis on formulating procedures intended to resolve the conflicts, specifically the establishment of bargaining relationships with trade unions because of the differences of interests that are likely to exist within the organization (Ross and Bamber 2009; McDonald 2005). Based on ACTU president Ged Kearney’s concerns, it begs the question as to whether the Liberal Party’s policies are aimed at limiting the capacity of employers to institutionalize autonomous strategic choices as well as engage in alternative strategies in Abbott’s government. It further implies that employers exercise a level of strategic choices. However, drawback of much of the pluralist perspective, that Kearney relies on, is its implication that company’s policymakers will generally serve as economic rationalists when they consider strategic alternatives (Griffiths 2013). In any case, Liberal Party industrial relations policy can be easily classified in terms of intervention of the state. Before it was elected into power, the party was keen to avoid any submission that the Howard regime’s WorkChoices would be restored, or any pluralist approach undertaken. Instead, Mr. Abbott emphasized soft policies that suggested minor changes to the existing legislations. This showed that the Coalition was evidently talking ‘small target politics,’ particularly in the area of workplace relations (Griffiths 2013). WorkChoices came into force during the Howard era in 2006 and transformed large number of aspects of the Australian employment relations, such as doing away with unfair dismissal laws for organizations of certain sizes and dispensing with the ‘no disadvantage test’ for employees. Liberal Party Leader Mr. Abbott predominantly emphasized that his government would be not going back to the past WorkChoices. Implications Since Liberal’s policy reform stance can be classified under state intervention. Based on the unitarist approach, the Liberal Party may play an active and influential role in institutionalizing formal roles and institutions of the employment relations (McDonald 2005). Towards the September 2013 elections, the Liberal Party Leader Tonny Abbott revealed some elements of increasing union activity and favoring collective bargaining. Mr. Abbott promised that his government will target dishonest unions and centre on improving the Fair Work Act (Griffiths 2013). Based on the unitarist perspective, Liberal party will be seen to be taking a proactive role by attempting to free up the labour market through re-regulation rather than deregulations. The Liberals will be seen to be substituting on kind of legislation for a new one and strengthening special jurisdiction, which take the pluralist perspective. It can be argued that the Liberal Party’s employment relations policy during the 2013 elections represented the pre-eminence of unitarist employment relations in Australia. This is evident from the managerial views that dominated the debate, as a kind of managerial fundamentalism that tends to rebuff unions, and instead emphasizes unilateral management control and the distinction of employees and employers (Bourke 2013). Current developments in Australian labour market and the employment relations suggest the road to transforming employment relations in the country in the Abbott regime (Liberal 2013). Critically, the newly elected government will encourage ascendancy of management with regard to restoring managerial privileges, encouraging collective bargaining and encouraging the adoption of strategies that challenge the assumptions that strengthen employment relations. These tendencies are expected to be seen and to gather legislative and political momentum through the Liberal Party employment relations policy, such as better work and better pay. Conclusion Liberal Party employment relations policy can be classified as a unitarist. It largely focused on building a harmonious relationship between the employee and the employer based on the premise that unions wielded much power. Indeed, the newly elected government frequently identified the need for policy reform before during their sustained ideological campaign along these lines. Based on the unitarist framework, the Liberal Party is expected to increase access to the individual flexibility arrangement to all employees, while emphasizing that employees would not be exempted by enterprise bargaining agreements. References Bourke, L. 2013, Here's what the Liberals really think of Tony Abbott, ABC News, viewed 23 Sept 2013, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-30/bourke-abbott-liberals-leader/4721720 Colley, L. 2005, Stakeholders And The State In The Initial Phases Of The Work Choices Industrial Relations Reforms, Griffit University, Highgate Hill Donnison, J. 2013, Australia election: Tony Abbott defeats Kevin Rudd, BBC News, viewed 23 Sept 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24000133 FDS n.d., Introducing Employment Relations, viewed 23 Sept 2013, http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/13/9780199545438_chapter1.pdf Griffiths, E. 2013, Abbott unveils Coalition's workplace relations policy, ABC News, viewed 23 Sept 2013, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-09/abbott-unveils-coalitions-workplace-policy/4679404 Liberal 2013, Improving the Fair Work Laws, viewed 23 Sept 2013, http://www.liberal.org.au/improving-fair-work-laws McDonald, W.J. 2005, The ideology of managers in the management of employees in small and medium sized enterprises in Australia, http://eprints.usq.edu.au/1470/2/McDonald_2005_whole.pdf Ross, P. and Bamber, P. 2009, 'Strategic Choices in Pluralist and Unitarist Employment Relations Regimes: A Study of Australian Telecommunications,' ILR Review, Vol. 63 No. 1, pp.24-41 Sisson, K. 2008, Putting the record straight: Industrial relations and the employment relationship, viewed 23 Sept 2013, http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/research/irru/wpir/wpir_88.pdf Read More