Australia or Austmerica?

Australia or Austmerica?

Since the 90’s Australian Employment relations have undergone massive restructuring, some of which has brought it closer to the ‘American way’. Australia bounces between labour and liberal parties, going from state-controlled to more individualised and seen many changes along the way. Most significant are the legislative changes, structural changes, decline in union membership and power, increase in non-standard forms of employment and a shift away from centralised industrial relations systems and towards enterprise bargaining (Lansbury, Wailes 2011). These changes sound awfully similar to many other employment relations systems around the world, this however is not surprising as we already know that many countries have similarities and differences between their ER practices.

The question that I am interested in finding out more about is whether the rumours of Australia following the ‘American way of life’ are in fact true. Although their geographical locations are far apart, are their ER practices equally as challenged? As far as my research goes I think it is safe to say that there are many similarities however culturally and structurally I don’t think Australia and America can converge. Mostly because America is made up of 52 states (Gould 2010) with all states having differing practices while Australia is on a much lesser scale. However I am going to point out a few similarities mainly to do with unions and employees that I have found.

I have noticed that Australia like many other places such as Japan and Korea is moving towards non-standard employment forms such as casual and contract workers. In fact the majority of jobs created in the 90’s where casual (Bamber 2011). This has resulted in a massive union density decline due to the increase in non-formal workers who are not covered by unions, the same has been happening in America, except they in the process of union revitalisation. Australia are also putting greater emphasis on decentralised workplace bargaining which includes wage determination for employees, this signifies that this particular system is aligning closely with Americas.

Although there are some similarities that suggest convergence it depends on what perspective you see it from as there are many theories that suggest otherwise. In my opinion I think that the Australian employment relations system is in a period of change and adopting a more individualistic approach, and through this process taking on parts of America’s employment relations that suit.