IMPLEMENT INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS PROCEDURES

Industrial Relations Policies



Implement Industrial Relations Procedures

Introduction

To understand the range of industrial relations (IR) challenges that employers and their organizations are likely to face in Australia during the next decade, it is necessary to appreciate the current as well as historical factors which have shaped and are shaping such relations in the region. During the 1990's, the new demands of international competition and dramatic advances in technology - the forces of globalization - have changed substantially the nature and operation of the "market place", and how production is organised, in many industries across the world. Individual enterprises are now being required to innovate to provide "the right product, at the right price and time". These requirements are placing considerable demands on employers and their enterprises to develop and implement new strategies, structures and processes. (Ariff, 1995, 20)

Implement Industrial Relations Procedures

There is an increasingly strategic role for industrial relations (IR) within the enterprise, as much of what has to be done involves significant changes to traditional practices in this and the related area of human resource management (HRM). The result has been that the nature of IR is changing in many enterprises. A new approach is emerging, relying on a broader concept of employment relations. This new approach is based on a range of IR and HRM practices directed to improving the flexibility and skills of the workforce, within an environment which emphasises communication, cooperation and trust between managers, workers and their representatives. Adoption of this approach, however, has been neither universal nor uniform. It has been particularly pronounced in industrialised countries, and is increasing in industrializing countries. But both the forms it has taken and its spread, has varied considerably within industries and across regions in the same country, and among countries and regions having different industrial relations policy, (Ariff, 1995, 20) legal and institutional frameworks and traditions. Within this new economic and industrial environment, the situation in Australia and the Australia presents a range of contrasts - from the generally strong but variable economic performance of the advanced countries in North, East and Southeast Australia and the Southwest Australia, to the rapidly industrializing countries in Southeast Australia, the accelerating growth in South Australia, and the special situations of the countries in transition and the island states of the South Australia. Much more than any other previous influence, globalization is emphasizing the importance of IR to industrialization and economic development in the region. It is creating new challenges for, as well as highlighting old tensions among, governments and the social partners. It has also brought with it a number of strategic opportunities, if the parties can take advantage of them, to improve the prospects of enterprises and workers and to position the region for a period of continuing strong economic growth and development into the twenty-first century. (Ariff, 1995, 20) Employers, as the force driving economic changes, and their organizations have to take the initiative to develop a reform agenda which can deliver these ...