
Issue No 65		04 August 2000

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Review

Following the Money

Review by Neale Towart

A new book looks at the role the bosses have played in the changing industrial relations framework.

Employer Associations and Industrial Relations Change: catalysts or captives? Edited by Peter Sheldon and Louise Thornthwaite

"Follow the money" urged Deepthroat. Industrial relations researchers haven't really followed this advice. This book may be the beginnings of deeper study of the real power in the industrial and post-industrial landscape.

Industrial relations researchers have paid relatively little attention to employer associations. The shift to a more decentralised bargaining system in Australia, however, supports the view that ultimately it is employers and their associations who determine the IR structure. This even more the case when union peak bodies are effectively frozen out of industrial legislation discussions by the federal government.

The media generally devote a lot of time to ACTU and union views and actions on particular topics but the controversy and shock horror attitude so often adopted to "outrageous union claims" is noticeably missing in the reportage on employer actions and statements, all of which seem to be accepted as in "the national interest", as opposed to union attitudes which are seen as parochial, narrow minded and economically irresponsible. This despite the fact that the employer body which attract the most attention, the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and whose agenda was pretty much adopted by the ALP government and now the Coalition, represents a small group of large companies and very wealthy people.

This book provides a much needed overview and analysis of the influence of the big players in industrial relations reform. Chapters on the BCA, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Metal Trades Industry Association (MTIA) (now the Australian Industry Group (AIG)) cover the main national organisations, with further research devoted to the road transport industry bodies, coal mining industry, meat industry and private hospitals. The contributors cover the period from the early 1980s to the present, an era of rapid structural change in the economy and in industrial relations. An era when the role of what Gerard Henderson derisively termed the "Industrial Relations Club" was challenged and changed forever.

Earlier research by David Plowman, who has been the only IR academic to take much notice of employer bodies, saw them as chiefly reactive. The Accord between the ALP and the ACTU was probably a catalyst the development of a new role. Indeed the BCA was formed shortly after Hawke's 1983 Economic Summit where business disunity prompted a group of larger employers to begin developing a collective body. This body itself was attractive to politicians, particularly with the corporatist atmosphere illustrated by the Summit, as it provided direct central access to influential and high profile business people and opinion leaders.

The role of the many associations (there are hundreds) varies greatly, with many remaining accommodated to the existing IR environment or playing the role of a chief source of advice on industrial law matters such as award rates, dismissal and leave advice. This diversity of roles perhaps disguises the influence of the larger bodies on shaping rather than simply being support players in the industrial environment. Not all the larger bodies had such a determined agenda. Indeed the CAI/ACCI remained accommodated to the centralised system. Moves firstly to award restructuring and then to enterprise bargaining and more wholesale deregulation were driven by the BCA.

Disunity amongst employers and within associations has not been a hindrance to this agenda. The authors a move away from Plowman's view that union and Labor governments will always provide institutions and processes hostile to employer associations interests. The evidence from the period from 1983 would indicate that the corporatist approach has been anything other than detrimental, despite the conflicts within the associations themselves.

The success of the BCA in influencing policy is well summed up: "Public debate came to embrace the concepts, and focus only on the precise details of the changes to bargaining structure that would take place." (authors emphasis).

The international political economic climate has also favoured the neo-liberal agenda adopted by the ALP and now the Coalition, an aspect not covered in depth by this work but perhaps beyond the scope of an analysis of employer association functions and operation. The use of strategic choice theory is seen by the editors as the best method of continuing the analysis of employer bodies. Employers have come to a strategic approach over the period covered by the book, and instead of reacting to union and government approaches, have aggressively pursued the deregulation on their own terms.

The study is based on a great deal of research with many interviews with key people and much trawling through the archives. It provides much needed information and analysis on how employer associations form, how they make decisions, their attitudes to government policy making processes and towards unions. Sheldon, Thornthwaite and co-contributors have provided a valuable resource for researchers and union strategists.

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Issue 65 contents

Interview: Hobart Perspective
Having held senior positions in both wings of the labour movement, Martin Ferguson went to Hobart with more perspective than most. He shares a bit of it with Workers Online.

Politics: Love-in In a Cold Climate
In our exclusive campaign diary we bring you the sights, sounds and smells of the ALP's Hobart conference.

Unions: Passion Plays
Canadian union campaigner Sharon Costello outlines how British Columbia nurses are using the arts to activate their membership base.

International: Spanish Telecom Builds Employee Portal
The prospect of on-line access for unions to company employees was outlined to Union Network International by the head of Spanish Telecommunications giant. Telefonica.

History: Husky Girls and the Female Psyche
When women entered the workforce during World War Two their male supervisors were given these simple tips to get the most out of them.

Satire: Communism Vindicated by Successful Collective Meeting
Tonight's meeting of the Marxism-Leninism Now Collective demonstrated the continuing relevance and ultimate success of communist principles, according to the Collective's Secretary, George Addison, 44.

Review: Following the Money
A new book looks at the role the bosses have played in the changing industrial relations framework.

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