ORCID Profile
0000-0002-3931-2867
Current Organisation
Deakin University
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Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2011
Publisher: Consortium Erudit
Date: 19-04-2017
DOI: 10.7202/1039589AR
Abstract: The global weakness of collective bargaining and state regulation has spawned growing interest in employment protection though private governance. However, scepticism about the efficacy of unsupervised codes of conduct has triggered debate about external discipline through state regulation. This article seeks to contribute to debates about the processes that shape the nexus between private governance and state regulation. It is based on an empirical study of Australian harvest workers who formally benefit from state regulation of pay and occupational health and safety (OHS). However, industry changes have undercut standards. Product market pressures from supermarkets squeeze growers’ capacity to pay. Also, the labour market is increasingly supplied by vulnerable Asian temporary migrants (including undocumented workers), often supplied to growers by unscrupulous temporary work agencies. While pay and OHS practices vary, many harvest workers are exploited. Nor is private governance (which extends to horticulture through the codes of conduct of supermarkets and peak temporary work agency bodies) effective. All codes draw their standards from minimum legal employment conditions, and all possess loopholes allowing breaches to escape attention and rectification. In 2015, media and political attention fell on the working conditions of temporary migrants in horticulture. Government inquiries found evidence of exploitation, but were ided over solutions. Progressive politicians (influenced by unions) favoured stronger state enforcement powers and temporary work agency licensing. Conservative politicians (influenced by business lobbies) claimed these steps would fail, and favoured the status quo. Political reform therefore stalled. This study illustrates the importance of political processes in shaping the nexus between state regulation and private governance. In this case, a political stalemate leaves both regulation and governance deficient. Lacking protection from either source, harvest workers remain exposed to exploitative employment conditions.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-10-2018
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2015
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Date: 2013
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 08-11-2010
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 06-1999
DOI: 10.1177/103530469901000105
Abstract: The trend towards outsourcing maintenance functions to labour hire firms raises questions about the capacity of unions to maintain membership levels and employment standards amongst an increasingly casualised labour hire workforce. The Victorian manufacturing maintenance sector has experienced substantial outsourcing to labour hire firms, but unions in this sector have maintained membership levels and established enterprise agreements to govern employment of labour hire workers. In 1997, labour hire workers in this sector struck for almost 7 weeks in support of a wage claim. This paper outlines the nature of employment regulation of labour hire firms in Victorian manufacturing maintenance and the factors leading to the 1997 dispute. It analyses how the union organised industrial action and how the employers responded. The conclusion explores some questions about collective action by labour hire workers, and highlights some problems of dispute resolution under the current regulatory regime.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-07-2016
Abstract: Australian horticulture (fruit and vegetable production) relies upon a seasonal harvest workforce, much of which now consists of temporary migrant workers. This article argues that the composition of this workforce and the character of the work lead towards layered vulnerability, some groups being more exposed to low pay and substandard working conditions than others. Formally at least, employment conditions are generally protected by the federal Horticulture Award (2010). But are decent employment standards consistently observed? The article explores this question, examining three issues. First, does analysis of workforce composition reveal different tiers in the workforce, some more vulnerable than others? Second, do the casual nature of harvest work and the job search processes used by temporary migrant workers create disadvantaged groups? Third, does evidence about pay, working hours and work intensity reveal some workers to be more vulnerable than others? The article concludes with an examination of those factors that appear to be associated with layered vulnerability in the harvest workforce, and considers some policy implications.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2005
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 19-12-2020
Abstract: This article builds on the growing literature on migrant worker mobilisation by analysing how the temporary migrant workforce, employed in food production, interacts with two Australian trade unions alongside ethno-specific social media groups, offshore unions and community/religious organisations. The contribution of this article is twofold. Firstly, we demonstrate ergence in union strategies, distinguishing between (i) a ‘traditional self-reliant’ strategy, where unions recruit temporary migrant workforces by using established methods and their own resources and (ii) network collectivism, where unions also engage with temporary migrant workforces obliquely through external social media platforms and alliances. Our second contribution is to examine how the components of network collectivism interact as an integrated strategy for temporary migrant worker mobilisation.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-02-2012
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-08-2009
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2003
Publisher: Consortium Erudit
Date: 26-10-2011
DOI: 10.7202/1006345AR
Abstract: Precarious employment has been associated with adverse occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes across a range of studies. Temporary agency workers are particularly vulnerable, with studies showing they experience a higher incidence of workplace injury, and a greater likelihood of more severe injuries than all other employment types. Explanations for agency workers’ higher risk of injury have, to date, been impeded by data limitations associated with researching temporary employment. This article seeks to begin filling this gap through analyzing the experience of agency workers based upon two data sources. The first is a unique qualitative and quantitative data set developed from investigated temporary agency and directly hired workers’ compensation files the second is focus groups of agency workers conducted in the State of Victoria, Australia. Quinlan and Bohle’s (2004) Pressures, Disorganization and Regulatory Failure (PDR) model, developed to explain the greater OHS vulnerability of precarious workers, provides the framework for analyzing the data. After explaining the key concepts in the PDR Model, the article analyses the data to test for evidence of economic pressures, disorganization at the workplace, and regulatory failure impacting upon temporary agency workers’ health and safety. The analysis supports the relevance of the PDR model, and provides an understanding of additional and unique risk factors which contribute to agency workers’ higher risk of injury. Temporary agency workers experience economic pressures in common with other types of precarious workers. However, these appear more acute amongst agency workers. They also confront disorganization risks, extending to mismatched placements lack of familiarity with host workplaces and more complex fractured communication. These contribute to workplace risks and create barriers to improving their experience. Many of these outcomes are a result of, or contribute to regulatory failure. The analysis finds strong support for the explanatory value of the PDR model as a tool for understanding how precariousness contributes to temporary agency workers’ adverse health and safety outcomes. It also suggests the complexities of the triangular employment relationship create additional economic insecurities and disorganization problems beyond those experienced by other types of workers, which the regulatory environment has yet to address.
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-1993
DOI: 10.1177/002218569303500303
Abstract: The recent cost and competitive pressures, and concomitant legitimacy ascribed to all elements of deregulation, have encouraged employers in Australia to seek new forms of the use of labour. The Troubleshooters system has been one such new form, wherein an agency has supplied contract workers to firms, but where no apparent employment relationship exists. The implementation and outcomes of the Troubleshooters system in parts of the building and meat industries are examined to consider whether there are any particular features which enhance this form of labour use. It is concluded that the nature of product markets and production processes are salient features in choosing the Troubleshooters system. but these are not without difficulties.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2011
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2015
No related grants have been discovered for Elsa Underhill.