ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6975-9283
Current Organisations
University of Melbourne
,
La Trobe University
,
RMIT University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Gender Specific Studies | Law | Social Policy | Human Resources Management | Sociology | Law And Society | Industrial Relations | Law and Society | Gender Specific Studies | Policy and Administration | Applied Sociology, Program Evaluation And Social Impact Assessment | Other Studies in Human Society | Police Administration, Procedures And Practice | Industrial Relations | Public Policy | Business and Management | Law Not Elsewhere Classified | Human Resources Management | Social Change | Family And Household Studies | Social Policy And Planning | Business And Management Not Elsewhere Classified | Urban And Regional Studies
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Employment Patterns and Change | Families | Gender | Changing work patterns | Employment | Ageing and Older People | Law Reform | Justice and the law not elsewhere classified | Work not elsewhere classified | Structure, Delivery and Financing of Community Services | Law enforcement | Management and productivity issues not elsewhere classified | Immune system and allergy | Children's/Youth Services and Childcare | Work and Family Responsibilities | Industrial relations | Management | Social structure and health |
Related Links
Publications
Surface Water and Groundwater Interactions in Salt Marshes and Their Impact on Plant Ecology and Coastal Biogeochemistry
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 15-02-2022
DOI: 10.1029/2021RG000740
Abstract: Salt marshes are highly productive intertidal wetlands providing important ecological services for maintaining coastal bio ersity, buffering against oceanic storms, and acting as efficient carbon sinks. However, about half of these wetlands have been lost globally due to human activities and climate change. Inundated periodically by tidal water, salt marshes are subjected to strong surface water and groundwater interactions, which affect marsh plant growth and biogeochemical exchange with coastal water. This paper reviews the state of knowledge and current approaches to quantifying marsh surface water and groundwater interactions with a focus on porewater flow and associated soil conditions in connection with plant zonation as well as carbon, nutrients, and greenhouse gas fluxes. Porewater flow and solute transport in salt marshes are primarily driven by tides with moderate regulation by rainfall, evapotranspiration and sea level rise. Tidal fluctuations play a key role in plant zonation through alteration of soil aeration and salt transport, and drive the export of significant fluxes of carbon and nutrients to coastal water. Despite recent progress, major knowledge gaps remain. Previous studies focused on flows in creek‐perpendicular marsh sections and overlooked multi‐scale 3D behaviors. Understanding of marsh ecological‐hydrological links under combined influences of different forcing factors and boundary disturbances is lacking. Variations of surface water and groundwater temperatures affect porewater flow, soil conditions and biogeochemical exchanges, but the extent and underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We need to fill these knowledge gaps to advance understanding of salt marshes and thus enhance our ability to protect and restore them.
Health or harm? A cohort study of the importance of job quality in extended workforce participation by older adults
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-08-2016
Redressing gendered undervaluation in New Zealand aged care: Institutions, activism and coalitions
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-06-2020
Abstract: This article explores the apparent conundrum of how, with minimal employment standards and limited equal pay laws, New Zealand managed to significantly redress the gendered undervaluation of low-paid aged care work. To draw out the pathways to these reforms, we focus on the long-term strategic coalitions that underpinned them. We examine, in particular, the activism of a erse range of policy actors – unions, employers, industrial and human rights bodies and civil society groups, which together have worked to ‘undo’ the limitations of equal pay and employment regulation. Our findings point to the benefits of strategic collaboration between policy actors in New Zealand and an approach which recognises the intersection of unequal pay with other gendered dimensions of disadvantage in aged care work. Different strategies used over time by erse actors helped them overcome inadequate industrial and equal pay infrastructure to realise meaningful increases in hourly rates of pay, buttressed by improved working time arrangements and provision for career progression. We conclude by highlighting some lessons for institutional and policy actors in other national settings drawn from the New Zealand collaborative approach to equal pay in care work.
Gender Equality and Decent Work in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2013
Some Useful Sources
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 03-2022
Re-imagining decent work for home care workers in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-10-2017
Salaried lawyers and billable hours: a new perspective from the sociology of work
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2012
Part-time of what? Job quality and part-time employment in the legal profession in Australia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-07-2011
Abstract: This article examines the quality of part-time employment for solicitors in private practice in Australia. Although full-time jobs based on long hours are dominant in the legal profession, part-time jobs, primarily taken by women, have attracted attention in recent years. The article seeks to answer fundamental questions about the extent and quality of these jobs, and how well they serve the needs of the increasingly erse workforce. The article draws on recent surveys and in-depth interviews, as well as Census and other secondary data to describe the features of the part-time workforce and to explore aspects of poor quality such as limited access, inferior job content, stalled career progression and narrow schedules. It suggests that the major barrier to improving the quality of part-time jobs is the dominant model of full-time work in law firms, centred on heavy workloads, high targets of ‘billable hours’ and long working hours.
Workplace sexual harassment at the margins
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-04-2023
Abstract: Men are overwhelmingly responsible for sexual harassment against women in the workplace. However, the literature also points to less typical manifestations, including sexual harassment by men of other men and by women of men or other women. This article examines these atypical forms of sexual harassment, drawing on a census of all formal sexual harassment complaints lodged with Australian equal opportunity commissions over a six-month period. The analysis reveals some important distinctions and similarities across groups of atypical complaints, as well as between atypical groups and ‘classic’ sexual harassment complaints where men harass women. The article contributes to the relatively undeveloped literature on these less visible forms of sexual harassment and highlights both theoretical and pragmatic challenges in better understanding workplace sexual harassment ‘at the margins’.
Collective bargaining and low-paid women workers: The promise of supported bargaining
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-2023
The Production of Employment Conditions for Migrant Care Workers: Cross National Perspectives
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 02-05-2022
DOI: 10.1017/S1474746422000100
Abstract: There is widespread scholarly recognition that migrant long-term care (LTC) workers experience relatively poorer work conditions than local LTC workers. We focus here on the ways in which migration and employment regulation intersect in formal LTC markets to produce working conditions for migrant workers. Drawing on cross-national comparisons between Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom we explore: firstly, the forms of employment regulation that can protect migrant LTC workers or expose them to additional risks and secondly, how migration regulation can work to lify employment protection gaps for certain groups of migrant workers. We find that while historically there have been better employment protections in Australia and the Netherlands, the reshaping of work in all three LTC systems creates a context within which migration regulation can exacerbate the risks of precarious work for migrant workers and for those on temporary visas in particular.
Changing care? Men and managerialism in the nonprofit sector
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 07-09-2015
Abstract: The movement of men into care work in the predominantly female voluntary sector appears to be an unintended impact of welfare state contracting-out, managerialism and labour market restructuring. While not uniform, our comparative, international data (New Zealand and Scotland) show that some groups of men in nonprofit care work jobs embraced managerialism and used aspects of it to reshape and advance their work, while others undertook practices exemplifying a ‘caring masculinity’ more similar to practices currently associated with femininised ways of undertaking care activities. Drawing on international comparative data collected as part of a larger study of restructuring in the nonprofit social services, this article suggests analytic clusters of masculinities operating in the voluntary sector and explores how the presence of men in care work may be changing it. The article also shows how hegemonic, masculinist-oriented practices in the workplace appear more amenable to managerialism than the expected feminine self-sacrificing, self-exploiting ethos of this highly gendered, female-majority sector. These findings provide insights into the gendered and changing work in the nonprofit social services sector, and suggest ways the gender order is changing with the influx of male workers. The findings will be of interest to social work managers, supervisors, practitioners, policy analysts, students and educators.
Part-time and part-committed?: The challenges of part-time work in policing
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2007
Abstract: In police services, both in Australia and internationally, attention has been focused on increasing the representation of women. The availability of part-time work has been identified as a key mechanism to retain women who have been recruited. To date, however, the take-up of part-time work remains low. It is also concentrated in administrative work and non-operational policing work. In this article, we draw on research in Victoria Police around the experiences of, and attitudes towards, part-time work. The research suggests that there are a number of policy constraints to the take up of part-time work, particularly by police officers. There are also significant cultural barriers to both increasing and integrating part-time work, which influence attitudes to part-time work at all levels of the organization. However, these barriers are intertwined with and reinforced by institutional structures and processes that position part-time work as ‘other’ and a gendered understanding of police work. In increasing access to part-time work, the challenge for police services is to address both institutional and cultural barriers to the integration of part-time and full-time work.
Getting gender on the agenda: the tale of two organisations
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 24-07-2007
DOI: 10.1108/09649420710761455
Abstract: This paper aims to explore emerging issues in the application of the “dual agenda” model of gender equitable organisational change aimed at improved work life outcomes in two large Australian organisations. The research project used the collaborative interactive action research (CIAR) methodology that underpins the dual agenda change approach. Within both organisations, a multi‐method approach was used, including formal interviews, focus groups and ethnographic‐style observation and interaction, as well as the analysis of a wide range of organisational documentation. The paper focuses on the challenges both for the researchers and the organisations in keeping gender on the agenda, drawing on the identification of work practices and work‐life policies that impede organisational effectiveness and gender equity and the subsequent work culture diagnosis for each organisation. The way in which the “gender problem” within an organisation is framed is strategically important. An understanding of “gender” as “women” not only marginalises gender equity as a business goal and its links with organisational effectiveness, but also works to silence men's interests in better work/life outcomes. A refocusing on the “ideal worker” was found to be more inclusive not only of men but also valuable in highlighting the ways in which organisational work/life policies may be undercut by business pressures and long hours, poor job design or management discretion. However, challenges remain in linking gender equitable organisational change to organisational effectiveness, especially in organisations which are restructuring and contracting in size. Provides a frank account of the challenges in making the links between gender equity, organisational effectiveness and work life issues that is valuable for both academics and practitioners. The “dual agenda” approach is methodologically important as it engages both “outsider” academics and “insider” organisational members in an action research process directed at gender equitable organisational change.
Paying the price: The cost of the equal employment opportunity in the Australian banking industry
Publisher: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
Date: 2003
Introduction: Policies and Practices Shaping Long-Term Care: Between an Inclusivity Ethos and Service Delivery Realities
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 03-2022
Regulating for gender-equitable decent work in social and community services: Bringing the state back in
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 24-03-2021
Abstract: This article explores the potential of regulatory and policy reform for gender-equitable decent work in social and community services, a rapidly growing sector of female employment in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Along with other feminised sectors, employment in this sector is marked by low rates of unionisation, poor pay and fragmented, insecure working hours. Internationally, gig economy work is now appearing in the sector. A distinguishing feature of the sector is employers’ reliance on government funding through contracted services or via direct payments to in iduals. The distance of government from accountability for workers in publicly funded services directly contributes to gendered undervaluation and poor working conditions. However, the presence of the state also provides options for regulatory reform. This article considers the different roles played by government, as employment regulator, as funding and bargaining actor and as market manager and care regulator. Adopting a broad conception of regulation, it canvasses options for bringing the state back in to address gender inequality and precarious work. In the Australian context, it examines potential for rebuilding state accountability for gender-equitable decent work in in idualised social care in which the gender inequalities and poor working conditions present in social and community services are lified.
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2012
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-2013
Abstract: The year 2012 saw a number of initiatives and debates around measures that directly and indirectly affect women’s working conditions. This article first considers the extent of women’s workforce participation, an issue that has informed both policy debates and legislative changes over the last year. It then briefly assesses the potential of the Fair Work Act Review and the ongoing Modern Awards Review to improve women’s working conditions, before turning to action on a number of fronts. Pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment have remained a constant in Australian anti-discrimination jurisdictions for many years. However, in 2012, there was also strong enforcement action by the Fair Work Ombudsman in cases of pregnancy discrimination, a new sexual harassment prevalence survey and the second phase of the Treatment of Women in Defence Review. Apart from the Social and Community Sector equal pay case, finalised in February 2012. Action ‘outside’ formal equal pay provisions also saw potential gains for the predominantly female and low-paid workforces in aged care and childcare.
The Regulation of Paid Care Workers’ Wages and Conditions in the Non-Profit Sector: A Toronto Case Study
Publisher: Consortium Erudit
Date: 09-11-2010
DOI: 10.7202/044888AR
Abstract: This paper aims to contribute to understandings of the broader regulatory context in which remuneration for care work is negotiated and determined. It draws on a case study of the non-profit sector of Toronto and moves beyond an exclusive focus on the formal regulation of the employment relationship to include other crucial regulatory mechanisms in the analysis. The paper attempts to map the intersections between these different forms of regulation and to identify the effects they produce in practice. The paper identifies four main regulatory forces that shape the quantum and basis of the wages and non-wage benefits paid to care workers. Firstly, industrial relations regulation plays an important role not only through the demarcation between unionized and non-unionized agencies, but in demarcations between smaller and larger agencies, between full-time and part-time workers and between regular and elect-to work workers. Secondly, the sources and structure of the social services funding market directly limit care worker remuneration and can work to trump the impact of unionization. Thirdly, the regulatory force of the gendered undervaluing of paid care work is reflected in and intertwined with changes in the protection offered to employees via industrial regulation. Finally, the gendered architecture of paid care work, including size of agency or whether the care work is undertaken in the home or in an institution, contributes to different outcomes for different groups of workers undertaking similar work. The interaction of these regulatory forces plays out in the wage and non-wage outcomes in all social services work at the labour market, industry and workplace levels. While the non-profit sector in Toronto provides one specific context in which this occurs, these regulatory forces, particularly the normative effect of gender, are present in other provincial and national contexts. This is at least partly because the community services funding market in other developed countries is underpinned by the same features of new public management present in Canada.
Policing, gender, and working time: an Australian case study
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2011
New Australian working time minimum standards: Reproducing the same old gendered architecture?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-2012
Abstract: This article focuses on the minimum working time standards in the ‘safety net’ created by the Fair Work Act 2009. We draw on an analysis of on-paper minima in the 10 National Employment Standards and in two Modern Awards covering paid care workers . We argue that the gendered legacy of poorer working time provisions in non-standard jobs held by many Australian women workers has been reproduced in the architecture of the new Fair Work regime. Our case study suggests that the permanent full-time norm of employment continues to permeate working time regulation, despite the fragmentation of the standard employment relationship with the growth in casual and part-time work. Not only does casual status limit the access of many women workers to particular National Employment Standards, but there remain significant and gendered differences in award minimum working time standards, particularly for casual and part-time care workers, in comparison with the conditions and protections provided in one of the key male industry awards. Further, a hierarchy of working time standards for care workers has been reproduced, underpinned by differences in contract status, job classification and work location. This leaves those at the bottom of this hierarchy with little working time or income security.
Assessing pesticide, trace metal, and arsenic contamination in soils and dam sediments in a rapidly expanding horticultural area in Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-02-2021
The Impact of `Work Choices' on Women in Low Paid Employment in Australia: A Qualitative Analysis
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 06-2008
Abstract: This article summarizes the effects of the Howard Government's `Work Choices' amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, based on qualitative analysis of its impact on 121 low paid women workers. The main effects of the regulatory changes are on job security, income, voice, working time and redundancy pay. The analysis draws attention to the nexus between protection from unfair dismissal and security of working time and employee voice: many of those interviewed in the study had lost access to protection from unfair dismissal and as a consequence could no longer effectively influence their working hours, or request flexibility. Employer prerogative was perceived to have strengthened in many of their workplaces, with consequences for the intensity of work. The analysis suggests that improvements in minimum standards and job security are vital if low paid workers like those included in the study are to exercise voice over working time and avoid significant deteriorations in their pay and conditions.
Cash for care under the NDIS: Shaping care workers’ working conditions?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-07-2016
Abstract: The Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) introduces a national cash-for-care model for disability support and care. The NDIS has been hailed as a significant advance in social care provision for people with disability, bringing both additional funding and choice and control. However, little attention has been paid to how the shift to a cash-for-care system will impact on the working conditions of disability support workers. The international literature suggests three main factors shape better or poorer employment outcomes for workers in cash-for-care schemes: the extent to which cost containment underpins scheme design the regulation and monitoring of care delivery and the regulation of care employment. In this article, we explore these factors through an analysis of the planning, design and initial implementation of the NDIS and make a preliminary assessment of how the new scheme might shape care workers’ employment conditions.
Social care and migration policy in Australia: Emerging intersections?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2017
DOI: 10.1002/AJS4.1
Carbon and alkalinity outwelling across the groundwater-creek-shelf continuum off Amazonian mangroves
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 23-09-2021
DOI: 10.1002/LOL2.10210
Abstract: Lateral fluxes (i.e., outwelling) of dissolved organic (DOC) and inorganic (DIC) carbon and total alkalinity were estimated using radium isotopes at the groundwater, mangrove creek, and continental shelf scales in the Amazon region. Observations of salinity and radium isotopes in the creek indicated tidally driven groundwater exchange as the main source of carbon. Radium‐derived transport rates indicate that mangrove carbon is exported out of the continental shelf on timescales of 22 ± 7 d. Bicarbonate was the main form (82% ± 11%) of total dissolved carbon in all s les, followed by DOC (13% ± 12%) and CO 2 (5% ± 4%). DIC (18.7 ± 15.7 mmol m −2 d −1 ) exceeded DOC (3.0 ± 4.1 mmol m −2 d −1 ) outwelling at all spatial scales. The interpretation of outwelling across the mangrove‐ocean continuum is related to the spatial and temporal scales investigated. At all scales, outwelling represented a major coastal carbon pathway driving bicarbonate storage in the ocean.
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2013
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-03-2014
Abstract: A brief assessment of progress against key gender equality benchmarks sets the context for this review of women, work and industrial relations in 2013. Given the persistent and growing gender pay gap, we focus in particular on recent equal pay legislative and industrial developments. We also draw attention to some underused industrial provisions that might progress pay equity and note the recent unravelling of important 2012 policy initiatives. We then review developments and debate around key gender equality infrastructure that shapes the day-to-day experiences of almost 5 million Australian female employees. This infrastructure includes working time regulation, paid parental leave, protection of pregnant workers, child care services and the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. Despite some progress, particularly around equal pay, we conclude that Australia’s policy and regulatory framework for gender equality remains patchy.
Framing sexual harassment through media representations
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2013
Underpaid, unpaid, unseen, unheard and unhappy? Care work in the context of constraint
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 04-08-2016
'If I Had a Family, There Is No Way That I Could Afford to Work Here': Juggling Paid and Unpaid Care Work in Social Services
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-10-2015
DOI: 10.1111/GWAO.12111
Understanding the negotiation of paid and unpaid care work in community services in cross-national perspective: The contribution of a rapid ethnographic approach
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2015
Below the tip of the iceberg: Extra-legal responses to workplace sexual harassment
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2011
Production of dissolved carbon and alkalinity during macroalgal wrack degradation on beaches: a mesocosm experiment with implications for blue carbon
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-07-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S10533-022-00946-4
Abstract: Marine macroalgae are a key primary producer in coastal ecosystems, but are often overlooked in blue carbon inventories. Large quantities of macroalgal detritus deposit on beaches, but the fate of wrack carbon (C) is little understood. If most of the wrack carbon is respired back to CO 2 , there would be no net carbon sequestration. However, if most of the wrack carbon is converted to bicarbonate (alkalinity) or refractory DOC, wrack deposition would represent net carbon sequestration if at least part of the metabolic products (e.g., reduced Fe and S) are permanently removed (i.e., long-term burial) and the DOC is not remineralised. To investigate the release of macroalgal C via porewater and its potential to contribute to C sequestration (blue carbon), we monitored the degradation of Ecklonia radiata in flow-through mesocosms simulating tidal flushing on sandy beaches. Over 60 days, 81% of added E. radiata organic matter (OM) decomposed. Per 1 mol of detritus C, the degradation produced 0.48 ± 0.34 mol C of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (59%) and 0.25 ± 0.07 mol C of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (31%) in porewater, and a small amount of CO 2 (0.3 ± 0.0 mol C ca. 3%) which was emitted to the atmosphere. A significant amount of carbonate alkalinity was found in porewater, equating to 33% (0.27 ± 0.05 mol C) of the total degraded C. The degradation occurred in two phases. In the first phase (days 0–3), 27% of the OM degraded, releasing highly reactive DOC. In the second phase (days 4–60), the labile DOC was converted to DIC. The mechanisms underlying E. radiata degradation were sulphate reduction and ammonification. It is likely that the carbonate alkalinity was primarily produced through sulphate reduction. The formation of carbonate alkalinity and semi-labile or refractory DOC from beach wrack has the potential to play an overlooked role in coastal carbon cycling and contribute to marine carbon sequestration. Graphical abstract
Law’s Response to the Reconciliation of Work and Care: The Australian Case
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Date: 31-10-2011
Developing a framework of effective prevention and response strategies in workplace sexual harassment
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-05-2015
Alkalinity of diverse water samples can be altered by mercury preservation and borosilicate vial storage
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-05-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-021-89110-W
Abstract: We compared the effects of preservation and storage methods on total alkalinity (A T ) of seawater, estuarine water, freshwater, and groundwater s les stored for 0 – 6 months. Water s les, untreated or treated with HgCl 2 , 0.45 µm filtration, or filtration plus HgCl 2 , were stored in polypropylene or borosilicate glass vials for 0, 1, or 6 months. Mean A T of s les treated with HgCl 2 was reduced by as much as 49.1 µmol kg −1 (1.3%). Borosilicate glass elevated A T , possibly due to dissolving silicates. There was little change in A T of control and filtered s les stored in polypropylene, except for untreated groundwater (~ 4.1% reduction at 6 months). HgCl 2 concentrations of 0.02–0.05% reduced the A T of fresh, estuarine, and ground water s les by as much as 35.5 µmol kg −1 after 1 month, but had little effect on the A T of seawater. Adding glucose as a carbon source for microbial growth resulted in no A T changes in 0.45 µm-filtered s les. We suggest water s les intended for A T analyses can be filtered to 0.45 µm, and stored in polypropylene vials at 4 °C for at least 6 months. Borosilicate glassware and HgCl 2 can be avoided to prevent analytical uncertainties and reduce risks related to use of Hg 2+ .
Multilevel Work–Family Interventions: Creating Good-Quality Employment Over the Life Course
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-08-2017
Abstract: Poor-quality jobs have significant costs for in idual workers, their families, and the wider community. Drawing mainly on the Australian case, the authors’ focus is on the structural challenges to work–life reconciliation and the multiple-level interventions necessary to create quality employment that supports workers to reconcile work and family over the life course. The authors argue that interventions are necessary in three domains: at the macrosocial and economic level, in the regulatory domain, and in the workplace domain. The nature and success of these interventions is also critical to gender equality and to responding to the changing gender and care composition of the workforce across OECD countries.
Fragmented outcomes: International comparisons of gender, managerialism and union strategies in the nonprofit sector
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 28-08-2014
Abstract: Since the mid-1980s, the nonprofit social services sector has been promoted as an option for cheaper and more flexible delivery of services. In order to comply with government standards and funding requirements, the sector has been subject to ongoing waves of restructuring and the introduction of new private market-like, outcomes-based management models, such as New Public Management. This article explores ways in which nonprofit social services sector workers experience their work as highly fragmented. Drawing on case studies completed as part of a larger project addressing restructuring in the nonprofit social services sector in Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, we examine three key aspects shaping work in the nonprofit social services sector: 1) workers’ experience of managerialism 2) gendered strategies drawn on by workers in the agencies studied and 3) union strategies in the nonprofit social services sector, as well as within in idual workplaces. Conclusions focus on contributions to understanding managerialism as a strong but fragmented project in which even weak union presence and the willingness of the predominantly female workforce to sacrifice to provide care for others ensure that some level of social solidarity endures.
Work-family and work-life pressures in Australia: Advancing gender equality in good times?
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 30-08-2013
DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-11-2012-0100
Abstract: This paper aims to explore recent changes in Australia's work‐family policies and programs and their implications for gender (in)equality. The authors critically assess a suite of new work/family‐related policies, including the introduction of a government‐funded national paid parental leave scheme, a limited right to request flexible working conditions, and the extension of state and federal anti‐discrimination legal protections for workers with family responsibilities. The analysis suggests a lack of coherence and integration between various work/family related policies and the need for a wider range of reforms, particularly in relation to domestic work and care. It is found that the gendered use of flexibility rights, like the new right to request, do not necessarily improve gender equality and may work to entrench it in the face of strong gendered workplace and societal norms and practices around work and care. As a consequence women workers and mothers – who have been constructed as the work/family problem to be “fixed” – are left even more rushed and pressed for time. This empirically‐informed analysis shows the power of the broader gender political and normative context and the limits of modest and piecemeal policy reform in relation to work‐family issues – even where economic conditions remain relatively positive. The paper concludes that without robust, multi‐faceted and integrated policy reform around work and family, in which gender equality outcomes are a central objective, policy reforms will fail to achieve a more equal sharing of paid and caring work between men and women, and greater equality between women and men more generally.
Women, work and industrial relations in Australia in 2014
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 27-02-2015
Abstract: This paper provides a review of Australian policy and regulatory developments in 2014 that influence the working conditions of over 5.4 million women. After an assessment of progress against key gender equality indicators, we focus on two key components of the current gender equality ‘architecture’: employment regulation and policy and the work and care infrastructure that supports working women and gender equality more broadly. We review key developments in regulation providing minimum labour standards and anti-discrimination protections for women workers. We then turn to recent developments in the work and care infrastructure, including childcare, paid parental leave and equal pay. Despite having better regulatory and institutional arrangements than exist in some other developed economies, we conclude that without an explicit national gender equality policy framework, progress towards decent work for Australian working women is likely to be incremental at best.
Migrant aged-care workers in Australia: do they have poorer-quality jobs than their locally born counterparts?
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 04-05-2021
DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X20000525
Abstract: Migrants make up a significant and growing proportion of the aged-care workforce in Australia. Using data from the 2016 National Aged Care Workforce Census and Survey, we investigate employment conditions for Australian-born and overseas-born frontline workers working in residential and home-based aged care, focusing on two key poor job quality indicators. We find that migrant home care workers from non-English-speaking background (NESB) countries are the most likely to be employed on a casual basis and to report hours-related underemployment. Migrant residential care workers from English-speaking background (ESB) countries are more likely to be casual while NESB migrants are more likely to be underemployed. Controlling for a range of employment and socio-demographic characteristics, we find that being an NESB migrant is significantly associated with both casual status and underemployment. Generally, while this association lessens with years spent in Australia, exposure to casual employment is lified over time for NESB migrants in the residential sector. Holding a temporary visa increased the likelihood of casual employment for residential care workers and underemployment for home care workers. Working for a for-profit employer was also associated with poorer job quality. Further policy shifts in Australia towards temporary migration and increased marketisation of aged care may impact on the working conditions of migrant aged-care workers.
Integrating part-time work in policing services: policy, practice, and potential
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2009
Australia's gender pay equity legislation: How new, how different, what prospects?
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 30-09-2015
DOI: 10.1093/CJE/BEU044
Reply to: ‘Global predictions of coral reef dissolution in the Anthropocene’
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-02-2022
Growing pains: Work-life impacts in small-to-medium sized construction firms
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 18-05-2015
DOI: 10.1108/ECAM-07-2014-0100
Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to compare the quality of work-life experiences of workers in construction firms of differing sizes and explored the work conditions and circumstances that impact upon the work-life experiences of workers in small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Australian construction industry. – Data were collected in two stages. First, data from a sub-set of construction industry workers were extracted from a large scale survey of workers in Victoria, Australia (the VicWAL survey). The survey measured work-life interference using the Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI). Next a subset of survey respondents was identified and interviewed to gain more detailed explanatory information and insight into work-life experiences. – The survey results indicated that respondents who reported working for a construction firm with between 16 and 99 employees reported significantly higher AWALI scores (indicating high work-life interference) than workers in organisations employing 15 or less or more than 100 workers. The follow-up interviews revealed that workers in small construction organisations were managed directly and personally by the business owner/manager and able to access informal work-life supports that were provided on an “as needs” basis. In comparison workers in medium-sized firms perceived higher levels of work pressure and an expectation that work would be prioritised over family life. – The research shows that the findings of work-life balance research undertaken in large construction organisations cannot be generalised to SMEs. Organisation size should also be treated as an important variable in work-life balance research in construction. – The research suggests that a better understanding of how workers in SME construction firms experience work-life balance is important in the design and development of work-life balance programs. In particular the challenges faced by workers as companies grow from SMEs require careful consideration and management. – Previous research has focused on the work-life balance experiences of employees in large construction firms. Little was previously known about the experiences of workers in SME construction firms. The research provides new insight into the work-life experiences of construction workers in organisations of varying sizes.
Pore-water exchange flushes blue carbon from intertidal saltmarsh sediments into the sea
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-02-2022
DOI: 10.1002/LOL2.10236
Abstract: We quantified whether pore‐water exchange flushes out saltmarsh sediment carbon, driving carbon outwelling into the ocean and outgassing into the atmosphere. Radon‐derived pore‐water exchange released 1.8 times more sediment carbon in the wet than in dry season. Both crab burrow flushing and delayed seepage of surface water infiltrating sediments during the spring tide released sediment carbon to surface waters. The outwelling flux of dissolved inorganic carbon exceeded dissolved organic carbon. Carbon dioxide and methane emissions were 169 and 0.25 mmol m −2 d −1 , respectively. Pore‐water carbon fluxes exceeded carbon outwelling. This requires some carbon processing within the saltmarsh (e.g., degradation or outgassing to the atmosphere) before pore‐water carbon is exported to the ocean. Overall, pore‐water exchange and outwelling are key components of saltmarsh carbon budgets and should be considered when assessing their carbon sequestration potential and strategies to mitigate climate change.
Publisher Correction: Reply to: ‘Global predictions of coral reef dissolution in the Anthropocene’ (Communications Earth & Environment, (2022), 3, 1, (41), 10.1038/s43247-022-00364-2)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-03-2022
Action or inaction: bystander intervention in workplace sexual harassment
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-04-2016
Sacrificing workers?: The curious case of salary sacrificing in non-profit community services in Australia
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 04-10-2011
DOI: 10.1108/09513551111172495
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to describe a distinctive strategy used in the Australian non‐profit community services sector to recruit and retain care workers. The paper argues that the implementation of salary sacrificing illuminates a wilful blindness to the interests and rights of paid care workers and the genesis of this blindness lies in the gendered nature of care work. The paper draws on a brief review of relevant literature on the gendered nature of paid care work, Australian industry debates, interviews and data from a small case study to examine the context and paradoxical outcomes of salary sacrificing. The findings illustrate the consequences of New Public Management models of funding and management in the non‐profit community sector, including how inadequate resourcing of agencies can work to pit the interests of clients against the interests of workers. The findings also suggest the limited impact of salary sacrificing as a retention strategy, while revealing the links between gender, domesticity and care that play out in the undervaluing of paid care work. The research suggests that sustainable change to address the looming “crisis of care” in community services needs a rethinking by governments of funding and service models so that quality services are supported by properly valued and remunerated care workers. The paper explores the paradoxical effects of an Australian industry recruitment and retention strategy.
Outsourcing and the Australian nonprofit sector
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 23-05-2012
Lean social care and worker identity: The role of outcomes, supervision and mission
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 07-07-2014
Abstract: Since the 1980s, many social care jobs have shifted from the public to the nonprofit sector, accompanied by funding cuts, government contracts, managerialism and performance management. Qualitative data collected in Australia, New Zealand and Canada show that agency mission and immediate supervisors remain centrally important to workers’ identity and willingness to remain employed in social care. With the exception of one study site (where targets were jointly resisted by managers and staff), outcome measures were seen by workers to detract from the quality of care and erode social justice. This article argues that agency mission and supportive supervision buffer the impact of poor wages and conditions in the sector, while outcome measures undermine workers’ identities as caring people, in effect making the ‘self’ a site of struggle and discontent. Resistance strategies that agencies, workers and unions have used to challenge the hegemony of outcome-oriented funding and management models are explored.
Carbon dioxide hydrodynamics along a wetland-lake-stream-waterfall continuum (Blue Mountains, Australia)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2021
Intersections of regulation, space and gender: retail banking in an Australian Regional Town
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-12-2014
Measuring poor job quality amongst employees: the VicWAL job quality index
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-04-2014
GOVERNMENT FUNDING, EMPLOYMENT CONDITIONS, AND WORK ORGANIZATION IN NON-PROFIT COMMUNITY SERVICES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-03-2014
DOI: 10.1111/PADM.12060
Self-monitoring, self-blaming, self-sacrificing workers: Gendered managerialism in the non-profit sector
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2012
Failing to live up to the promise: the politics of equal pay in ‘new’ workplace and industrial relations institutions
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 25-07-2018
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