Work Reform and Productivity Unit
Economics & Deregulation / Work Reform and Productivity Unit
The Institute of Public Affairs Work Reform and Productivity Unit examines workplace relations issues. The Unit looks at how laws and social attitudes impact the ability of managers to run businesses and maximise employment opportunities. The Work Reform and Productivity Unit looks at workplace occupational health and safety issues, union activity in industrial sectors, skilled immigration, and the rise of the independent contractor.
Work safety
What are the basic principles of work safety in law and in practice? The Work Reform and Productivity Unit grounds the study of occupational health and safety legal regimes from a position of individual responsiblity and freedom of contract. For an introduction, see Workplace Health and Safety. The seminal IPA report The Politics of a Tragedy: The Gretley Mine Disaster and NSW OHS examines how the Gretley coal mining disaster triggered the introduction of Australia's worst OHS laws in NSW. More Work Safety publications.
The Australian construction sector
The Work Reform and Productivity Unit has a special focus on examining the market-corrupting practices endemic in the construction sector, and looking at the impact of the legal reforms of 2006-07 that focused on cleaning out much of that corruption. See for instance Anatomy of the Screw and Industrial Relations and the Struggle to Build in Victoria.
The Work Reform held a major conference on construction industry reforms in 2007. Papers from the conference are available here.
See also
Capacity to manage index: the Work Reform and Productivity Unit has rated over 250 industrial instruments and their impact on managerial capacity in a wide variety of industries. See Capacity to Manage Reports.
The state of the food manufacturing sector: studies uncovering some key reasons why the Australian food manufacturing sector is underperforming. See Food Manufacturing Facing the Wall and Take Away Take Away.
Outworking: the unusually high industrial relations regulation of the clothing manufacturing sector, allegedly introduced to protect outworkers, has in fact damaged some of the most vulnerable workers in Australia. See Why Has the Arse Fallen Out of the Clothing Manufacturing Industry? and Outworkers Speak Out.
Casual Employment: the Work Reform held a conference on casual employment in 2004. Discussion papers from the conference are available here.
Industrial Relations and Trade Practices Law: The Work Reform and Productivity Unit held two conferences in 2003 and 2004 on how trade practices legislation could and should impact industrial relations. Papers from the conferences are avialable here: Trade Practices vs Industrial Relations: Balancing the Acts (2004) and The Last Frontier: Making Industrial Relations Subject to the TPA (2003).
Sub-topics of Work Reform and Productivity Unit
Publications
Australian Trade Unions: An Alternate Regulatory Approach
An occasional paper addressing the appropriateness of regulating unions under the Corporations Act 2001.
Transferring union regulation to ASIC
Recent events highlighting the lax governance structures in place at the National and Victoria Number 1 branches of the Health Services Union have sparked a debate over the efficacy of the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009. A new...
Insecure Work
An occasional paper on Insecure Work
Insecure employment - code for more regulation of the workplace
"An ACTU campaign to restrict access to non-permanent employment is divorced from labour market and economic reality. The campaign would have dire consequences and must be resisted" said John Lloyd, Director, Work Reform and Productivity Unit at...
Work Choices
An occasional paper on Work Choices.
Workplace relations reform - time for a rational debate
"Today almost every workplace relations reform proposed by employers, their representative associations and the Coalition is labelled by the unions and the ALP as a return to Work Choices. Most of this labelling is wrong," said John Lloyd,...
Law of the jungle to return to the building and construction industry
‘Workplace relations in the building and construction industry will return to the law of the jungle. The passage of the Building and Construction Industry Improvement Amendment (Transition to Fair Work) Bill through the Parliament today...
Swan's monthly hypocrisy
Wayne Swan's essay in The Monthly magazine, published today, reveals breathtaking hypocrisy, says James Paterson, Editor of the Institute of Public Affairs Review. In his essay, Mr Swan attacks vested interests, such as mining companies, and...
Union leaders trash rule of law
"The rule of law is fundamental to the effective functioning of the workplace relations system. Victorian nurses have today chosen to defy an injunction granted by the Federal Court of Australia. The silence of the ACTU and the Gillard Government...
The unsatisfactory implications of the Victorian nurses dispute
John Lloyd, Director of the IPA's Work Reform and Productivity Unit said today that the Victorian Government and the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association must not give in to the unlawful strike action of the Australian Nursing Federation. If...
