Privatisation, Globalisation and Labour

What is the scope and scale of corporatisation and privatisation in Australia in the past two decades and what are their implications for management, labour and industrial relations? This book documents the extensive scale of this process of state restructuring and the increasing variation in the arrangements for providing public goods and services, often accompanied by uncertainty. It shows many sectors of the community to be increasingly distrustful of their impact and consequences, and the way in which policy makers find themselves caught between promoting the reforms, predominantly for economic reasons, and answering to this suspicious community. It shows that it is those who actually provide public services who feel the changes most acutely, as they face questions about ownership, find their arrangements for work patterns and organization recast, and suffer increasing insecurity about work and employment futures. The book grapples with these issues through a series of case studies on Qantas, Telstra, the electricity industries in NSW and Victoria, Job Network, Local government and the Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria. These seven case studies, three of privatisations by the Australian Federal Government, and four of change initiated by State Governments, provide a detailed analysis of the resulting changes in employment and industrial relations.