Are stronger unions the answer?
Professor William Brown; Professor Ian McLoughlin Head of the Department of Management; Professor Joe Isaac; Professor Stephen King, Dean Faculty of Business and Economics; Mr Bill Kelty and Commissioner Anna Lee Cribb.
Internationally renowned industrial relations expert Professor William Brown CBE of Cambridge University was the key note speaker at the second Joe Isaac Industrial Relations Symposium at Monash University Caulfield campus.
In his address 'How shall we protect the wages of the weak?’ he looked at how trade union influence has been collapsing in countries across the world, caused largely by the intensification of international competition.
“The consequences for collective bargaining and for union membership have been catastrophic. Collective bargaining has fallen lower and faster where competition has increased most. Even in the state-owned sector, bargaining has diminished in influence," Professor Brown said.
“The implications are increasing inequity within countries, with implied threat to social cohesion. There is a need to protect ‘good’ employers, who see benefit in sharing profitability with their workers – that is, have terms and conditions that reflect profitability, without being undercut and out-competed by ‘bad’ employers.”
Professor Brown’s address was followed by a discussion of the implications for Australia.
The discussion included Bill Kelty AC, Director Linfox Pty Ltd.; Anna Lee Cribb, Commissioner Fair Work Australia; the Hon. Justice GM Giudice AO, President Fair Work Australia and Emeritus Professor Joe Isaac AO, FASSA.
The seminar was jointly hosted by Monash Business and Economics together with the Centre for Human Resource Management at the University of Melbourne.
The symposium is held annually in honour of Joe Isaac, who has long been one of Australia’s most distinguished scholars and practitioners in the field of industrial relations.
Professor Isaac was appointed to Monash University in 1964 and served as Deputy Chancellor for 10 years. He is currently Professorial Fellow, Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne.