Modell for full Employment in Australia
Pillar 1: Health and Wellbeing at Work
Content
OHS&W
The four pillars are:
- Health and wellbeing at work
- Social justice, increase employability
- Strong support for innovative and committed employers, training and research
- A fair tax system and a supportive Social Security system, equal opportunity
Pillar 1: Health and Wellbeing at Work
Create healthy, less stressful work environments, eradicate bullying and include staff in decision making and planning activities. We are calling for new Human Resource Management cultures, away from the "focus on attracting , selecting and developing talented individuals to a new focus on developing an organisational context which will attract and develop leaders as well as facilitate team work" (Beer, 1997, p. 50, in Human Resource Management, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 49-56).
Call on the potential of all staff members. Allow family friendly practices, introduce family leave, by employing an unemployed person over the period of leave. Restrict overtime and shorten the working hours per week.
The introduction of the 35hour week and restricted overtime has created a significant increase in full time employment in France. It has been expanded and exported to other countries such as Italy. According to most employees they have felt less stressed and enjoyed their free time with the family. Unfortunately many have not benefited as much and feel the result of the wage freeze, introduced in exchange for no wage loss when the working week was reduced by 3 hours per week.
As a result profit and turnover have risen, while absenteeism and sickdays have been markedly reduced.
For more information about the Danish Model and many other ideas on the issue look at the European Union's employment strategy clearing house and the reports from the European countries about their successes and failures. Go to http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/ees_en.htm
Most importantly: Review career goals of staff and send certain staff members (who so choose) on study/training leave. Training incentives ought to be funded by Government as well as financial support during time of study. Employer hires unemployed and trains them or the unemployed person has already been trained in anticipation of this job coming up by identification of job bottlenecks in certain industries.
The maintenance of a bully free work environment with good career opportunities, supportive managers and family friendly work policies guarantees the loyalty of staff and a job rotation scheme supported by training increases job satisfaction and greater cooperation in bigger companies. All these measures supported by ethical management must have a positive influence on the health and well being of staff.
The union's role needs to be more promoted and it should be extended to focus on building liaisons and networks with other key players interested in creating a new model of work and economic strategies to increase growth.
What we need is:
A change of attitude and culture at work. Human beings do not exist first and foremost to produce a profit and in return receive the right to live. Human beings release most of their creativity, good will, loyalty and energy when treated with the respect they deserve, not just as exchangeable contributors to profits. Human resources are the best asset, an insurance for higher returns, if invited to participate and encouraged to advance their careers. (newest HRManagement research welcome, please send a link!)
From Griff Foley's (2001) book: 'Strategic Learning - understanding and facilitating organisational change'; Centre for Popular Education: Sydney, stem the following seven characteristics of successful organisations. These give an indication how the culture in Australian workplaces could change through the facilitation of learning environments in workplaces and more investment and support for lifelong learning of staff linked to career development and advancement.
Foley (2001, p.45) quotes Jeffrey Pfeffer (1994, 1998) who argued that "high commitment/performance/involvement" organisations have seven characteristics:
1. Self-managed teams and decentralised decision making;
2. Extensive training;
3. Extensive sharing of information;
4. Employment Security
5. Compensation linked to performance ;
6. Selective hiring of new personnel;
7. Reduced status distinctions and barriers.
See also Jeffrey Pfeffer's article on The Real Keys to High Performance, in 'Leader to Leader, No. 8 Spring, 1998. Go to http://www.pfdf.org/leaderbooks/L2L/spring98/pfeffer.html
Here are the beginning sentences:
It appears that the old aphorism, "people are our most important asset," is actually true. Compelling evidence suggests that organizational success comes more from managing people effectively than from attaining large size, operating in a high-growth industry, or becoming lean and mean through downsizing -- which, after all, puts many of your most important assets on the street for the competition to employ. But while many leaders believe that putting people first makes strategic sense, all too few of their organizations do it.
Professor Michael Beer teaches at the Harvard Business School and has extensively researched how organisations can change and what could be considered useful learning and change. Some of his very interesting articles are available at the publication site of the Harvard Business School. One of his latest articles: "Promise and Peril in Implementing Pay for Performance: A Report on Thirteen Natural Experiments" is very interesting as are his other articles. It is best if you pick what you are interested in.
The following is a link to an overview of his work at the Harvard Business School site:
A
change to the Industrial Relations system is suggested by the
United Trades and Labor Council of SA
The UTLC is running the FairGo Campaign and other campaigns. Keep up to date
Visit http://www.utlc.org.au
The introduction of a shorter 35 hours working week (go to our home page and follow the links) See also Australian Options, a left magazine and their special editions on unemployment and full employment.
Reasonable working hours in Australia: Go to the ACTU campaign web site at http://www.actu.asn.au/public/campaigns/reasonable.html
and read up about it on LaborNet in the international context.
Australian Options, the left quarterly magazine had an insert about unemployment
and in one of last year's edition articles on employment policies. Take a look!
Read also about the working unemployed on Pillar 4 under Reclaiming Ethics
Parental leave provisions and family friendly workplaces (The ACTU campaigns for maternity leave at http://www.actu.asn.au/public/campaigns/maternity.html, UPM believes the campaign should include paternal leave provisions as well, or more generally be fought over parental leave provisions in order to distribute the caring more evenly between men and women and to avoid discrimination against women's employment on the basis they could become pregnant. Parental leave provisions will diminish such discrimination as anyone can become or take on the role of a father.
In order to maintain flexible work places and job sharing permanent part time employment conditions need to be preserved with the same rights as full time permanent positions.
All casual positions should be made permanent after 6 months of a regular, even if varying, employment schedule. After 12 months the same conditions of employment should be applied to permanent part time workers as to full time workers, including benefits such as car usage, working from home and pro rata leave provisions
Message from Jeff Heath, Democrat's Candidaye for the Senate at the last State Election in SA:
(Thanks, Jeff!)
You may find this information of use. There are various documents related to the Democrats position at the last election on work and family. The first is at http://www.democrats.org.au/policies/index.htm?request=policy+issue+sheets scroll down to the heading "Industrial Relations" and the sub-heading "Work and family"
There is a second statement located at .... http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/index.htm?request=work+and+life&campaign_dir=work at the bottom of this page is a link to download a PDF of the full statement.
Hope you find these of use. The web site also has other information about other employment issues, but I found these to be proposals that the two major parties had not picked up on. Jeff
Study/professional development leave to advance career aspirations
(see Mary Jenkins, Secretary Un(der)employed People's Union WA letter)
.In Denmark all employers were asked to undertake a training needs assessment of their employees and to consider their employee's career ambitions together with future trends of their business. The employees were supported to undertake training and/or study by being granted study leave and the employers were supported in employing and training a long term unemployed person for any job which became available as a result of the absence of the employee on training leave.
The result was that those employees who were trained or studied returned to the workplace in a new function, and the employee who started in their place was usually able to maintain their new job or even climb the career ladder in the organisation. The employers were greatly satisfied with the results as their business grew and the expertise grew as well. Employees remained loyal to employers due to greater job satisfaction.
It took Denmark only a few years of this regime to bring unemployment amongst the Danish population down to 4.5%. Denmark did not so well however, integrating its foreign unemployed, the refugees and migrants. Under the current right wing government it is introducing harsh participation measures for the unemployed.
While the Australian situation cannot be compared to the Danish situation, it is possible to introduce this kind of measure, especially in view of the recently predicted shortfall of skilled labor Australia is facing.
For more information about the Danish Model and many other ideas on the issue look at the European Union's employment strategy clearing house and the reports from the European countries about their successes and failures. Go to http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/ees_en.htm
A redefination and redirection of the union movement followed by a stronger role of the unions in the negotiations of social contracts. The Workers Democratic Network has released a statement which indicates the direction, UPM against Poverty believes, the unions ought to take, however, we would include a role of the unions in negotiating social contracts which includes other sections of the working population previously excluded such as the unemployed workers, self-employed contractors and sole business owners who deliver services to a limited number of clients, such as a cleaner or cab driver, and other disadvantaged employment seekers. However, the following statement serves as a starting point:
Statement of Agreement
The goal of the Workers Democracy Network is to organize a democratic workers movement that unites all workers, on an equal basis, around our common interests. We oppose business unionism and all cooperation with the corporate elite. We will build neighborhood, city-wide, regional and continental organizations that unite the entire working class: union and non-union workers; students, employed, self-employed and unemployed; immigrants and native-born; men and women of all ethnic backgrounds. We stand in solidarity with workers all over the world and oppose all nationalism, oppression and bigotry, which pit one group of workers against another.In the process of building this movement, we will create a politics independent of the corporations, breaking with all parties of the bosses, and seeking to run independent workers' candidates as soon as possible.
The network will be truly democratic with the power in the hands of the members. We will have no permanent division into leaders and led.
By building a democratic, unified workers movement, we will lay the basis for a new world, free of capitalism, where workers will democratically run society and control their own lives.
Employees need to revive the union movement once again. Without a strong union movement one side of the scale is gaining too much weight. Employers, producers, industrialists, shareholders, are sitting on one end of the scales and those who are working for them and make a living from their work are sitting on the other end. Politicians and bureaucrats are supposed to sit in the middle, but more often than not rush to the 'owners/shareholder' side of the scales. Workers and employees need to come together and have a strong voice. Unions need to become the peak body of the workers, not just a service provider.
However times have changed. It is not that easy any more to differentiate between the interest of employees and shareholders, when employees' super annuation is invested in shares, when the top employees are given share options in the company, and when ordinary employees are encouraged to purchase shares as investments.
Union membership is declining due to changes in the labor market. Big comapnies with numerous employees are much more lucrative for the union movement to service. Yet they are the ones laying workers off, the big companies have shed far mor jobs than they have created. The small business sector is hard to organise, workers know each other more intimately and union membership may be a blemish on the chance to advance the career.
Many employees have seized being employees and have become contractors. I am not talking about the high earning variety but about the adult educators who work as hourly paid instructors, the teachers, who work on short contracts, the temporary employees hired out by labor hire companies, etc.
Part time workers, unemployed, small business people who mainly supply one big company, they are all on the receiving end and get little support from both ends of the scale. The union movement could play a role here.
Is there anything else we have overlooked? Does the role of political parties in the defense of social justice need to be discussed?
Please send us your contributions to any of the themes and more ideas and links!
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