Economics - Theses
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ItemEmployee participation and industrial democracy in Australian government employment: 1983-1988( 1990-05)The subject of employee participation in the public sector has been neglected in the academic literature of Australia. The present research aims to redress this deficiency. Its explicit focus is employee participation in Australian Government Employment (AGE) in the first six years of the Hawke Labor Government, that is, the period 1983-1988. The choice of this period is an important one. The election of the Hawke Government marks a turning point in Australian public administration: this was a government committed to the thoroughgoing reform of the public sector and employee participation was integrated into its reform agenda, albeit in the guise of industrial democracy. In the first part of the thesis the discussion clarifies the meaning and relationship between the concepts of employee participation and industrial democracy. This is followed by a review of the overseas literature on employee participation in public employment. In the second part, the development of employee participation in AGE is dealt with at a general level. This account spans the period 1901-1988, however, the account of the sub-period 1983-1988 is more detailed. In the third and fourth parts, the exposition becomes more specific. Detailed case studies of Australia Post and the Australian Taxation Office, which provide an account of the development of employee participation ranging from the national to the workplace level of each organization, are presented. In the final part, the discussion is drawn together and the lessons of the recent experience of employee participation in AGE are spelt out.