Melbourne Law School - Theses

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    Some aspects of collective agreements in Australia
    Yerbury, Dianne ( 1972)
    A predominant feature of the Australian industrial relations system is the role of the state and its specialised industrial relations agencies in the resolution of industrial conflict and the establishment of the rules of the work place. Australia has aroused international interest by its use of compulsory conciliation and arbitration as the major, formal rule-making process. Far less attention has been paid to the role played by collective negotiations, yet the fostering of this role has always been a formal objective of the regulated system. In recent years, its incidence, scope and influence have increased substantially. In this thesis I have proceeded from the general hypothesis that collective negotiations in the context of a compulsory arbitration system differ both quantitatively and qualitatively from the process and outcome of collective bargaining in systems where the constraints and influence of compulsory arbitral machinery are lacking. I have sought to examine the particular hypothesis that, the elements of an industrial relations system being inter-dependent, collective negotiations as a process of rule determination in Australia are strongly related to the legal, institutional, operational and environmental features of the conciliation and arbitration system. To this end, I have examined the role and structure of collective negotiations, and the form, content and legal status of collective agreements. The conclusion reached is that, in the course of the inquiry, substantial evidence of this inter-relationship is detected and identified Thus the thesis is very much an applied work. It draws specifically on seven detailed case studies of selected collective negotiations in private and public employment in Australia and, more generally, on less intensively documented references. In addition, a special examination is made of those collective agreements which have been brought within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth and State tribunals by being processed as "statutory agreements". Research methods have consisted mainly of interviews and examination of primary and secondary source materials. (From Preface)