Award Restructuring and Workplace Reform in New South Wales Road Freight Transport

Abstract

In recent years award restructuring has emerged as a major public policy instrument for encouraging workplace reform. This article examines the success of this strategy in New South Wales road freight transport at both the industry and workplace levels. While it is found that some significant changes were made to the primary industry- wide award as a result of award restructuring, it is apparent that more rapid and more radical change was prevented by conflict not only between union and employers, but also between different groups of employers. Perhaps more significantly, the impact of these award changes at workplace level is found to be minimal. This failure can be attributed partly to the parties themselves. Employers lacked the unity to achieve a wider agenda at an industry level. Management lacked the will and resources to realize the opportunities for major workplace reform that were presented to them. Union officials, but especially workplace delegates and the rank and file, were reluctant to accept management's agenda for change. However, a more complete explanation for the lack of workplace reform is the inappropriateness of the award restructuring model in an industry where product markets have long been competitive and industrial relations practices relatively flexible.

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