Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
10 - Sustainable work: the issues
for Australia
John Burgess and Julia Connell
Australia has experienced two decades of dynamic economic reform that has included
deregulation, privatisation, labour market and tax reforms. These policies have
resulted in societal inequalities with almost half of the workforce now employed in jobs
that are casual, part-time and/or on fixed contracts. Consequently, the contemporary
workforce is divided into two groups: those in high skilled, stressful jobs who would like
to work less hours, and those who have to support themselves and their families with
insecure incomes. The rewards from economic growth are also very unevenly distrib-
uted. As a result, there is a need to rethink and re-conceptualise work in Australia,
which has been given a narrow meaning, largely connected to market activity for the
purposes of welfare policy design. Outside of the market there is much work that is
neither recognised nor rewarded.
Over the past decade or so Australia's workforce has undergone enor-
mous change. Both large and small organisations in the private, public and
voluntary sectors have been subjected to environmental pressures and forces
of change that have led to major transformations in organisational work
structures and contracts. The responses to these influences have led to
change within the industries in which Australians work, the occupations
they undertake and the employment contracts they hold. Consequently, this
topic underpins a number of important theoretical and policy questions
such as:
•
the nature and availability of employment for current and future
generations
•
the characteristics of future jobs and workplaces, and
