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Extended Working Hours In Australia
Abstract
Average working hours of full-time employees in Australia are long, and since the early 1980s they have been steadily getting longer. This is a peculiar trend, at odds with both the long-term historical experience in Australia and the contemporaneous experiences in most other OECD societies. It constitutes a major issue for public policy. This article begins by summarising the evidence of extended working hours and the distinctive position of Australia in cross-national perspective. It then aims to push forward the discussion of possible policy responses. In response to the important question of why Australia seems distinctive, the article points to the pivotal role played by working-time regulation. Working-time regulation in Australia has been particularly porous, and it has provided rich opportunities for employer pressures on employees to spill over into extremely extended hours. Just as part of the problem is the inadequacy of the regulatory system, part of the solution must be sought in new regulatory initiatives. The article reviews a recent regulatory initiative in the United Kingdom that may offer some lessons.
... In this situation, ICRDREIOT2020 IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 994 (2020) 012004 IOP Publishing doi: 10.1088/1757-899X/994/1/012004 3 ...
... Waiting [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [8], [9], [11], [12], [14], [15], [16], [18], [21], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30] 23/49 46.9 ...
... Overproduction -0/49 0 Defect [3], [8], [10], [21], [23], [25], [ ...
The manufacturing industry plays a crucial role in the production process to meet the demands of the market and to raise the standard of living recently. Nevertheless, one of the most common issues associated with the industry is unnecessary overtime. Overtime has produced a variety of negative consequences on production output. This paper aims to identify the various causes of unnecessary overtime, and the causes have been categorised through the seven wastes of lean manufacturing. This paper also focuses on unnecessary overtime occurred in industries. The method used in this paper is by reviewing the relevant literature from conference papers and journal publications, including the International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, and International Journal of Engineering and Technology, amongst many others. Finally, the critical components of NAO have been finalised according to the necessary scopes of operation, which considered as factors which are pre-production, in-production, and post-production. Based on the final critical components, there were two critical sub-factors in pre-production components, six critical sub-factors in-production elements, and five critical sub-factors post-production components.
... With the exception of the United States, most Western industrial nations have legislated a 40-hour workweek (International Labor Organization 2012). Yet, effective enforcement of maximum-work-hour legislation varies across nations (Campbell 2002;Evans, Lippoldt, and Marianna 2001;Gornick and Heron 2006;O'Connor, Orloff, and Shaver 1999), indicating the need to compare maximum legislated hours to actual time spent working. ...
... To limit the interference of work on family life, many welfare states have instituted maximum-work-hour legislation, in part to provide workers greater work-life balance (Bosch, Dawkins, and Michon 1994;Gornick and Meyers 2003;Rubery, Smith, and Fagan 1998). However, compliance with this policy varies significantly depending on the quality of the legislation (Campbell 2002). For example, many countries (e.g., France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Portugal) are legislating and enforcing shorter workweeks consistent with their maximum-work-hour legislation (Evans, Lippoldt, and Marianna 2001). ...
... For example, many countries (e.g., France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Portugal) are legislating and enforcing shorter workweeks consistent with their maximum-work-hour legislation (Evans, Lippoldt, and Marianna 2001). By contrast, others (e.g., Australia and the UK) report longer than legislated weekly work hours due to an increase in overtime, a loophole in the legislation (Campbell 2002). Taken together, these studies indicate that work hours are important in structuring individual outcomes, and that maximum-work-hour legislation may not accurately capture cultural work norms (Frase and Gornick 2013;Landivar 2015). ...
For many, work interferes with their home life. To mitigate this encroachment, many welfare states have legislated shorter workweeks. Yet, the effectiveness of this policy on work-to-family interference is mixed, thus requiring additional investigation. We address this gap by applying multilevel data pairing the 2005 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) for individuals in 32 nations (N = 20,937) with country-level measures of legislated weekly work hours, mean reported weekly work hours (aggregated and differentiated by gender), and individualistic/collectivist orientations. We find that legislated work hours have no impact on individuals’ reports of work-to-family interference. By contrast, shorter normative weekly work hours, aggregated and by gender, are associated with greater individual work-to-family interference. We find an equivalent pattern in individualistic countries. While we document individual-level gender and parental differences, we find no differential effects of long workweeks for these groups. We explain these associations through the heightened expectations perspective, arguing that increased resources heighten expectations of work–life balance and sensitivity to work-to-family interference.
... Waiting [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [8], [9], [11], [12], [14], [15], [16], [18], [21], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30] 23/49 46.9 ...
... Overproduction -0/49 0 Defect [3], [8], [10], [21], [23], [25], [ Inventory [14], [17], [24], [28] 4/49 8.2 Table 3, the NAO elements then are classified into measurable and non-measurable indicators. In this study, the measurable indicators are only taken into account, and non-measurable indicators are being neglected because the non-measurable indicators cannot be observing during data collection. ...
The manufacturing industry plays a crucial role in the production process to meet the demands of the market and to raise the standard of living recently. Nevertheless, one of the most common issues associated with the industry is unnecessary overtime. Overtime has produced a variety of negative consequences on production output. This paper aims to identify the various causes of unnecessary overtime, and the causes have been categorised through the seven wastes of lean manufacturing. This paper also focuses on unnecessary overtime occurred in industries. The method used in this paper is by reviewing the relevant literature from conference papers and journal publications, including the International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, and International Journal of Engineering and Technology, amongst many others. Finally, the critical components of NAO have been finalised according to the necessaryscopes of operation, which considered as factors which are pre-production, in-production, and post-production. Based on the final critical components, there were two critical sub-factors in pre-production components, six critical sub-factors in-production elements, and five critical sub-factors post-production components.
... Indeed, so signifi cant is the amount of hours worked in excess of basic hours that the average working time of many full-time employees has increased over the past two decades. As well as in the UK, this has also been the subject of much discussion in Australia (Bittman and Rice, 2001;Campbell, 2002) and the United States, notably Schor's (1991) account of 'the overworked American' . Jacobs and Gerson (2001) identify that the increase in work time is particularly evident if family rather than individual work patterns are considered. ...
... So signifi cant is the amount of hours worked in excess of basic hours that the average working time of many employees has increased over the past two decades. Th is has been the subject of much discussion, particularly in countries such as Australia (see, for example, Bittman and Rice, 2001;Campbell, 2002), Canada (Duxbury and Higgins, 2006) and the United States (see, for example, Schor, 1991). Particularly relevant to the present discussion is the analysis by Jacobs and Gerson (2001) in the United States. ...
The Realities of Work adopts a unique approach providing a critical examination of work from the employee's perspective. The book explores the effects of being managed and how employees themselves interact with and respond to the strategies, tactics, decisions and actions of managers. Packed full of features such as key concepts, real world examples and exercises, the book introduces students to multi-disciplinary material from across the social sciences and encourages them to think more deeply about the variety of issues involved.
... As employees work more, their levels of fatigue increase, and job satisfaction diminishes. A final implication is that excess overtime can lead to increased competition among employees over wages and hours worked which contributes to a pressurized workplace (Campbell, 2002). Psychological variables at the individual level also impacted on job satisfaction. ...
... If employees feel unfairly treated or overly tired due to their work, they are more likely to consider changing their job and have lower job satisfaction. Tiring work conditions contribute to fatigue which puts strain on the quality of time available to employees for social relationships and diminishes job satisfaction (Campbell, 2002). ...
In this study, we examined the contributing factors to the job satisfaction of employees in Korean organizations. We utilized hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), in conjunction with data collected from the Seventh Human Capital Corporate Panel survey conducted by the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor, to investigate antecedents of job satisfaction at the individual and organizational levels and across these levels. At the individual level, variables were divided into demographic and psychological factors. At the organizational level, variables were divided into administration factors and factors related to human resources. Results suggest that 86% of job satisfaction can be attributed to individual-level variables and 14% is due to organization-level variables. The individual-level psychological factors explain around 46% of the variance in job satisfaction, whereas demographic factors explain only 4% at the individual level. Organizational-level factors account for almost 35% of the variance related to job satisfaction between companies.
... This questionnaire included a question about current full-and part-time working arrangements which was used to filter participants from the analysis who were unemployed at the time of the survey. This questionnaire also asked about current industry of employment ) (particularly, as mining (Campbell 2002) and construction (Lingard et al. 2010) are associated with long working weeks), hours of work per week, hours of total sleep during a typical weekday (including naps) and self-reported sleep quality over the last month (long working weeks are associated with less sleep and poorer sleep quality (Virtanen et al. 2009), insufficient sleep is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors (Knutson 2010) and may represent one pathway by which health is affected). Participants were also asked whether they identified as a shift worker (Y/N), as high proportions of shift workers report working days longer than 8 h (Kobayashi et al. 2012). ...
... Together, these findings suggest that even with a modest cutoff of > 38 h working weeks, there is an association with differences in certain cardiometabolic risk factors in young workers, and the pathway is not mediated by total sleep time. The finding that mining and construction are industries associated with > 38 h working weeks is consistent with existing data (Lingard, 2010;Campbell 2002). Working weeks > 38 h in the health-care and social assistance industry for female participants in this cohort are reflective of existing Australian and New Zealand research in nurses, with over 40% of the sample (> 90% female) reporting long working weeks (> 40 h/week). ...
Purpose:
The average Australian working week in middle-aged and older workers exceeds government recommendations. Long working weeks are associated with poor health outcomes; however, the relationship between long working weeks and health in young Australian workers is unknown.
Methods:
Data were drawn from the 22-year follow-up of the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study in Perth, Western Australia. Information was available from 873 young adults about working hours per week, shift work and sleep duration. Blood samples provided measures of cardiometabolic risk (CMR) factors.
Results:
Almost one-third (32.8%) of young workers reported > 38 h working weeks. This was commonly reported in mining and construction industries for males; health and social assistance, mining and retail trade industries for females. CMR factors including increased waist circumference, higher fasting plasma glucose and reduced HDL cholesterol were associated with > 38 h working weeks. These relationships were not moderated by gender or by BMI for glucose and HDL cholesterol. Total sleep time was significantly lower in both male and female workers reporting > 38 h working weeks, but did not mediate the relationships seen with CMR factors.
Conclusions:
These findings point to early associations between > 38 h working weeks and CMR risk, and highlight the potential benefit of making young employees aware of the health associations with working arrangements to reduce the longer-term relationships seen with working hours and poor cardiometabolic health in population studies.
... experience high levels of work-life interference and particularly long work hours relative to other occupational groups (Campbell, 2002;Skinner, Hutchinson, & Pocock, 2012). We examined the changes in work characteristics when professional service workers in areas notorious for long work hours (information technology [IT], legal and accounting firms), requested a transition from full-time roles to part-time arrangements. ...
... Professional workers have comparatively high levels of autonomy; the importance of which is well established in the part-time work literature (Lee et al., 2002;Lawrence & Corwin, 2003). It could be inferred that autonomy is not a significant factor when moving from a full-time to part-time professional role, however, although professionals often have discretion over how they perform work, they often have little autonomy over what work needs to be done and when it needs to be completed (Perlow, 1998;Campbell, 2002). One of our female participants wryly explained the notion of autonomy in her role, a multinational IT consulting firm, as 'So I know I've got to get an output by this date and I've got to work out how I get there without killing myself'. ...
Despite significant socio-demographic and economic shifts in the contours of work over the past 40 years, there has been surprisingly little change in the way work is designed. Current understandings of the content and structure of jobs are predominantly underpinned by early 20th century theories derived from the manufacturing industry where employees worked independently of each other in stand-alone organisations. It is only in the last 10 years that elaborations and extensions to job/work design theory have been posed, which accommodate some of the fundamental shifts in contemporary work settings, yet these extended frameworks have received little empirical attention. Utilising contemporary features of work design and a sample of professional service workers, the purpose of this study is to examine to what extent and how part-time roles are designed relative to equivalent full-time roles. The findings contribute to efforts to design effective part-time roles that balance organisational and individual objectives.
... Over the last 20 years, there has been a change in the pattern of average work time. At one time, workers were actually fighting to decrease the amount of time spent at work, but now, they seem to voluntarily spend more and more time at work, doing overtime (Campbell, 2002). Since these voluntary overtimes are not always supervised, the impact of this may not be always positive. ...
The construction industry in Malaysia is one of the few industries where mandatory overtime is used to be able to meet deadlines stipulated by clients. Whilst in the consultant firms, most employees tend to do either voluntary or mandatory overtime on a daily basis. However, previous studies that were conducted in other fields and other countries seem to suggest that overtime has a tendency to bring negative impact to both the firm and its employees if not properly moderated. The objective of this study is to find out the reasons why employees choose to do overtime and the actual effects of the overtime on firms and employees in the quantity surveying consultant firms in Malaysia. This research was carried out by distributing two sets of questionnaires to both employers and employees of quantity surveying consultant firms to obtain their views on the subject matter. Through this, the reasons and effects caused by the overtime were established. Excessive workload seemed to be the main reason for overtime. There are some suggestions on how to reduce the number of overtime hours worked in the firms.
... The "wage-effort" bargain in many of these jobs is far from clearly determined: interviews with workers in these occupations reveal jobs that are increasingly unbounded in time or space, with long or "unsocial" hours of work performed utilizing new technologies in various locations (at work, at home, in public spaces or while commuting between them). This "unbounding" of the time and place of work for some, is a significant challenge to regulation of the work-effort bargain, especially given evidence of powerful cultures valorizing long hours in many professional and managerial jobs (Campbell, 2002). ...
This article considers the state of unionism today and argues that in strategizing for more workers’ power and effective worker representation, unions have – unsurprisingly – focussed upon the primary domain that workers occupy: the labour market and workplaces, applying a particular repertoire of tools. While social conditions beyond the terrain of work have always mattered and sometimes been recognized by activists and theorists, these are often under-attended in analysis and strategy. The article argues that the relevant social context includes the three “microsystems” of work, household and community life, their intersecting “mesosystems” and the larger “macrosystem” of labour law, social norms and gender cultures within which they are located. Together these construct a system which affects the ways in which unions can build power, the tools available to them, and the industrial issues that matter to workers.
Significant changes in the three interacting domains of work, household and community life since the mid-1970s in many industrialized countries have changed the system within which workers’ create collective power. This is illustrated by evidence drawn from the Australian experience, and the changing forms and occupational structure of employment, and the changing shape of households and communities within which Australian workers live. Workers’ increasing mobility and work, family and community transitions make some of the traditional vehicles of union power outmoded – like collectivizing through a longstanding job or craft affiliation. Such changes call for new forms of collectivization and create new priorities for workers in their bargaining and industrial conditions. They also have implications for the tools – collective bargaining, substantive and procedural statutory rights or social security – that will most effectively improve workers’ circumstances.
... The subject and context shift in Peetz, Murray and Muurlink's study of work-life 'interference' (WLI, where work interferes with employees' ability to manage personal activities outside the workplace). Whilst this is more likely to be an issue in sectors which require high working time flexibility of employees (as in the Australian mining and energy sector on which they focus), it also reflects wider work intensification and lengthening work weeks (Campbell 2002). Furthermore, WLI has potentially a strong gender dimension, and 'despite changes in public discourse and attitudes, workplaces remain highly gendered' (page x). ...
This article introduces a Special Collection of four articles that highlight responses by working women collectively and individually to forces accelerated by the recent global crises. It draws out common themes from accounts of African women’s responses to harassment at work, of the links between union representation and pay equity in Brazil and South Africa and of Australian women’s quest for flexible and fair work/family arrangements. From these perspectives, the article sets out a five-point research agenda to help empower women’s collective and individual agency in response to working conditions shaped by global economic and social forces.
... Technological innovations such as the internet and computer based work have bestowed employees the opportunity to integrate work into their outside of work activities with ease. Consequently, employees in many developed countries such as Australia are not just working harder but also longer (Beek, van Hu, Schaufeli, Taris & Schreurs, 2012;Campbell, 2002). ...
This study was designed to provide a fuller understanding of the meaning and effects of workaholism. The present study aimed to identify the benefits of human's strengths, such as self-efficacy in countering life challenges. Thus, the study investigated self-efficacy as an underlying mechanism between the relationships of workaholism, burnout and job satisfaction in 268 car dealership employees. Anonymous surveys were distributed to a number of major car dealerships in Perth, Australia. Mediation analysis was conducted to investigate if self-efficacy fully mediated the relationships between workaholism, job satisfaction and burnout. Results indicated that workaholism predicted less burnout in employees and more job satisfaction in employees. More importantly, this relationship was fully mediated by employees' sense of self efficacy. This suggests that self-efficacy may be an underlying mechanism which is activated by workaholism and leads to a positive spiral of outcomes on job satisfaction as well as burnout. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Background
As unpredictable work schedule (UWS) has increased worldwide, various studies have been conducted on the resulting health effects on workers. However, research on the effect of UWS on workers' well-being in Korea is still insufficient. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between UWS and work-family conflict (WFC) using 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS).
Methods
Both UWS and WFC were measured using self-reported questionnaires, using data from the 6th KWCS conducted between 2020 and 2021, including 31,859 participants. UWS was measured by questions regarding the frequency of changes in work schedules and limited advanced notice. WFC was measured by questions regarding work to family and family to work conflicts. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the association between UWS and WFC.
Results
The prevalence of UWS was higher among men, those under 40 years old, service and sales workers and blue-collar workers, and those with higher salaries. Workplace size also influenced UWS prevalence, with smaller workplaces (less than 50 employees) showing a higher prevalence. The odds ratio (OR) for WFC was significantly higher in workers with UWS compared to workers without UWS after adjusting for gender, age, marital status, occupation, salary, education, weekly working hours, shift work, company size, and having a child under the age of 18 years, employment status (OR: 3.71; 95% confidence interval: 3.23–4.25).
Conclusions
The analysis of nationwide data revealed that UWS interferes with workers’ performance of family roles, which can lead to WFC. Our findings suggest that it is crucial to implement policies to address unfair work schedule management, promoting a healthier work-life balance and fostering a conducive environment for family responsibilities.
This paper investigates the relationship between social participation and subjective health. Using individual-level data from the British Household Panel Survey, we show that being an active member of a social or sport organisation increases self-rated physical and psychological health. For men, the benefits of social interaction work primarily via physical pathways, while women report a more psychosocial channel. We separate the main results by occupation and document some heterogeneity. Manual workers find more physical and psychological relief via social involvement, whereas non-manual workers are more likely to take relief from sport participation. Interestingly, as the number of associations in which the individual is active increases, the incremental increase in social benefits diminishes. Our findings point to the importance of promoting social and sport activities in health communication and policy making.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
This chapter draws on 53 interviews from a case study led in Montreal in 2008 to demonstrate the existence of Unlimited and Unpaid Overtime (UUO) among video game developers and illustrate an emerging workplace regulation model of working time in the videogame industry. It brings to light a sophisticated and efficient system of rewards and sanctions, both material and symbolic, that drives professional workers in these trades to adopt a “free unlimited overtime” behavior despite the Act Respecting Labour Standards. Efficiency of this system is rooted in combined Project Management (PM) as an organisation mode and high international mobility of the workforce that both makes portfolio and reputation utterly important. This chapter focuses on (de)regulation of working time only, but it opens a path to theoretically account for (de)regulation of work among an expanding workforce: the “new professionals” in knowledge work.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
The discussion on the impact of the Internet of Things (IoT) in theory / practice is increasing. While some proponents envisage that the IoT will bring about positive radical change in the modern society, others argue that the IoT will introduce more disadvantages in the long run (mainly in terms of job losses) than advantages. The aim of this study is to arbitrate this controversy by examining the impact of the IoT on the Japanese, German, and Australian societies. This will be done by providing empirical evidence of the changes brought by the IoT in the everyday life and businesses in these societies. The results presented in this study show that the IoT improves research funding, and business process efficiency while improving job creation. Furthermore, the future prospects and projected diffusion of the IoT show that by 2023, it will become a dominant technology leading social change in the society.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Introduction Over the past 30 years governments in Australia introduced a set of policies that have come to be known as 'microeconomic reform'. These policies shared a defining characteristic: the intention to enable individual agency and markets to play greater roles in economic activity. The extensive scope and scale of the policies made microeconomic reform a (perhaps the) major theme of economic policy making in Australia during this time. Reform encompassed many areas of economic activity - finance, manufacturing, the government sector, and markets for agriculture, communications, utilities and labour - and a wide variety of policy changes, including removing barriers to entry to markets, ending price supports and subsidies to producers, and selling off government-owned business enterprises. The main underlying motivations for undertaking microeconomic reform have been twofold: improving economic flexibility so as to assist in achieving macroeconomic balance and to help in raising living standards in Australia. Linking the policy to these objectives is the belief that allowing a greater share of economic activity to occur in the private sector with less intervention by government will improve resilience and productivity. Examples of ways in which it was expected this could occur were by inducing producers to supply their outputs more efficiently, and by improving or expanding the functioning of markets (Forsyth 1992, pp. 5-7; Freebairn 1998, p. 49).
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Introduction Extracting and utilising natural resources was central to Australia's economic development in the period 1788-1901 and beyond. Exploitation of the land and sea for cultivation, grazing, marine life, and minerals are themes writ large in Australia's economic history. Cultivation, of fruit, vegetables and most especially of wheat in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) helped to sustain the new Australian penal colony to 1820. In the longer term, overseas markets became the chief destinations for Australia's farm and mine production. Wool and gold led after 1820, but myriad resource industries, including timber, whale oil, grains and copper, contributed to development. Following Victoria's gold rush of the 1850s, the resource sector became more diversified. The pastoral frontier was associated with cattle and sheep, while coal, iron ore, silver, tungsten and zinc added to minerals production, and dairying, sugar, wheat, dried fruit and wine became export industries before Federation in 1901. Collectively, the rural industries and mining, or the primary sector, contributed around 31 per cent of Australia's GDP and nearly all exports in 1901 (Vamplew 1987, pp, 133, 194). Primary-sector growth was accompanied by Australia attaining internationally high GDP per capita, and the possible connections between the two are much debated. A high ratio of utilised natural resources per capita provides the most obvious linkage to high average incomes, but the debates are complex. The exploitation of Australia's natural capital by the European settlers and their descendants was shaped by their knowledge, institutions and enterprise. Australia was drawn into international commodity and capital markets by European settlement and the overseas market underpinned the expansion of the resource industries.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Introduction Australia's geographic isolation meant that the first convict settlers almost immediately had to produce simple consumer goods. The range and volume of local manufactures increased over time, but, in the 19th century, the natural resource sectors were the prime drivers of Australia's economic performance (Greasley, this volume). In the 20th century, as the natural resource sectors' contribution waned, manufacturing's role became more central, but industrialisation was neither a quick nor simple process. Federation provided the institutional setting for industrialisation but initial progress was more qualitative than quantitative. Manufacturing's share of GDP and employment grew slowly. Labour productivity increased but it was still only about half the economy-wide average until in the 1930s. Thereafter, the pace of industrialisation accelerated. By the 1960s the manufacturing sector produced a wide range of products, including complex producer goods and materials. It contributed around 28 per cent of GDP and employment, with productivity levels approximately equal to the national average. Australia had become a modern industrial economy, but almost immediately it began to deindustrialise. By 2010-11 manufacturing's share of GDP had fallen to just over 8 percent.
Introduction This chapter focuses on four key aspects of the development of the Australian labour market since Federation. First are the patterns in the total labour supply as influenced by population increase, participation, hours of work and trends in labour-force composition. Second is the growth in workforce skills, as represented by the changing role and place of education, including vocational training. Third is the evolution of Australia's distinctive pattern of industrial relations, including the structure of wages. Fourth are the trends and fluctuations in average wages and unemployment. Labour supply and population At the aggregate level, the 20th-century labour market is a story of the size and structure of the population driving the scale of the labour force available for the Australian economy. The basic drivers are those of population growth through migration and natural increase, and of workforce participation, including changes in female participation and youth and older worker engagement.
Introduction What is to be done, then, to rescue this country from the sterility to which it is condemned? What means have we of opening it out, and giving to the land a value which will ensure its becoming saleable? Roads, say some; - railroads, say I. Sir William Denison, governor of New South Wales, in 1855 (quoted in Goodwin 1966, p. 282) Living standards as high as anywhere in the contemporary world - this is the characteristic of the Australian economy in the 19th century most remarked upon. High and rising living standards reflected a number of factors: the discovery and productive use of abundant natural resources seized from the Aboriginal population; a favourable demography; and generally 'good seasons'. And the growth was prodigious: comparing 1930 with 1850, real GDP was 26 times larger, the population 15 times larger, and real GDP per head had risen 60 per cent or by an average of about 0.7 per cent per year (Butlin, Dixon and Lloyd, this volume). This combination of extensive and intensive growth was facilitated by investment averaging around one sixth of GDP, with the three largest categories being residential, pastoral/agricultural and railways (Butlin 1962, Tables 5 and 8). Australia was remote from Britain, the initial source of settlers, funds and markets (as well as imported law and culture). The continent was huge, the interior mostly semi-desert. There were relatively few good sites for ports, very limited internal waterways and no sizeable permanent lakes. Blainey's The Tyranny of Distance (1966) was a landmark in setting out the importance, in Australian economic and social history, of investment in reducing costs of transport and communications, both privately (such as clipper ships) and publicly (infrastructure).
Whatever the aims of the British government may have been, the immediate human outcome of the effort was, so far as Australia's settlement was concerned, summed up for a long period in one word: convicts. Convicts made up for most of the first 60 years of Australian history, the dominant flow of human beings, the primary increment to the population and the main source of labour. (Butlin 1985c, p. 1) The contours of Australian colonial economic development are well established (McLean 2013; Butlin 1986b, 1993, 1994; Madsen, this volume). This chapter focuses on the contribution made to economic growth by British penal transportation. In one sense everything that happened in early European Australia was due to penal transportation because without it the colonies would not have been formed. Nevertheless, at a less general level it is possible to explore the nature of the system that brought over 163000 people to Australia, who they were and how they built an economy which surprised their contemporaries (Goodwin 1974, p. 14). The chapter commences with the development of penal policy before examining convicts as criminals, then as coerced workers. Coerced labour has often been associated with high land-to-labour ratios in areas of European settlement and in this respect Australia appears to have been no exception (Nicholas & Shergold 1988d; Meredith 2013). We then examine the role of convicts in creating a free labour force. We conclude by assessing the importance of penal transportation for colonial economic growth and the legacy white Australia inherited from its convict origins.
A country's economic strategies typically reflect its current circumstances, history and values. As Australia emerged from World War 2 its inherited economic strategy had been built around imperial preference, and population and capital flows from Britain. But Australia's dependence on commodity exports never provided a sufficient base for the increased population, while the large fluctuations in commodity prices made the economy prone to instability. Over time, therefore, that strategy sought greater security through a broader economic base that relied less on commodity exports. Other significant historic influences include Australians' preference for government-determined outcomes, even if efficiency were sacrificed, probably because of the seemingly greater control of outcomes that government intervention promised. To some inside and outside Australia, this was perceived as a significant distrust of markets (Caves & Krause 1984, p. 2). Furthermore, Australian strategy has traditionally been influenced by the notion that government has a duty of care to its citizens who might otherwise suffer from the risks associated with the vicissitudes of the market. Thus, over time, an expectation developed that government should ensure a minimum living standard and minimise and/or compensate for disadvantage as markets and policies change.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Introduction Characteristic of Australian economic growth history is that agriculture and mining have been the dominant forces of economic development during the 19th century and, to a lesser degree, up to the present day. It only took a few years of structural adjustment after European settlers arrived in Australia in 1788 before Australia's per capita income among settlers reached that of United Kingdom, which was the country with the highest per capita income in the world at that time. Following the gold rush that took place at the beginning of the 1850s, Australia, in terms of per capita income, became the richest country in the world - a lead that endured to the depression of the early 1890s. Probably the most important factor behind Australia's 19th-century's richness has been abundance of land and mineral resources. The wool industry was highly productive and competitive because of low production costs, the low weight-cost ratio, and not being heavily dependent on investment in transport infrastructure (Schedvin 1990; McLean 2013). Furthermore, replacing shepherds by fencing in the second half of the 19th century reduced the need for permanent labour. Sinclair (1976) argues that the mining sector was influential for Australia's economic growth and prosperity because of positive spillover effects for other sectors of the economy and because it redistributed large numbers of workers across the economy after the 1850s gold rush. However, being highly dependent on natural resources has had its downside in that Australia, until World War 2, was dependent on the highly volatile demand and supply conditions in the world market for agricultural and mineral products. That resulted in large booms and depressions, such as the depressions in the periods 1840-42, 1890-96 and 1930-33.
Introduction Capital markets describe the set of arrangements that match borrowers to lenders. Sometimes the arrangement is direct, sometimes it takes place through an intermediary like a bank, and sometimes it takes place through a market like the stock market. This chapter deals with such external financing of expenditure in Australian history while noting that governments, households and businesses also finance much of their expenditure internally. Australia has seen major swings in borrowings over 200 years. Government debt grew from nothing in the 1850s to 100 per cent of GDP within 50 years, and then to more than 200 per cent of GDP within the next half-century. Following World War 2, governments cut their debt to virtually zero over the subsequent 40 years. Households borrowed massively at the end of the 19th century, as part of a property bubble that collapsed and caused a deep recession. For most of the subsequent century, relative to GDP, household debt was low, but rose to exceed all previous heights following financial liberalisation in the 1980s. Corporate borrowing's most notable swing was an effective doubling soon after financial liberalisation, and it too was followed by a crash and the write-down of much debt. Companies have increasingly used stock markets to raise capital.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
Over the past 2–3 decades, many western countries have pursued an employment relations (ER) agenda involving labour–management cooperation or a form of ‘partnership’; for example, the USA, Britain, Ireland and New Zealand (Ackers and Payne 1998; Kelly 2004; Johnstone et al. 2010; Macneil and Bray 2013; Cathcart 2014). Attracted by the success of partnership practices in the UK, Australian academics and policy-makers have previously investigated the viability of partnership models in the Australian context, both conceptually (Lansbury 2000; Gollan and Patmore 2006; Townsend et al. 2013) and through empirical case studies (Mitchell and O’Donnell 2007; Jones et al. 2008). Yet little research has specifically examined the role of current industrial relations practices in promoting workplace partnerships within both union and non-union settings in Australia. This chapter will thus focus on exploring the current industrial relations and regulatory context for the support of workplace partnership practices within the political and socioeconomic environment in Australia.
The majority of Australian families with children have two parents in paid employment. This presents the couple with choices to be made about how to allocate and share responsibilities for both earning and caring. Decisions about participation in paid employment are not made in isolation and are constrained by social, financial, employment and personal factors. Couples develop strategies to manage both work and household responsibilities which are continually negotiated throughout the life course. This chapter examines Australians’ choices and preferences about how many hours to spend in paid employment and how these choices are influenced by their partners’ employment and their joint caring responsibilities. The Negotiating Life Course project provides insight into the number of hours spent in paid work and preferences for alternative arrangements. The overwhelming practice and preference for Australian couples with childcare responsibilities is the ‘neo-traditional’ approach to sharing paid work. The default to this strategy can be attributed to various aspects of Australia’s working time regime, including the unavailability of quality part time jobs, full time jobs with long hours, and the lack of affordable childcare.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
This chapter draws on 53 interviews from a case study led in Montreal in 2008 to demonstrate the existence of Unlimited and Unpaid Overtime (UUO) among video game developers and illustrate an emerging workplace regulation model of working time in the videogame industry. It brings to light a sophisticated and efficient system of rewards and sanctions, both material and symbolic, that drives professional workers in these trades to adopt a "free unlimited overtime" behavior despite the Act Respecting Labour Standards. Efficiency of this system is rooted in combined Project Management (PM) as an organisation mode and high international mobility of the workforce that both makes portfolio and reputation utterly important. This chapter focuses on (de)regulation of working time only, but it opens a path to theoretically account for (de)regulation of work among an expanding workforce: the "new professionals" in knowledge work.
In the context of the widespread adoption of 12-hour shifts in the male-dominated mining and energy industry, and using data gathered from 2566 unionised mining and energy workers and 1915 partners, we investigate the extent and gendering of work–life interference in that industry. We ask about the ways, if any, in which work–life interference occurs; whether patterns of interference differ between male and female mineworkers; whether patterns of interference differ between mineworkers and their partners; and how working time preferences affect work–life interference among mineworkers and their partners. We find extensive interference, mitigated by predictability and ‘blocks of time’, but these are not enough to offset the impact of the length and rotation of shifts. Gendering takes several forms. The interaction between the domestic and market spheres leads female mine and energy workers to experience greater interference. Long hours and long shifts create significant work–life interference, and part of the burden is shifted to mineworkers’ (mostly female) partners, manifested in shortfalls in full-time labour force participation and in stresses upon the partner. We discuss the implications of the findings for policy and practice.
Australia's economic history is the story of the transformation of an indigenous economy and a small convict settlement into a nation of nearly 23 million people with advanced economic, social and political structures. It is a history of vast lands with rich, exploitable resources, of adversity in war, and of prosperity and nation building. It is also a history of human behaviour and the institutions created to harness and govern human endeavour. This account provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of the nation's economic foundations, growth, resilience and future, in an engaging, contemporary narrative. It examines key themes such as the centrality of land and its usage, the role of migrant human capital, the tension between development and the environment, and Australia's interaction with the international economy. Written by a team of eminent economic historians, The Cambridge Economic History of Australia is the definitive study of Australia's economic past and present.
This paper extends the understanding of working-time changes and work-life balance (WLB) through analyzing a case study where a reduction in working hours designed to assist the workforce in balancing work and nonwork life was implemented. An alliance project in the Australian construction industry was established initially with a 5-day working week, a departure from the industry-standard 6-day week. However, a range of factors complicated the success of this initiative, and the industry-standard 6-day working week was reinstated for the project. The authors argue that this case is valuable in determining the complex mix of influences that work against a wholesale or straightforward adoption of working-time adjustments and work-life balance practices. It is concluded that although the prevailing workplace culture is considered an important factor in the determination of working time, structural and workplace principles and practices may also be critical in working to secure the successful introduction of working-time reduction and work-life balance initiatives in the construction industry in the future. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000436. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
This article addresses the issue of part-time work and job quality in an exploratory fashion. It highlights the construction and measurement of part-time work and its broad features within the Australian context. It then explores the important question of the nature of job quality, and specifically the quality of part-time jobs. It argues that the gap separating part-time from full-time jobs can constitute the starting point for addressing part-time job quality.
Recent years have seen the emergence of a new politics of working time. Industrial relations specialists, welfare agencies and others have raised the idea that increasing levels of overwork and burgeoning levels of unemployment are two sides of the same coin. There have also been concerns that changes in working hours have constrained employees' ability to participate in family and community life. Three theoretical perspectives - economics, industrial relations and feminism - have developed a common interest in issues such as the maldistribution of work, the decline in leisure and the balance between working life and private life. This article uses four Australian time use surveys conducted in 1974, 1987, 1992, and 1997 to examine three dimensions of possible change in working hours: (1) the average length of the working day; (2) the distribution of working hours amongst persons; and (3) the amount of time spent at work during nonstandard hours. These time use surveys provide a unique window for looking into changes in working life in Australia over the last quarter of a century, a period of major upheaval in Australian society. Analysis of these surveys shows that the average number of hours that Australians supply to the labour market has not changed markedly between 1974 and 1997. However, there has been a significant redistribution of paid work from men to women, thus creating more dual-earner households. There has also been a substantial collapse in the dominance of standard working hours, while the amount of time workers spend at work during nonstandard hours appears to have increased.
Analysis of Working Time Regulations data reveals three patterns of response that help to explain the lack of employers' post-implementation protest: coincidence with current practice; easy ‘escape’ options; and non-compliance. Whether this represents a failure of health and safety legislation or a pragmatic response to labour market conditions is discussed.
In the context of economic restructuring and the reorganization of working time, the question of working-time preferences is emerging as an important component of both academic and policy debates. Much of the debate about preferences is based upon conjuncture or inadequate indicators, often drawing oppositional models of gender differences in preferences which neglect the similarities between the sexes. This article starts by developing a framework for interpreting preference formation and change, with particular emphasis on the societal institutional system and existing national working-time regime in which individuals' behaviour and preferences are located. This framework is then applied to highlight the particular features of the national working-time regime and associated ‘gender order’ in Britain, followed by an analysis of gender similarities and differences in work orientations and working-time preferences in this country. The results show that work orientations and working-time preferences are related to labour market circumstances for both sexes. Similarity between women and men in the influences of workplace variables coexists with a gender-differentiated effect of household circumstances on the types of work schedules preferred; childcare and domestic responsibilities figure more largely in women's accounts of their preferences than in men's. For both, however, the most popular reform would be increased time sovereignty in the organization of their work schedules.
In November 1993 the Social Affairs Council of the EU adopted the Directive on the Organisation of Working Time. The EU Commission is committed to a review of the operation of this Directive in 2003. In this paper we re-examine the economic rationale for such regulations, assess the different legal arrangements for the implementation of the Directive and summarise recent case law. In conclusion, we suggest that the forthcoming review is likely to provide an important indicator of any EU reassessment of economic and social priorities.
In 1998 and 1999 France passed the sixth and seventh laws in seventeen years affecting working time. They offered financial incentives to firms signing collective agreements that created or protected jobs and cut the legal working week from 39 to 35 hours from 1 January 2000. Early evidence suggests that while their direct job creation effect is limited they are moderating wage settlements and leading to more flexible working patterns. In this paper I situate the new hour laws within the long historical tradition of state political intervention over working time and argue that this remains a key element in reforming French industrial relations. Copyright Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 2000.
I 'of. 13, No. I. August 1002 unpaid overtime. the much more substantial growth in extended hours in Australia seems to be almost entirely composed of increases in unpaid overtime
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!J-1 L.-1 BOL'R & IN DUST!? l'. I 'of. 13, No. I. August 1002 unpaid overtime. the much more substantial growth in extended hours in Australia seems to be almost entirely composed of increases in unpaid overtime (Dawkins and Simpson, 1993, 7-13;
Working Time Changes: Social Integration through Transitional Labour Markets. Cheltenham
- Reilly I Cchrian
- M Lallcmcnt
O'Reilly. I. Cchrian and M. Lallcmcnt eds.. Working Time Changes: Social Integration through Transitional Labour Markets. Cheltenham. Edward Elgar.
Working Time Patterns in Australia and the Growth in “Unpaid’ Overtime: A Review of the Evidence
- M Wooden