Russell D. Lansbury

• Ph.D
• Professor Emeritus at The University of Sydney

Low wage growth is a challenge common to many OECD countries including countries with very different institutional systems. This paper utilises and extends Rochefort and Cobb’s (1993) ‘problem definition’ framework to analyse how employer and union representatives in Australia and Denmark explain the causes of low wage growth. Drawing on elite inte...

This commentary examines the ‘Ghent system’ of social insurance, which has been adopted in most countries in the Nordic region of Europe, and analyses its suitability for Australia. Of particular concern is whether adopting the Ghent system could assist trade unions in Australia to gain greater membership coverage of the workforce, given that it is...

Contributors to this symposium argue that a new social contract at work is needed to ensure that the mutual expectations of workers, employers and communities can be achieved in relation to work and employment relationships. Russell Lansbury advocates that this should be built on three pillars: full employment, revitalisation of post‐secondary educ...

The COVID‐19 crisis impels us to think about the future of Australia in many dimensions and from different perspectives including our social, economic and governance structures. A new social contract at work in Australia should rest on three pillars: a full employment policy coupled with a strong safety net for those not able to find work; a compre...

The decision by the three multinational automotive manufacturers—Ford, General Motors and Toyota—to cease production in Australia followed a long period of decline in the local industry. This paper examines the factors potentially contributing to these decisions including reductions in government assistance to the industry, the volatility in exchan...

This chapter starts to develop a novel multi-scalar analytical framework for comparing employment relations internationally, which includes the influence of the institutional dynamics of industrial sectors and global production networks as well as national systems. It also discusses three aspects of the gig economy. Further, it proposes a research...

The social and economic relevance of work and employment relations is as great today as it has been in the past and is likely to be of even greater importance in the future. Yet, as a field of academic study, traditional approaches to work and employment relations face a number of challenges, particularly in an era of globalization. Understanding t...

This journal (Volume 29, Issue 3, 2017) included four review essays that focussed on the 6th edition of the book International and Comparative Employment Relations: National Regulation, Global Changes (Bamber et al. 2016). This article reflects on these essays. It begins to develop a novel multi-scalar analytical framework for comparing employment...

A collection of articles on working life and research policy in Sweden. There is a separate document in Swedish with chapter abstracts in english

The decision by the three multinational automotive manufacturers – Ford, General Motors and Toyota – to cease production in Australia followed a long period of decline in the local industry. This paper examines the factors potentially contributing to these decisions including reductions in government assistance to the industry, the volatility in ex...

The preceding chapters have provided a review of key features of employment relations in 12 countries. In this chapter we examine some of the similarities and differences in employment relations across these countries and consider what the analysis tells us about the important factors shaping contemporary employment relations around the world. The...

We live in a period in which national economies have become increasingly interconnected. This is a form of globalisation. At least since the 1990s, international employment relations scholars have focused on how globalisation is reshaping employment relations across companies, sectors and countries. Events since the post-2007 global financial crisi...

Australia was colonised by the British in the late eighteenth century, has a wealth of mineral and energy resources and, except along the Eastern coastal belt, is sparsely populated. In 2013, Australia had a population of 23 million people, a GDP of over US$1.5 trillion and was the twelfth largest economy in the world. Out of its total civilian wor...

Many of the key reforms of the past three decades that helped to strengthen the Australian economy were implemented during the operation of the Accord that existed between Australian Labor Party governments and the union movement. In order to address structural economic problems, unions agreed to moderate wage outcomes and to facilitate the transit...

Trade unions in Australia and Britain have played rather different roles during the recent periods of economic and labour market reform implemented in each country. This paper compares the influence of the unions on government policies over the past three decades. By helping to create institutions to improve social and economic as well as working c...

This paper examines the strategic choices made by Qantas Airways, a full-cost legacy airline, and its low-cost carrier, Jetstar, regarding employment relations in the context of increasingly competitive market pressures. Initially these airlines pursued divergent employment relations strategies. As the external environment became more turbulent, th...

This research note celebrates Joe Isaac's 90th year by outlining some of the highlights in his extensive career and exploring the interface between his roles as a prominent scholar and an arbitrator. Joe Isaac has been one of the most influential contributors to both academic scholarship and public policy in Australian industrial relations during t...

The papers in this volume seek to broaden the concept of ‘varieties of unionism’ by comparing the labour movements of six countries in the Asia-Pacific region: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia. While there is a great diversity of economic, socio-cultural and ethnic factors which have influenced the nature of industrial relat...

In liberal market economies such as Australia, we generally expect that global pressures will lead to an increasingly deregulated employment relations system reliant on market mechanisms. However, case study evidence from the Australian auto and banking industries shows that employment relations practices vary considerably by sector. In comparing d...

In recent decades, successive governments have reduced tariff protection and encouraged the Australian automotive industry to become more internationally competitive. The future of automotive manufacturing now rests largely on decisions made by the three remaining global parent companies: General Motors, Ford and Toyota. Despite extensive structura...

No Yes

This article seeks to modify and extend the Varieties of Capitalism (VofC) approach in a way that makes it possible for it to account for both within country diversity and the role which international factors play in shaping national patterns of participation. It does so by drawing on recent debates about the VofC approach in general and comparativ...

This paper examines the experiences of Qantas and Aer Lingus. The two companies have a shared history as national, ‘legacy’ (full-service) carriers and strategically important, ‘benevolent’ employers. More recently, both airlines have been forced to change in the face of competition from low cost carriers (LCCs) and external threats to their existe...

This paper reports the preliminary findings of a study of employment relations in the automotive assembly industry in seven countries. It provides evidence that the impact of globalisation on employment relations varies systematically across liberal, coordinated and, to a lesser extent, Asian market economies. It also provides evidence of considera...

The global financial crisis provides an opportunity for Australia to undertake reforms that will create a more democratic workplace. This will require a new social settlement between government, employers and unions, which not only restores and extends collective bargaining rights but also strengthens workers’ legal rights to participate in decisio...

This contribution examines the transfer of employment relations policies and practices from the domestic operations of the Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) in Ulsan, Korea to its joint venture in China, the Beijing Hyundai Motors Company (BHMC). An integrated ‘political economy’ theoretical framework is used to analyse the complex interaction of institu...

The relevance and continuing existence of industrial relations, as a field of academic study, is facing a number of challenges, particularly in English-speaking countries, as union membership declines, collective bargaining coverage shrinks and the number of strikes wanes each year. Yet issues of employment and workplace relations remain significan...

This paper reports preliminary findings of a study of employment relations in the automotive assembly industry in seven countries. It provides evidence that the impact of globalisation on employment relations varies systematically across liberal, co-ordinated and, to a lesser extent, Asian market economies. It also provides evidence of considerable...

International Industrial Relations Association. The relevance and continuing existence of industrial relations, as a field of academic study, is facing a number of challenges, particularly in English-speaking countries, as union membership declines, collective bargaining coverage shrinks and the number of strikes wanes each year. Yet issues of empl...

In recent years, both Australia and New Zealand have embarked on significant labor market reforms which have resulted in more decentralized and individualized systems of industrial relations. Although both countries share a common heritage of state-sponsored conciliation and arbitration, which fostered a centralized approach to labor market regulat...

Australian white-collar and professional employees are experiencing the dual impact of technological change and unemployment, which has weakened their militancy. Russell Lansbury discusses how future trends will depend on the power exercised by those occupying strategic positions in labour markets.

Here the authors review the changing policies of the Chinese towards the management of the enterprise and the role of unions and the workers’ congress in labour-management relations.

There are conflicting tendencies among recent developments in bargaining and participation at the workplace level in Europe. While there is an emphasis on decentralisation of bargaining structures in many countries, there is considerable variance. Similarly, there is a diversity of approaches to both direct and indirect forms of participation. Desp...

The Australian trade union movement has identified new technology as a major issue for the 1980s and beyond. This article examines ACTU policy on technological change in the light of the experience of two large Australian unions.

This paper examines the establishment of two large dry food warehouses or distribution centres (DCs) each of which involved much technological innovation. We explore whether the introduction of the same technology into two similar DCs in one corporation leads to similar outcomes and to what extent such a technological change may influence organizat...

This article examines how works councils in the West German automobile industry have influenced management approaches to technological change in three firms. The authors argue that while the post-war industrial relations consensus in Germany can be increasingly questioned, car-makers in the English speaking countries have important lessons to learn...

The Swedish automobile industry has recently encountered significant difficulties. This article reviews a major study of the relationships between production, technology and work organisation in Volvo and Saab. It compares the Swedish approach to automobile production with those of the American and Japanese companies and speculates on whether the S...

The first issue of NTWE featured a piece on work organisation at the Swedish Mail Centre at Tomteboda. In the light of a recent visit there, the author responds to that original account.

What is the link between working life and the nature of production on the one hand, and the changing organization of the firms and institutions in which work and production take place? In this book leading socio-economic theorists analyse how these have changed over the last two decades. They look at changing employment practices and systems of wor...

This article argues that there is a need to move beyond narrow ways of thinking about training to incorporate broader notions of ‘workforce development’ and ‘skill ecosystems’. A market-based approach to skills development is contrasted with a social consensus model, which takes a more integrated view of how skills are formed and sustained. However...

As a focus of creative self-expression through work, the workplace is a key site of identity formation as well as economic reward. A new narrative of social citizenship must be sourced in workplace experience and must be capable of adaptation to discrete needs. This article considers the potential for constructing this narrative and reflects on the...

Examination is made of the complex interactions between globalization and employment relations as reflected in the operations of the Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) in Korea, Canada and India. After the closure of its short-lived attempt to manufacture cars for the North American market from Canada, the HMC ‘relaunched’ its globalization strategy in In...