Introduction to the AIRAANZ 2019 conference special issue

The 2019 AIRAANZ Conference was held at RMIT University city campus located in central Melbourne. The broad theme of the conference was ‘Global Work, Quality Work’. At the conference there was over 140 presentations in addition to special roundtable discussions and two keynote addresses. As always the conference addressed the ‘big’ issues emerging in the world of work and a large number of conference streams were available including the public sector, health and social care; gender and work; diversity in employment; workplace flexibility and careers; the fourth industrial revolution; regulating work in transnational supply chains; segmentation, polarisation and skills; gender based violence; workplace rights, inclusivity and the effectiveness of regulation. The conference included a special session for PhD scholars and the programme included, as it usually does, many contributions from PhD scholars and early career researchers. The sessions included a range of methodologies and approaches, representing the full range of industrial relations research including labour law, bargaining, trade unions, labour history, labour economics, and critical feminist research. The contributions ranged from the theoretical through to applied policy analysis and research methodology, and are selected here to reflect the range as well as the consistent quality of the contributions.

As with previous conference special issues this collection commences with the Presidential Address delivered by Sue Williamson who provides an overview and commentary on the path towards achieving gender equality in the Australian workplace. The is a major challenge for academic research, policy and practice and the presentation builds upon her research examining gender equity in Australian workplaces, especially in the public sector (Williamson and Colley 2018). She highlights the apparent acceptance of gender equity and ongoing political activism, yet progress is slow. Reasons for resistance are manifested through male (privilege) backlash on the basis that enough has been achieved and men are being marginalised. The other blockage issue identified is organisational gender fatigue, that is, the belief by organisations (managers and HR directors) that enough has been done to redress gender inequality in the workplace and it takes time to achieve the desired outcomes. The article goes on to consider strategies for addressing the resistance offered by backlash and gender fatigue and continuing to forge ahead with the gender equality program.

At the previous 2018 AIRAANZ Conference, Keith Townsend (2019) in his presidential address reflected on the impact of technological change, robotics and broader processes of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) on industrial relations scholarship and identified emerging issues for future research. Technological change and industrial transformation have long been addressed by industrial relations scholars as they attempt to track and understand the changes taking place in industry, workplaces and occupations. In turn they examine the consequences for work, working conditions, bargaining, trade unions and labour regulation. The themes of robotics, AI, digital work platforms and gig work have recently received considerable attention (especially Labour and Industry, see e.g. Healy and Parker 2017; Halteh et al. 2018), addressing many of those themes identified by Townsend (Dean and Spoehr 2018; Howcroft and Rubery 2019; Peetz and Murray 2019). These issues are taken up in this special issue in a paper by Al Rainnie and Mark Dean that examines the conceptualisation behind industry 4.0 and the future of work and highlights how both concepts have been analysed in isolation from each other. The article presents a critique of the literature in both areas and locates it within a bigger picture of global supply chains and the labour process. Several issues are important to highlight: first the alleged inevitability of technological change; second the absence of contextualisation around the processes and institutions moderating technological change; and thirdly the uneven impact of technological change across industries, regions, nations and segregated workforces. Finally, there is the power that is vested with a few global corporations over platforms and the management of vast volumes of information, and the integration of global production systems and networks with the associated shifts in production, employment and employment conditions globally.

The paper by Jonathon Sale then examines the harmonisation of labour law in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region. While there are formal declarations regarding harmonisation through ASEAN charters and accords across the membership, the path to implementation is difficult. The paper takes the Philippines and Malaysia as examples of legal systems that occupy with hybrid legal systems that encompass common law, based on British and American legal systems, and civil law, based on continental systems (the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal). Through a comparative case study analysis the article highlights the difficulties and barriers towards labour law harmonisation, and how the different systems of labour law result in different outcomes in terms of labour regulation and employee rights at work. The realisation of the harmonisation goal is inhibited by history, national institutions, local politics and nationalism suggesting that while nations support regional charters and international charters on labour rights and conditions, the transmission of those regional and international declarations into national legal practice and the harmonisation across national jurisdictions remains problematic.

Gender equality and inclusion remains an important international convention supported by the signatories to UN and ILO charters. However, the realisation of gender equity remains a long and elusive goal as noted in the paper by Sue Williamson. The paper by Desmond Tutu Ayentimi, Hossein Ali Abadi, Bernice Adjei and John Burgess explores the path towards gender equity in a developing nation, Ghana, where the obstacles and potential benefits are acute. For developing economies there is the potential for large personal, community and national benefits if females can equitably access the labour market (World Economic Forum 2017)). Following the declaration of independence in 1957 the Ghanaian constitution enshrined gender equity that was in turn supported through support for international conventions on equality and by legislation and institutional developments that sought to improve opportunities for women in the workforce under the auspices of the National Council for Women. Since independence there has been progress in terms of improvements in women’s access to the formal labour market, to primary and secondary education, and to jobs in the public sector. However, access to tertiary education, political and leadership positions and to well paid and managerial jobs in the formal private sector has been limited. The paper considers the policy challenges facing Ghana to improve its record on gender equity.

The final paper in the volume is a research note by Hossein Ali Abadi, Desmond Tutu Ayentimi and Alan Coetzer that examines the nature and characteristics of a profession. The analysis of the status and conditions in professions is becoming an important consideration in employment research (e.g. Williams 2019). Through a literature review this paper establishes the ambiguity and confusion over what constitutes a profession. Their contribution seeks to develop a multi-disciplinary interpretation of a profession and to provide a comprehensive conceptualisation of a profession to guide further research. There is in turn an applied focus that is associated with the analysis, i.e. how does a group of workers with similar skills and competencies become classified as a profession and maintain its status? Is professionalisation bestowed through legal status and formal membership conditions, or is attached to those workers who possess certain skills that are recognised in the labour market? These are issues also related to considerations of gender, technological change and regulation more generally addressed in this special issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Desmond Tutu Ayentimi

Dr Desmond Tutu Ayentimi is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Lecturer of Management at the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics, University of Tasmania, Australia. His research interests include Multinational Enterprises HRM, technology and employment relations, cross-cultural management and HRD in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mathew Walker

Dr Matthew Walker is a Lecturer in the School of Management, College of Business and Law, at RMIT University in Melbourne. His research interests include social demography, the future of work, and regional social, economic and political transformation and sustainability.

Alex De Ruyter

Alex de Ruyter is a professor at Birmingham City University and serves as Director of its Center for Brexit Studies. De Ruyter focuses his research experience and academic engagement in the areas of globalization, regional economic development, labor market, and social exclusion issue. He is conducting research on the impact of Brexit on the UK automotive supply chain in addition to exploring working in the gig economy.

John Burgess

John Burgess is a professor of Human Resource Management at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. His current research projects include those focusing on human-resource development across sectors in Indonesia, the implications for the human resource profession of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the transition from education to employment.