Journal of Industrial Relations

The division of the Australian labour market into two parts—a male labour market and a female labour market—is documented. This type of dualism in the labour market is inherent in the institutions of the economy and the society. A socio-economic model which generates either male occupations or female occupations, and in which a true mixed sex occupation is the exceptional case, is developed. Integration of the labour market requires a comprehensive and integrated set of policy measures and it is essential to know when an occu pation is about to "switch" from a male occupation to a female occupation if policy measures are to be effective.

Considered in the aggregate, levels of, and trends in industrial dispute activity, 1968-73, conformed to earlier post-World War II experience, except that the long-term trend to declining time lost in disputes per striker may have been undergoing a reversal. In non-manufacturing industry, the stevedoring sector in all States except Victoria registered lower levels of Employee-loss due to disputes than those pertaining as long-run averages. In manufacturing, there was indication of some relationship between level of Employee-loss and degree of concentration of employment, from sector to sector. Instability of strike pattern was associated with relatively low, average, sectoral Employee-loss. There was some tentative evidence to suggest that, given the capacity of an industry to pay its employees, it may be that the militancy of those employees as expressed in working days lost per striker can have an impact on prevailing average wage per employee.

As early as 1934 the shop committees in the New South Wales railways were beginning to acquire the characteristics of a cohesive industrial force. An important factor in their development up to this time was the disastrous effect for Labor of the general strike in 1917 in the railways. The shop com mittees did not seek to replace the existing structures of trade unionism but to coexist with them. At the same time the authority and influertce of the movement depended in part on maintaining a measure of independence from the union hierarchy. This led to an uneasy relationship between the shop committees and some trade unions which climaxed with the expulsion of the Central Council of Railway Shop Committees from "observer" status represen tation at meetings of the Sydney Trades and Labour Council.

The Australian and Japanese bureaucratic systems are characterized by a number of differences. These differences are evident in the pattern of recruit ment. In the Japanese system, a close relationship exists between the level (measured in terms of success) of an organization and the standard of graduate intake. Furthermore, the relationship exists in the other direction, i.e. univer sities judge their own status by where their graduates go. Further, in Japan there is a strong nexus between private and public bureaucracies as parts of the same structural system.

Despite the growing overseas interest in public sector industrial relations this field has received very little attention in Australia. Using Dunlop's "systems" approach this paper analyses industrial relations in the N.S.W. Public Service with the intention of comparing industrial relations in this public sector with the situation prevailing in most private sectors. Firstly, the legal and economic frameworks within which the system operates are examined and this is followed by an investigation of the relevant unions and the employer group. Then, attention is focused on the wage adjustment procedures: negotiation and arbitration.

The analysis reveals that this public sector industrial relations system pos sesses a number of features of considerable analytical interest: features which clearly differentiate it from the systems common to the private sector.