Journal of Industrial Relations

Australian public school teachers work some of the longest weekly hours among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, particularly in the state of New South Wales where average hours are officially in, or near, the statistical category of ‘very long working hours’. These reports of a high workload have occurred alongside recent policy moves that seek to devolve responsibility for schooling, augmenting teacher and school-level accountability. This article explores changes in work demands experienced by New South Wales teachers. As part of a larger project on schools as workplaces, we examine teaching professionals’ views through interviews with teacher union representatives. Consistent with a model of work intensification, workload increases were almost universally reported, primarily in relation to ‘paperwork’ requirements. However, differences in the nature of intensification were evident when data were disaggregated according to socio-educational advantage, level of schooling (primary or secondary) and location. The distinct patterns of work intensification that emerge reflect each school’s relative advantage or disadvantage within the school marketplace, influenced by broader neoliberal reforms occurring within the state and nation.

There has been considerable research and policy debate over the enforcement and decriminalization of occupational health and safety legislation, particularly regarding its capacity to deal with serious harm. Reference has been made to community attitudes to work fatalities, but the perspectives of those most directly affected, the bereaved families, have received little attention. Drawing on evidence from detailed interviews with 44 Australian family members, this article seeks to rectify this omission. Findings highlight the importance of investigative and prosecutorial processes to bereaved families who seek justice, some assurance that culpable behaviours are not condoned, and the implementation of measures to prevent a recurrence. However, reinforcing previous research critical of the degree of enforcement and advocating for a more readily implementable offence of industrial manslaughter, the vast majority of those interviewed were critical of the processes that occurred. Far from assisting, these processes generally left families very dissatisfied with their experiences.

We assess the effects of reductions in wage premiums (‘penalty rates’) for Sunday work and some of the ideas underpinning them, first by reference to evidence from official and other quantitative data about its likely impact, and second by reference to qualitative data concerning the nature of the choices available to Sunday workers in those industries. We investigate who retail and hospitality employees are (e.g. are they mostly students who can ‘afford’ a cut in penalty rates?). We then find significant and widespread income losses arising from cuts to penalty rates, even after allowing for contested employment gains, though we cannot quantify all possibilities, such as the potential effects of ‘loaded rates’ (though if implemented these would intensify losses for people working public holidays or Sundays). Many workers in retail and hospitality were under financial pressure, had little ‘control’ or found Sunday work difficult, but some were concerned about the effects of refusing Sunday work. Our study has implications for the meaning of ‘choice’ and contributes to understanding uncertainty regarding labour supply behaviour amongst low-income workers.

Analysing labour migration through the lens of intersectionality provides valuable insights into the complex identities of women migrant workers and the multiple discriminations they struggle with. Intersectionality advocates argue that only through adopting such an approach can women’s multiple discriminations be challenged. Drawing on a case study of seven non-governmental organisations and one focus group of women migrant workers in a non-Western context, Malaysia, we explore how advocacy organisations understand, interpret and adopt an intersectional approach in advancing the rights of its women migrant workers. We show that there are challenges, specific to the local context, which reduce the likelihood of organisations doing so. The Malaysian experience likely has significance for similar advocacy in other Asian countries.

This article uses national-level data to examine the benefits for workers of better skill utilisation and the question of how opportunities to use skills in the workplace can be enhanced. Analysis of the New Zealand data in the 2005 and 2015 rounds of the International Social Survey Programme confirms that better skill utilisation is generally associated with a broad range of beneficial outcomes, including higher employee income, better opportunities for career advancement, higher job satisfaction, greater organisational commitment and lower turnover intentions. In addition, skill utilisation serves as a significant mediator between work autonomy and employee outcomes, particularly in the 2015 survey. As a general rule, better utilisation of employee skills will occur in organisational climates in which employee autonomy is encouraged.

Select studies on aesthetic labour explore how race becomes a component in ‘looking good’ for customers. However, there is little mention of how race is also salient in ‘sounding right’. This article addresses this issue by exploring the impact of race on the vocal demands placed on aesthetic labourers. Using raciolinguistics, a field that investigates the interconnections between language and race, the article specifically notes how two sites of language-focused aesthetic labour, English language teaching and Indian call centres, reinforce conceptions of sounding right that privilege Whiteness. A review of the literature from these sites highlights how looking good and sounding right constitute one another. Indeed, while a White body in English language teaching signifies nativeness/clarity in English, Indian call centre agents make themselves look better in the minds of western callers by ‘whitening’ their voices. These examples act as a call to simultaneously examine the racialized body and voice in future aesthetic labour research.