Advanced Studies in Industrial Relations

Running head: ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. Analysis on the role of unions................................................................................................2
3. The success of the union........................................................................................................2
4. Recommendations for the betterment of the union................................................................3
5. Implications of the role of union in the contemporary Australian society.............................4
6. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................4
7. Reference................................................................................................................................5

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ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
1. Introduction
In the Australian history, NSW worker dispute can be considered as one of the
popular worker movement. The train worker dispute has become the major concern for the
Australian government in the current scenario. The NSW worker strike was against the
Transport management and transport minister of Australia. It has been identified that due to
the long tuning industrial dispute, the wages related issues in Australia has encouraged the
employees towards the movements against the industrial activities (Gospel, Pendleton and
Vitols 2014). It has been identified that due to the increasing numbers of challenges regarding
the time table and wages, the dissatisfaction among NSW rail workers has increased. It has
been identified that the NSW workers have decided to strike for 24 hours because of their
dispute pay structure. Not only the rail workers, but also bus and tram union have participated
in the strike for solving their management issues. Due to the improper wages infrastructure
and lack of flexible working time table, the union attempted the negotiation process for more
than 9000 workers from last 6 months. It has been identified that the NSW trains
management has refused to participate in the negotiation process. They refused to introduce
the fair enterprise agreement, which has created the dissatisfaction among the workers. After
this situation, the workers had decided to stop their work at 12.01 am on 29th January, 2018.
In order to implement the strike plan, the commuters had been informed by the Unions for
alternative arrangements (Forsyth 2012). In this study the role of the union will be analysed
by highlighting the NSW worker union. After discussing the role of the union, whether it was
successful for that particular situation or not has been highlighted. Analysing both the
positive and negative side of the unions, the measurable recommendations have been
discussed in the paper. At the end of the study thee implications of the unions, in Australian
contemporary society have been discussed.
2. Analysis on the role of unions
In order to fight for the workers’ right, the role of unions is important. The union
plays the role to resolve the organizational problems in case of improving the situation of the
employees in workplace. The goal of the unions is to provide better environment to the
employee in the workplace, so that the work- life balance can be maintained. On the other
hand, it cannot be denied that health and job security regarding issues are being considered as
the important role of the unions. In other words, it can be said that the role of union is to
empower the workers so that they will be able to negotiate for their own rights. Union

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ADVANCED STUDIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
encourages the workers for raising their voice for their favourable working condition (Dahlen
et al. 2012). It is true that depending on the initiatives of the unions, the healthy relationship
between the management and the employees are being maintained. The compensation as well
as the job security structure in an organization is being influenced by the active initiatives of
the organization. In case of NSW worker union, it can be said that the union was established
in1871. In case of this union, the fund comes from the organizations. It has been identified
that in the current situation, the union has raised its voice for all the working people in
Australia. By introducing the effective working policies and following the legislations, the
aim of the union is to provide the healthy working environment to the employees (Hogan
2012).
Since 1972, the NSW worker union is fighting for bringing the improvement in
workers’ life. After the different initiatives of NSW unions, the sick leave expansion,
increasing annual leave and long service leave have become possible in for the employees.
With different initiatives of NSW union, fair work act, minimum wages, casual works,
unfair dismissal, discrimination and redundancy act have been introduced in the workplace. It
is responsibly of the unions to monitor if the national employment standard is being
maintained or not (Australianunions.org.au 2018). By introducing the flexible working
facility, the NSW has tried to arrange time for children care. After the birth of child, the 12
months unpaid parental leave has been introduced the Australian union. By following the
Minimum wages structure rule, the NSW union has introduced the 24 hours strike, so that
employees will get proper wages (Australianunions.org.au 2018). Therefore, this can be said
that, role of union is essential in terms of maintaining the employment standard in the
workplace.
After analysing the situations of the role of the NSW unions in 24 hours NSW over
pay dispute case, it can be said that due to the active participation of NSW union, the workers
have raised their voice against the terrible management system of Australian government. it
cannot be denied that due to the active participation of the union, the Australian government
has agreed to discuss the matter with the workers. Due to lack of flexible time table and lack
of decent recognition, the union has raised voice against the management. Due to the active
participation of the union throughout the year, the major number of works has supported their
initiatives (Australianunions.org.au 2018). Therefore, this can be said that the role of the
unions is very important in case of bringing the employment standard in the workplace. It is
also true that depending on the union performance, the overall benefits of the employees are