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Precarious work and Australian labour norms

Author

Listed:
  • Dale Tweedie
Abstract
Casual employment in Australia is more prevalent than temporary work in most European nations, and casual employees have fewer rights and entitlements than comparable temporary employment categories in Europe. Yet, despite Australia’s long history of industrial activism and political representation of labour, there are fewer examples of social or political movements in Australia resisting precarious work than in Europe. This article provides a partial explanation of this puzzling lack of social resistance to casual employment. It begins from the idea, developed by the Frankfurt School tradition of critical social theory, that economic systems can create or sustain norms that conceal their more harmful social effects from public view. It then uses conceptual categories drawn from critical social theory to show how individual and social costs of casual employment have been overlooked or ‘reified’ in the workplace and in public political discourse. The study is based on existing qualitative research and on a new analysis of attitudes to work and economic organisation in Australian public discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Dale Tweedie, 2013. "Precarious work and Australian labour norms," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 24(3), pages 297-315, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:24:y:2013:i:3:p:297-315
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304613494521
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Junor, 2004. "Casual University Work: Choice, Risk, Inequity and the Case for Regulation," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 14(2), pages 276-304, January.
    2. Hazel Conley, 2008. "The nightmare of temporary work: a comment on Fevre," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 22(4), pages 731-736, December.
    3. Watts, R, 2001. "The ACTU’s response to the growth in long-term casual employment in Australia," Australian Bulletin of Labour, National Institute of Labour Studies, vol. 27(2), pages 137-149.
    4. John Burgess & Iain Campbell & Robyn May, 2008. "Pathways from Casual Employment to Economic Security: the Australian Experience," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 161-178, August.
    5. Iain Campbell & John Burgess, 2001. "Casual Employment in Australia and Temporary Employment in Europe: Developing a Cross-National Comparison," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(1), pages 171-184, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jane Dixon & Cathy Banwell & Lyndall Strazdins & Lara Corr & John Burgess, 2019. "Flexible employment policies, temporal control and health promoting practices: A qualitative study in two Australian worksites," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Inga Laß & Mark Wooden, 2019. "Non-standard Employment and Wages in Australia," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2019-04, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Jul 2019.
    3. Sharni Chan & Dale Tweedie, 2016. "Understanding contemporary employment insecurity: Beck’s legacy," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 30(5), pages 896-898, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Decent work; flexibility; industrial relations; precarious work; security; sociology of work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J8 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics

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