Current Initiatives to Encourage Fair and Cooperative Work Practices

Centre Members: J. Howe
Research Staff: J. Cotton, S. Sempill
Associates: A. Forsyth

In April 2008, the Victorian Office of the Workplace Rights Advocate ('VWRA') commissioned Associate Professor John Howe and Centre Associate Associate Professor Anthony Forsyth of Monash University to prepare a research report on 'Current Initiatives to Encourage Fair and Cooperative Workplace Practices'. Associate Professor Howe and Associate Professor Forsyth completed their report in June 2008.

The research report provided a survey of initiatives adopted in Australia and internationally (including in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the United States of America) to promote 'fair employment' and related concepts such as 'workplace cooperation', 'workplace partnership' and 'workplace innovation'. The report surveyed Australian and international experience – covering 'light touch' regulatory initiatives (such as employer recognition schemes, funding programs, and codes of practice); industry-specific initiatives and industry-government engagement; and programs administered by public agencies, particularly dispute resolution agencies.

The report also provided a closer analysis of government 'capacity-building' and the institutional framework for promoting fair employment, cooperation and partnership practices in two 'case study' countries: Ireland and New Zealand, and undertook an evaluation of the most significant and relevant initiatives examined in this study from the Victorian perspective.