Government, Management and Unions: the Public Service Under the Workplace Relations Act

Abstract

The paper argues that when governments seek to regulate the working conditions and wages of their own employees in n decentralising industrial environment there is potential for tension between the roles of government as employer ; as policy generator and as financial controller. The paper discusses the federal coalition govern ment's agenda in the Australian Public Service under tbe Workplace Relations Act 1996, and the potential for tensions to arise from a process that simultaneously insists on oversight from the centre and requires the exercise of greater responsibility by agency managements. Moreover; the paper examines the ability of the Community and Public Sector Union to retain its legitimacy at a workplace level in this contradictory environ ment, and its capacity to counter managerial attempts to marginalise the union during the first round of agreement making.