AWAs: The High Road or the Low Road?

By John Rice and Doug Davies

Empirically assesses some of the propositions relating to the positive impacts of the introduction of AWAs and individual contracts within the Australian workplace

We study the impact of AWA adoption within 2028 Australian firms with between 20 and 200 employees. We find no support for the overall proposition that AWAs improve productivity and hence lead to increases in employment and wages. We offer some alternative conclusions, based upon the empirical evidence presented, as to their impact.

An alternative reading of the analysis would be that employers prefer the level of unilaterial managerial autonomy that AWAs can allow when hiring new employees. The higher bargaining and administrative costs of AWAs do not decrease total labour productivity for most workers, as these costs can be recouped through a lessening of total remuneration costs (wages and other benefits).

In: 21st Century Work: High Road or Low Road: Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) vol. 1