This book focuses on new developments in employment in Asia. The context for this discussion is provided by the processes of globalisation, and the associated debate on labour standards. Individual chapters focus on issues such as the role of NGOs as surrogate unions, employment regulation in export processing zones, social protection, and the impact of political reform on the employment relationship.
This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal Asia Pacific Business Review.

Australian Workplace Relations explains the defining themes in workplace relations in the twenty-first century. It explores issues relating to employee voice, declining trade union membership, occupational health, disadvantaged workers and surveillance in the workplace. The treatment of each topic is placed in both a national and an international context. The book examines the effects on Australian workplace relations of globalisation, the changing international economy and the Global Financial Crisis. It provides a comprehensive examination of the Fair Work Act 2009. Case studies provide in-depth explorations of four important sectors of the economy: health, retail and hospitality, the public sector and motor vehicle components. The textbook includes additional resources for students and lecturers on a companion website: Power-Point slides, lists for further reading, additional case studies and links to websites. Comprehensive and fully cross-referenced, Australian Workplace Relations is an invaluable resource for upper-level undergraduate students of workplace, employee or industrial relations.

What is the scope and scale of corporatisation and privatisation in Australia in the past two decades and what are their implications for management, labour and industrial relations? This book documents the extensive scale of this process of state restructuring and the increasing variation in the arrangements for providing public goods and services, often accompanied by uncertainty. It shows many sectors of the community to be increasingly distrustful of their impact and consequences, and the way in which policy makers find themselves caught between promoting the reforms, predominantly for economic reasons, and answering to this suspicious community. It shows that it is those who actually provide public services who feel the changes most acutely, as they face questions about ownership, find their arrangements for work patterns and organization recast, and suffer increasing insecurity about work and employment futures. The book grapples with these issues through a series of case studies on Qantas, Telstra, the electricity industries in NSW and Victoria, Job Network, Local government and the Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria. These seven case studies, three of privatisations by the Australian Federal Government, and four of change initiated by State Governments, provide a detailed analysis of the resulting changes in employment and industrial relations.