Employer and employer association matters in Australia in 2020. (June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thornthwaite, Louise; Sheldon, Peter
• Other Names: Clibborn Stephen guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of industrial relations. Volume 63:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 357
• Page End: 376
• Publication Date: 2021-06
• Subjects: Employer -- employer associations -- enterprise bargaining -- legislation -- politics -- social licence; Industrial relations -- Periodicals; Industrial relations -- Australia -- Periodicals; 331.05
• DOI: 10.1177/00221856211000406
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1856

Abstract

The emphasis of employers and employer associations, when 2020 began, was largely business as usual. With the pandemic's advent, employers and associations reoriented some industrial relations activity, which encouraged cooperation while also highlighting sharp divisions. As the year progressed, however, it became increasingly apparent that the federal government's responses to the pandemic provided unanticipated opportunities for the employer movement to push intensively their long-expressed desires for changes to the institutional structures of industrial relations, and hence also bargaining and other processes. This article examines these and other activities which preoccupied employers and their associations in 2020 while also analysing some broader environmental, social and governance challenges affecting employer groups, which impact on their purpose and place within the employer movement more generally.