Employer Association

 It has been said that 'employer associations are merely unions for employers'. Define and discuss the role of employer associations and compare and contrast the services provided by employer associations with those provided by unions to their members to determine whether or not there is merit in this statement.

Introduction

Employer association being the significant part of industrial relation had been aimed to balance the power between employee and employer. It sounds the flip side of union where they have formed to give voice to the employee and protect their right, however, over a period of time, union strong presence created a vacancy for employer to be united for their interest. However, it has been questioned that whether these association are acting as union for the employers, and to analyze this issue, this paper aims to investigate its back ground of evolution, role they play in contrast with union, their structure and aim and their shift of focus with the effect of decentralization to understand their presence in the Australian Industrial Relation as a union or individual service provider.

Evolution of employer association

Since the inception of Industrial Relation Arbitral model, Australia, collective bargaining has been a recognized part of it though its significance has changed greatly over the time of twentieth century and in various sectors, nevertheless, it remained a secondary module in settling up wage discrimination as the formal system until the 1980s. However, from the mid-1980s, the changes of legislative system and wage fixing doctrine have created the approach for enterprise bargaining as the key method to determine the wage and conditions of employment and evolve the importance of employer association (Grahan 2012).

In this context, Plowman , the scholar of industrial relation did a consistent research who argues that Employer Association in Australia have formed reactively in response to the enforced arbitration and the progress of trade union and these associations are continuing to be reactive in their actions (Barry 1995, pp. 543). However, some other research further argues by using many case studies of various employer association that they were not exclusively reactive, they were also contributed in shaping many employment relation issue for many industry (Woolcock & Jerrard 2009).

Furthermore, the united effort of employer had contributed largely to the evolution of industrial law in Australia in the mid-1980s and they wanted to have new scenario in terms of political interventions regarding collective bargaining and agreement and further to achieve real changes to the legal structure that governs the industrial relation processes. Before that, Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) and its federal ancestors was notably the Arbitration Tribunals used to play the key role in settling the dispute in Australia, therefore to reduce the power of tribunals in controlling employment relation and settling disputes, to weaken the involvement in this process and the increased challenges of trade union are the major forces that drive the employers to be committed to evolve this new era of decentralised enterprise level bargaining and agreement-making (Thornthwaite & Sheldon 2011). Furthermore, in addition to beginning a collective bargaining laws, key government interventions in that period was fixing the lowest wages/salary and limiting the working hours, introducing organizational safety rules and regulation and trade union acknowledgment and thus, the common objective of employer unity against the government intervention was to protect managerial prerogative and to become a strong voice for employers to influence government on industrial relation related issues (Hay et al. 2006, p. 260)

The Role of Employer Association

Employer association opened the right for the employers to institute and join an association which will represent them in collective bargaining process, however the membership of employer of employer association for an employer is optional and the demand of the association depends on the need of the employer and services provided by the association (Woolcock & Jerrard 2009). Therefore the prime role of the association is to face and deal the challenges from union and government intervention and to fulfill their objective they develop strategic roles and action on behalf or represent the employers (Sheldon et al. 2016). Specifically, associations offer the employers with ‘collective goods’ and furthermore, “non-exclusive” and “non-market solutions” in addition to their support to employers in  collective bargaining, influencing governments, and  promoting policy in related to Industrial Relation (Woolcock & Jerrard 2009, p. 39)