Equal employment opportunity, employment restructuring and enterprise bargaining: complementary or contradictory?

This article investigates the relationship and intersection between three employment developments of the past decade: the restructuring of employment, notably the growth in non-standard employment forms, the implementation of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity legislation, and the development of enterprise based decentralised bargaining. The central issue investigated is whether the employment conditions of women workers have been enhanced, unaffected or regressed by these developments. Of particular interest is whether enterprise bargaining and employment restructuring are compatible with the implementation of equal-employment-opportunity-based employment conditions for women workers. The article argues that employment restructuring and enterprise bargaining are unlikely to realise the goals associated with equal employment opportunity legislation. Indeed, many women workers will find it difficult to retain existing employment conditions. The likely impact of the federal Workplace Relations Act 1996 on the employment conditions of women workers is examined and found to offer nothing which will assist women workers to maintain standards of employment.