The principle of decent work was first espoused in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since 1999 the International Labour Organisation has operated according to a Decent Work Agenda and in recent times the movement towards the provision of decent work as a means of improving the quality of life has gathered momentum. Decent work is…

Recent attempts at professionalising the youth sector have focused on "codes of ethics" and left pay and conditions issues to community sector unions. The authors suggest that the history of nursing in Victoria provides a case example of the benefits of combining professional aspirations with industrial organisation.

Data from the 1989 Canadian Labour Market Activity Survey and 1989-90 Australian Income Distribution Survey suggest that a lower rate of return to education and labor market experience and a lower level of wage inequality in Australia are responsible for the smaller gender wage gap in Australia than in Canada. (SK)

A 20-year study indicated that educational salaries at all levels have continuously declined relative to the average weekly earnings in Australia. Possible explanations are the role of government, the national teachers' union policy toward different payment systems, and the cultural attitude toward intellectual endeavor. (JOW)

The trend in Australia toward a broader scope of collective bargaining implies that college faculty bargaining may extend to aging and pensions, tenure, leaves of absence, conditions of fixed-term appointments, criteria for promotion and dismissal, staffing redundancy, and other issues. (MSE)

Implications of academic collective bargaining and unionization in Australian higher education are examined in the context of different models of bargaining advocated by the national government and federal opposition. Problems foreseen include diminution of employment conditions, morale, staff quality, and instructional quality as well as…

The relationship between the Australian province of Victoria's nonacademic college staff union and the more specialized postsecondary education remuneration committee is examined and the history of both organizations reviewed. The current and potential influences of the two groups in Victorian higher education are discussed. (MSE)

A government official in industrial relations and former university administrator chronicles the emergence of unions in Australian universities and discusses the current state of academic trade unionism, focusing on the restructuring of the compensation system and the problems resulting from the process. (MSE)