Brave New Workplace: How Individual Contracts are Changing Our Jobs

Abstract

The push for individual contracts for employees overturns a century of collective efforts to create basic rights and a 'fair go' in Australian workplaces. David Peetz delves underneath the layers of corporate and government doublespeak that surround this most heated issue to uncover what is really happening in relations between employers and employees. He explains who benefits from individual contracts and who doesn't, and how this will change the way we work. He locates individual workplace contracts in a wider debate about whether we are moving away from collective ideals towards individualistic values. From offices to shops, schools, hospitals and mines, individual contracting affects every single employee in Australia. Brave New Workplace is compelling reading for anyone who wants to understand the brave new world of work.