When neoliberals coordinate: The COVID labour market policy response in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom

Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/83343413614

Abstract:

The COVID crisis triggered changes to labour market policy and regulation worldwide. National governments of different political orientations and in countries with distinct institutional traditions developed measures to protect businesses and workers affected by the pandemic. This presentation examines the adoption of job retention schemes in response to the COVID pandemic and recession in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It seeks to explain the puzzle of why neoliberal governments in these countries, which in recent years have been hostile or ambivalent to coordinating with non-market actors and to worker-protective policy measures, worked with employer associations and trade unions to develop job retention schemes. The presentation draws on analysis of 41 elite interviews and secondary sources to theorise the displacement effects of exogenous shocks on national labour market policy traditions.

Speakers:

Chris F. Wright is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School. His research focuses primarily on comparative employment relations, labour immigration, skills, and institutions. He is co-editor of International and Comparative Employment Relations: Global Crises and Institutional Responses and his work has been published widely including in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, ILR Review, Industrial Relations, Governance, and the Journal of Business Ethics.

Colm McLaughlin is Professor of Employment Relations at the UCD College of Business, University College Dublin and Co-Director of the UCD Centre for Business and Society. His research focuses on comparative and institutional employment relations and compares the effectiveness of different forms of employment regulation in achieving public policy outcomes around decent work and equality. His work has been published in leading journals including Industrial Relations, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Industrial Law Journal, Cambridge Journal of Economics, and Academy of Management Learning and Education.