Flexibility and regulation: 10 years of Job Network frontline services
Siobhan O'Sullivan, Mark Considine and Jenny Lewis
University of Melbourne
Contact Email:   siobhanounimelb.edu.au

Reform of the Australian employment sector was initiated by Paul Keating and subsequently intensified under the Howard Government, resulting in the privatisation of Australia’s employment services to an extent not seen in any other OECD country. In January 2008, with the ALP returned to office, the Rudd Government quickly undertook a review of Job Network, and concluded that Australia’s ‘new Employment Services will give Providers greater flexibility in how they respond to the opportunities and constraints in each community.’* In short, the Government’s current reform agenda is explicitly focused on provider discretion, elaborated services, and flexibility.

This paper uses survey data collected from frontline employment services staff in 1996 – 1999 and then again in 2008. In 2008, Australian frontline employment services professionals persistently reported a reduction in their level of workplace autonomy. At the same time, survey respondents reported an increased feeling that the decisions they make are governed by standardised rules and regulations, and that their IT system dictates how they perform their duties. In 2008, frontline staff working for for-profit, and not-for-profit agencies, reported similar feelings of rigidity. These findings suggest that employment services have become less discretionary and increasingly inflexible, over the last decade.

* Commonwealth of Australia (2008), Exposure draft of the new employment services 2009–12 purchasing arrangements, p.26.

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