Keith Hancock is honoured and celebrated in this work, following the significant contributions he made not only to academic research and teaching, but also to the practice of industrial relations, through the various roles he held as Professor, Vice-Chancellor, Senior Deputy President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and author of major government reviews and inquiries.

The workshop held in his honour included a number of commentators. More specifically, the following issues arising from the papers were actively debated:

  • Whether a decentralised and less regulated labour marketing is a necessary condition for meeting the requirements of global competition.
  • The effects of labour market deregulation on employment and the nature of employment on income distribution on wage inequality, on productivity, on work stress and on job satisfaction.
  • The consequences of labour market deregulation for Australians’ work/care regime.
  • The impact of labour market deregulation on trade unions.
  • Whether macro-economic, policy has been unduly restrained by the risk of inflation in a deregulated labour market.
  • How labour market deregulation has affected industrial relations as a field of study and research.
  • How the nature of rights and obligations of employers, employees and unions have been affected by the changes in labour market regulation.

Contributors include Keith Hancock, Ron McCallum, Barbara Pocock, Peter Saunders, Ron Callus, Sue Richardson, RG Gregory, Rae Cooper and Willy Brown.