This article summarizes the effects of the Howard Government's `Work Choices' amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996, based on qualitative analysis of its impact on 121 low paid women workers. The main effects of the regulatory changes are on job security, income, voice, working time and redundancy pay. The analysis draws attention to the nexus between protection from unfair dismissal and security of working time and employee voice: many of those interviewed in the study had lost access to protection from unfair dismissal and as a consequence could no longer effectively influence their working hours, or request flexibility. Employer prerogative was perceived to have strengthened in many of their workplaces, with consequences for the intensity of work. The analysis suggests that improvements in minimum standards and job security are vital if low paid workers like those included in the study are to exercise voice over working time and avoid significant deteriorations in their pay and conditions.

The Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) introduces a national cash-for-care model for disability support and care. The NDIS has been hailed as a significant advance in social care provision for people with disability, bringing both additional funding and choice and control. However, little attention has been paid to how the shift to a cash-for-care system will impact on the working conditions of disability support workers. The international literature suggests three main factors shape better or poorer employment outcomes for workers in cash-for-care schemes: the extent to which cost containment underpins scheme design; the regulation and monitoring of care delivery; and the regulation of care employment. In this article, we explore these factors through an analysis of the planning, design and initial implementation of the NDIS and make a preliminary assessment of how the new scheme might shape care workers' employment conditions.

Mental health peer work is attracting growing interest and provides a potentially impactful method of service user involvement in mental health design and delivery, contributing to mental health reform. The need to effectively support this emerging workforce is consequently increasing. This study aimed to better understand the views of management in relation to peer work and specifically explores the value of peer work from the perspective of management. This qualitative research employed grounded theory methods. There were 29 participants in total, employed in both peer designated and non-peer designated management roles, in not for profit and public health organisations in Queensland, Australia. The value of peer work as described by participants is found to be partially dependent on practical supports and strategies from the organisation. There were high benefits for all facets of the organisation when effective recruitment and ongoing support for peer workers was prioritised and a higher perception of limitations when they were not. Due to some parallels, it may be useful to explore the potential for peer work to be conceptually and/or practically considered as a form of diversity and inclusion employment.

Marketised models of social care provision in Australia are placing pressures on service providers and driving changes in work organisation and employer practices, with potential to degrade social care jobs. While international experience of marketised social care has demonstrated the vulnerability of social care workers to wage theft and other violations of employment laws, Australia's relatively strong industrial relations safety net might be expected to be better able to protect these low-paid workers. Nevertheless, there is emerging evidence of negative impacts on the pay and entitlements of frontline workers in the expanding community support and homecare workforce. This study investigates the paid and unpaid work time of disability support workers under Australia's new National Disability Insurance Scheme. The research takes a novel approach combining analysis of working day diaries and qualitative interviews with employees to expose how jobs are being fragmented and work is being organised into periods of paid and unpaid time, leaving employees paid below their minimum entitlement. The article highlights the role of social care policy along with inadequate employment regulation.

Research has identified ‘personalised risks’ for workers due to changes in the public/private dimensions of care where workers are directly employed or engaged by care users in individualised care systems. Drawing on interviews with workers in Australia’s new individualised disability services market, the research explores personalised risk and the effects of involvement in personalised care relationships of market-based organisations, including online digital care platforms. It finds that rather than having a protective role, both digital platforms and employing organisations can increase risks for workers in individualised care relationships.