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This paper presents the case study of a culturally diverse, inner suburban, primary school located on a government housing estate. We report on high levels of stress amongst the teachers at the school and find evidence of professional bureaucratic conflict. Two main findings are reported. First, that teacher stress is attributed to a combination of factors: the unique school characteristics which are not fully acknowledged by the governing bureaucracy; the ensuing professional-bureaucratic conflict resulting from a lack of acknowledgment and inadequate resourcing; and importantly, tensions relating to professional values and standards. Second, that stress can be somewhat ameliorated by the use of proactive teacher and whole-school responses, and that further reduction of stress requires a systemic response.

Byline: Rosaria Burchielli Based on labour process theory proposing that work intensification is integral to the exploitation and subordination of labour, this study uses case-data from an Australian Primary School (APS) to analyse changes to teachers' work, work intensification and its causes. In particular, the study seeks to determine whether broader public sector management changes contribute to work intensification. The study contends that the adoption of business model approaches to public sector management have effected change in the education sector and influenced teachers' workloads and working hours. Using teachers' reports of extended working hours, work overload and perceptions of pressure and exploitation, the paper concludes that increasing 'managerialism' in the public sector helps to explain teachers' work intensification.

Despite key universal characteristics of homework that render it complex and challenging to protect, Australia has a comprehensive suite of regulatory (legislative and non-legislative) mechanisms protecting garment homeworkers. This article proposes that it was the intense and sustained campaigning and mobilisation efforts of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, undertaken together with the FairWear Campaign and Asian Women at Work, which enabled the emergence and development of these mechanisms. We examine these homework initiatives, applying the lens of responsive regulation theory, to derive implications for global homeworker organisations, shaping their regulatory environments. The article concludes that legislative outcomes alone are insufficient and a combined strategy that encompasses campaigning, legislative reform and social movement strategies that involve the participation of homeworkers are more likely to ensure effective and ongoing homeworker protection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within gender studies, research and theorizing have used archetypal 'masculine' occupations to explore how masculinity is accomplished and practised in social interaction. In contrast, little work has explored how masculinity is constructed in the voluntary sector. In this paper, we address this gap by exploring how masculinity is constructed and experienced by women volunteers who are active firefighters in rural and regional Victoria. Firefighting is widely recognized as a non-traditional occupation for women and they are underrepresented as volunteers as well as paid employees. We explore masculinity from the perspective of women volunteers because this can enhance our understanding of masculinity as a relational achievement as well as help to identify practices that they experience as problematic. Our research shows how voluntary work can afford a distinct range of resources for the 'doing' of gender and how this reflects the specific organizational and geographical contexts in which such volunteering occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By directly accessing women’s accounts of their active and ex-volunteer fire-fighting at the Australian Country Fire Authority (CFA), this paper seeks to understand women’s experiences in fire-fighting. The study documents the voices of women in work where they are mostly conspicuous by their absence, thus contributing to the small body of empirical studies of women in fire-fighting. Findings confirm the underrepresentation of women and provide evidence of horizontal and vertical gender segregation. Women fire-fighters are significantly challenged and discriminated against by individual and organisational behaviours. Other findings of this study are the co-existence of hostile and positive job factors for women fire-fighters; and women’s tolerance for complexity and paradox. These are scarcely documented in the literature on non-traditional occupations for women, and the paper suggests explanations based on concepts such as agency and coping strategies. Although women fire-fighters at the CFA had only a partial understanding of factors contributing to gender segregation, they voiced a desire and directions for organisational improvement to address gender issues. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) statement of union values as its point of departure to explore the purpose and role of trade union values. Specifically, the paper questions whether the role of values is purely symbolic, serving as a guide to unions, or whether values have a broader role. Furthermore, the paper questions the scope of the ACTU statement, which is currently based on the public work of unions. In conducting this analysis, union values are compared to the broader human values; moreover, the scope of the document is assessed against the historic activity and behaviour of unions as represented in extant union theory. Subsequently, the paper uses the emerging role of union values to critique the ACTU statement, concluding that while this statement makes a valuable contribution to union practice and debate, it can be extended to encompass other, more private areas of union activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]