Changing work trends examined in workshop

The University of Queensland's Social and Economic Research Centre will hold a one-day conference on non-standard employment and its implications for economic and social life, on Thursday, March 26.

The Minister for Training and Industrial Relations, Santo Santoro, will open the program at 9am at Brisbane Customs House.

University reader in economics Associate Professor John Mangan will give a keynote address at 9.15am entitled: Non-standard employment in Queensland: Trends, Causes and Implications.

Social and Economic Research Centre senior research associate John Johnston said there was clear evidence of a strong trend, both internationally and nationally, of a shift away from the traditional full-time engagement in work to increasing part-time and casual work, and an increasing use of dependent contractors in both the public and private sectors.

'These changes have significant implications for the operation and structure of the labour market; the purchase and provision of training; management responses; attitudes to occupational health and safety and equity issues, particularly on the grounds of age and gender,' he said.

'There are winners and losers in such changes and it is important that those concerned are able to identify and manage these.'

Mr Johnston said the conference would examine these issues and would launch a monograph Non-Standard Employment: An Analysis written by Dr Mangan and published by the Department of Training and Industrial Relations.

For further information, contact Mr Johnston, telephone 07 3365 6663, email: j.johnston@mailbox.uq.edu.au, or Dr Mangan, telephone 07 3365 6312, email: j.mangan@mailbox.uq.edu.au