International Webinar: Building a New Social Contract

Description

There is a long-recognised need for a new social contract that better fits the workforce and economy. However, the emergence of the COVID-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement makes action all the more necessary and urgent. 

Professor Thomas (Tom) A Kochan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), MIT Sloan School of Management and Moderator Professor Margaret Gardner AC, President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University discuss how to move forward by incorporating these issues into a new social contract at work and in a society that is more productive, equitable, inclusive and resilient. Tom Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor and the CoDirector of the MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He focuses on the need to update work and employment policies, institutions, and practices to catch up with a changing workforce and economy. His recent work calls attention to the challenges facing working families in meeting their responsibilities at work, at home, and in their communities. Through empirical research, he demonstrates that fundamental changes in the quality of employee and labour-management relations are needed to address critical problems in industries ranging from healthcare to airlines to manufacturing. His most recent book is Shaping the Future of Work. His many other publications include such books as: Up in the Air: How Airlines can Improve Performance by Engaging Their Employees, with Bamber, G.J., Gittell, J. H., & von Nordenflycht, A.; Healing Together: The Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership, with Eaton, A., McKersie, R., & Adler, P., both of the latter books are with Cornell University Press. He a global affiliate of the International Consortium for Research in Employment & Work (iCREW), Centre for Global Business, Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Professor Margaret Gardner AC attained a PhD in Industrial Relations at the University of Sydney, was a Professor in the field at Griffith University and was a Fulbright Fellow in the USA, including at MIT. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Chair of the Group of Eight – a coalition of world-leading research-intensive Australian universities; a Director of Infrastructure Victoria, and of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. She has served as President of: Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, as Patron of the Industrial Relations Society of Queensland, and on various other boards and committees, including the Australian-American Fulbright Commission.

This webinar was organised by the International Consortium for Research in Employment and Work (iCREW), Centre for Global Business (CGB) at Monash Business School, together with the Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association (ALERA) and the Industrial Relations Society of Victoria (IRSV).

The webinar convenor was Professor Greg Bamber, President ALERA; Director, iCREW (CGB) and Professor in the Department of Management at Monash Business School. Dr Marjorie Jerrard, Senior Lecturer in Employment Relations, Department of Management, Monash Business School is Deputy Director, iCREW.  Professor Chongwoo Choe is Director, CGB; Shahab Sazegar is CGB Coordinator.

The leading on-line publication www.workplaceexpress.com.au published a report of the webinar as attached.