An Unusual Shade of Green: Greenfield Cases and Greenfield Agreements in Australia 2006 -2012

Abstract

Greenfield Agreements are a small but interesting segment of collective agreement making in Australia. The developers of any new undertaking may make a Greenfield agreement with a union as long as no employees are yet employed on the site. This research project utilises multi – method approach, starting from an examination of the greenfield case literature, then moving to an analysis of the Workplace Agreements Database held in the Department of Employment and categorisation of the Greenfield agreements made in the research period. A series of interviews was then conducted with managers, employees and union officials to answer the research questions. Examination of Greenfield agreements made between 2006 and 2012 reveals three broad segments of industry who use this form of agreement, large projects in construction, third party labour service providers and new ventures. This demonstrates that the situation in Australia is different to the enterprises defined in the literature on greenfield sites which only focuses on new ventures. While the literature posits that there is significant transformational potential in Greenfield sites, this thesis finds that the evidence for Greenfield agreements being used for innovative employment relations is limited. Study of the largest segment of Greenfield agreements in large construction projects reveals that these agreements were used by actors to create consistency in wages and conditions on construction project sites. Third party labour service providers used Greenfield agreements to minimise wages and conditions in a bid to win contracts for new work. There is some evidence of managers seeking new forms of work organisation and human resource management in new ventures but the Greenfield agreements on for these sites have not been the vehicle for this transformation.