Research Paper on:
State Role and Employee Relations

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
unachievable and impossible state of being. Conversely, if we look to writers such as Adam Smith and his treatise entitles The Wealth of Nations, it is the free market economy  that is seen as the most desirable, with government only having a role to regulate so that competition may thrive. It is this role of government in the employment relationship  that has become controversial over the years. Public policies has swung between non- interventionist and totally regulatory. This is often assumed to be as a result of government, with labour  governments and left wing policies seeking to protect workers, with measures such as minimum wages, arguing that workers do not have the power in the relationship, and therefore regulation is  required to even the balance of power so that workers are not exploited. The converse has been true, with right wing or conservative government arguing that to interfere too much  may create a situation where firms are unable to compete and investment is not seen as advantageous in terms of the returns it may produce. Non intervention is then seen  as more desirable as it is argued that market forces will create an environment where an employer sets wages in relations to supply and demand, and as such equilibrium will  be met with employees able to change employers if they are unhappy. In reality there is usually a situation where balance is attempted, governments set minimum standards required for  the safety of employers, but also allowing employers the ability to manage the employee relationship. This swing and attempt to gain a commercially viable balance can be seen in the  changes made by the Australian Workplace Relations Act 1986 moving from one perspective to the other. If we consider the two arguments; "The