ABSTRACT
Employee voice has attracted much academic attention and interest over the last thirty years. While traditionally the research has focussed on union voice (Freeman and Medoff 1984), more recently a steady stream of studies has begun to emerge examining non-union employee representation (Gollan 2000, 2007; Kaufman and Taras 2000). This research has tended to examine the relative merits of non-union versus union forms of employee voice and has left relatively underexplored hybrid forms of voice (for example, see Kim and Kim 2004). Hybrid voice refers to a mechanism that combines both union and non-union representation (Hall, Hutchinson, Purcell, Terry, and Parker 2010). This chapter draws on a case study of an Australian university, UNICO, to examine the emergence, operation, and effectiveness of hybrid voice mechanisms. More specifically, the chapter explores, from the point of view of union and non-union members of staff, university management and union officials, the functioning of a university committee, the Consultative Employee Committee (CEC). The committee was established in response to the Australian federal government’s Higher Education Work-place Relations Requirements (HEWRRs). The aim of the committee, as stated in the collective agreement at UNICO, was to provide employees with the opportunity to monitor the implementation of the university’s collective agreement and to comment on and alter policies that govern working conditions. 1
