Employment relations in MNCs: an Australian story

This paper reviews the literature on employment relations in MNCs in Australia. It finds that first the central local debate is prominent both in relation to foreign MNCs in Australia and Australian MNCs overseas. Second, there are many factors influencing central local control. These include; country of origin effect, type of product and product market; firm size, company and HR structure, language and cultural proximity and geographical distance. Third, host country effects are prominent in terms of structural and institutional change, many companies and industries appear to have taken advantage of more favourable conditions to reshape their workforces.