Managing Employee Relations

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People as a Resource: The quest for better performances in the sporting arena leads to breaches in OH&S

Background to AFL

The Australian Football League (AFL) is a professional football league that consisting of 18 teams spread over five states. The competition has a twenty three round “home and away” season which runs from March to September. The top eight teams then play off in a finals series with the last game being the ‘grand final’ where the winners are then crowned ‘premiers’ of the competition.

How it relates to ER & HARD HRM

In the majority of industries the bottom line or profit of the organisation typically takes precedence over the safety of employees. This issue has clearly manifested itself within more and more professional sport teams, with clubs now pressing the boundaries of player health and welfare as they to achieve the ultimate success a premiership. Clubs are playing players with injuries that are masked with pain killing injections, rushing players back from concussion and experimenting with poorly governed supplements programs (Harrison,2014)

In recent months there has been enormous discussion surrounding the AFL with the welfare of players the central topic on the agenda. Attention has zoomed in on the Essendon football club and their use of unknown/illicit substances on their players. The commentary of these issues concerns the employee relations topic of ‘Occupational Health and Safety’ in the workplace. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 is the core framework that sets out the legislative and administrative measures necessary to improve occupational health and safety in Victoria. Its system of laws, regulations and compliance codes that highlight the responsibilities of employers and workers to ensure safety is maintained in the workforce (Boyce, 2005). The breaches in OH&S are consistent with the model of Hard HRM rather than soft HRM being exhibited by sporting clubs. The key distinction between these divergent models is whether the emphasis of management is placed on the ‘human’ or the resource (Hope-Hailey, Gratton, Stiles, McGovern &Truss, 1997) Hard HRM views employees as a resource similar to a piece of machinery where the focus is on the effective utilisation of employees in a calculative and strategic manner (Hope-Hailey et al, 1997) According to (Harrison,2014) Hard HRM is becoming common practice in sporting clubs. There is a strong element of subordination of individual interests to ensure the interests of the stakeholders the club, fans and sponsors thus success is the primary motivator that drives club decisions not the health and wellbeing of players

Case Support

Worksafe is a statutory authority of the state government of Victoria that is charged with the responsibility of monitoring and enforcing OH&S act (Worksafe, 2015) Worksafe has begun the process of investigating Essendon and their ‘ill-fated drugs regimen’ (A11). The investigation squarely focuses on whether the Essendon breached its duty as an employer under the OH&S act (A11). The central question in the supplements saga is what were the players actually injected with, the documentation of what players were administered, dosage levels and frequencies are completely missing (A7). This meant Essendon could not be charged with administering performance enhancing drugs as it could not be comfortably satisfied players were injected with them (A3). Despite this Australian Sports Anti-doping head Ben Mc Devitt said he was very confident players unknowingly received banned drugs in the 2012 injection program which he labels as ‘utterly disgraceful & deplorable (A4) there is evidence from a player that he was injected from a brown viral containing Thymosin-Beta, a performance enhancing drug (A3). Health Minister Susan Lay said the that regardless of the tribunals verdict, the initial report found an experimental environment that was never adequately controlled “Any injection of unknown substances into an athlete in order to push the boundaries of sporting achievement is unacceptable and shows a complete disregard for player safety and wellbeing” (A4). Player agent Craig Kelly stated the medical scenario faced by the players was ‘scary’ asserting it ‘was an absolute disgrace what the club did’ (A5)

Star Essendon player Patrick Ryder decision to leave EFC and join Port Adelaide was due to the stressors the supplement saga had caused him and his family when they were told the drugs which he was injected with could have severely harmed his unborn son (A1). ‘Ryder said the trust and faith he had with club had diminished’ (A1). HRM commonly assumes a unitarest ideology, whereby labour and management share common goals and the achievement of which are mutually rewarding, this lends itself to a high commitment environment where the relationship is reciprocal and is implied in the psychological contract (Geare & Edgar, 2006) Footy clubs and players both strive together to win the premiership and evident in Ryders willingness to be injected (although he didn’t with what substance) “Once your told by everyone at the club its going to be ok and this is what we’re looking to do, you trust the voice of the club (A1) Clearly this illustrates Ryders decision for leaving was based on a breach in the psychological contract, his health and that of his unborn son were put at risk for the quest of a premiership. This clearly highlights an environment of Hard HRM were players are viewed as resources not humans. Players are going one step further and suing the EFC, Ex player Hal Hunter has lodged papers in the supreme court, his lawyer commented ‘the program exposed players to significant risks to their health, safety and general wellbeing, as well as the risk of using prohibited substances’(A2).

Ultimately the players were victims of a reckless program which has hung over their heads for more than two years (A3) Football regularly uses young men for a season or two and then throws them over the fence. The average playing span of an AFL footballer is around five years and the Essendon boys have had two of those years scrambled in among investigations, show-cause notices, court cases, appeals and tribunals (A8). Essendon players were treated like lab rats as they club wanted to do whatever it took to reach a premiership and that meant jeopardising player’s health.

Another example of how AFL clubs are treating players as HARD resources is the handling of concussion. Although league has introduced stronger concussion protocols where players cannot re-enter the field after being knocked these rules don’t