AIRAANZ Conference 2025

The Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ) is pleased to announce that the AIRAANZ 2025 Conference will be co-hosted by Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University and held in Wellington, New Zealand from Monday 3 to Wednesday 5 February 2025. The conference will be in-person.

The conference theme is ‘Navigating the Nexus: Politics, Profession, and Practice in Industrial Relations’. The world of work is increasingly dynamic and challenging. Employment relations academics have a critical role to play in understanding these challenges, informing and transforming debate. Employment relations scholarship has always been current and relevant, addressing real-world problems through empirical research. The importance of relevance and engagement with policymakers and practitioners is now more critical than ever.

Keynote Speakers:

We are delighted to welcome Chlöe Swarbrick MP, Co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand to give a keynote address at the 2025 AIRAANZ Conference. Chlöe is the Co-Leader of the Green Party, and a Member of Parliament for Auckland Central. She is also the Party’s spokesperson for Climate Change, Finance, Revenue, Mental Health, and Drug Law Reform. She is a member of the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee and co-founder and Chair of the Cross-Party Group on Mental Health and Addiction. Chlöe entered Parliament as a Green Party List MP in 2017 and has been the MP for Auckland Central since 2020.

Professor Peter Turnbull is Professor of Management & Industrial Relations in the School of Management at the University of Bristol (UK). His extensive publications on work and employment relations theory and practice include major studies of international transport and research for European social partners and the ILO.

Plenary: IR Academics, IR Associations and IR Activism

IR academics have survived, and in many cases thrived, during the transition (or forceful eviction in some universities) from schools of social and economic science to the ubiquitous (cash cow) business school. Specialist IR departments and research centres have declined or disappeared, but IR academics have benefited from what Mark Granovetter calls the “strength of weak ties”. IR associations have played a fundamental role in sustaining these ties, both nationally and internationally, and supporting the activism of IR academics inside and outside the academy.

Professor Peter Berg is Professor of Employment Relations at the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at Michigan State University (USA). He has published widely on the aging workforce, working time and work-life flexibility, international collective bargaining, and high-performance work systems.

Plenary: The Impact of Employment Relations

Professor Berg will examine the unique contribution employment relations makes to research on the changing nature of work and why an employment relations perspective is critical now more than ever. In addition, he will discuss the importance of employment relations scholarship on people and policy and conclude with thoughts about the future of employment relations as a discipline.

Key Dates 

Program

The finalised conference program can be downloaded here. 

Questions regarding the conference should be sent to: AIRAANZ@con-sol.com or Noelle Donnelly at noelle.donnelly@vuw.ac.nz

Registration

To receive the Member-discount, if you are an EXISTING member, please LOGIN BEFORE REGISTERING for the conference. Once logged in, you can then register for the conference with the discount.

Please be aware you can also renew your AIRAANZ membership as part of the conference registration process.

You can also become a NEW member and receive the discount. First, create a new membership account, then make sure to login, and you will now be able to register for the conference with the membership discount.

Prices are in AUD