The Elusive Quest for Simplicity : Measuring and Assessing the Readability of Enterprise Agreements, 1993 to 2011

Since the early debates about the introduction of enterprise bargaining in the late 1980s, politicians and other policymakers have consistently argued that the bargaining process should produce ‘simple' agreements. While a considerable body of empirical research has investigated the outcomes of enterprise bargaining, this work has largely focused on the policy goals of fairness and flexibility. The goal of simplifying workplace relations conditions via enterprise bargaining has received scant scholarly attention. To address this gap, this article empirically examines readability and the use of jargon in enterprise agreements made in the higher education and fast food sectors between 1993 and 2011. The outcomes of this study suggest that very little progress has been made over the course of this period in improving readability or reducing the use of jargon in agreements