The emphasis of employers and employer associations, when 2020 began, was largely business as usual. With the pandemic’s advent, employers and associations reoriented some industrial relations activity, which encouraged cooperation while also highlighting sharp divisions. As the year progressed, however, it became increasingly apparent that the federal government’s responses to the pandemic provided unanticipated opportunities for the employer movement to push intensively their long-expressed desires for changes to the institutional structures of industrial relations, and hence also bargaining and other processes. This article examines these and other activities which preoccupied employers and their associations in 2020 while also analysing some broader environmental, social and governance challenges affecting employer groups, which impact on their purpose and place within the employer movement more generally.

2020年开始时，雇主和雇主协会的重点基本上照常营业。随着大流行的到来，雇主和协会重新调整了一些劳资关系活动的方向，这在鼓励合作的同时也突出了尖锐的分歧。然而，随着这一年的发展，越来越明显的是，联邦政府对这种大流行的反应为雇主运动提供了意料之外的机会，从而使雇主运动强烈地推动了他们长期以来表达的对改变劳资关系的体制结构的渴望，因此也进行了讨价还价及其他流程。本文研究了2020年导致雇主及其协会忙碌的这些活动和其他活动，同时还分析了影响雇主群体的一些更广泛的环境，社会和治理挑战，