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  • Dr Alexis Vassiley

    Dr Alexis Vassiley

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Dr Alexis Vassiley

Lecturer

Staff Member Details
Telephone: +61 8 6304 6763
Email: a.vassiley@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Joondalup  
Room: JO2.432D  
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0305-2389

Dr Alexis Vassiley is a Lecturer in the School of Business and Law.

Key Research Areas

  • Trade unions and union renewal (historically and today)
  • Wellbeing at work (especially psychosocial workplace hazards)

Biography

Alexis researches the history of work and workers’ movements, industrial/employment relations and work, health and safety. Trained as a historian at the University of Western Australia, he moved to a business school setting to complete a PhD in employment relations and labour history at Curtin University. After working as a Research Associate in Edith Cowan University’s Centre for Work and Wellbeing, he joined the School of Business and Law, where he now lectures in negotiation, work and employment relations.

Alexis’s major research tracks are: Union renewal, historically and today; and Wellbeing at work, focussing on psychosocial hazards. These tracks are united by a focus on, and commitment to, decent work – one of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. Alexis has made substantial scholarly contributions across both these tracks, reflected in his publications in quality national and international journals. He regularly gives expert comment and publishes translational pieces in the media.

Alexis is also a research team member for the Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety Centre – an ECU industry collaboration centre for the mining sector.

He is an innovative and engaging teacher, with experience in unit coordination and development, across in-person, online, and overseas units to large, culturally diverse undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts. He loves to bring state-of-the-art research into the classroom.

His strong record of academic service includes his role as Associate Editor of Labour History, membership of university committees and office-bearer roles in academic associations.

Media Topics
  • Trade unions
  • Unionism in the Pilbara
  • Industrial relations
  • Psychosocial workplace hazards

SBL Research Centres or Cluster/s

Alexis is a research team member for the Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety Centre – an ECU industry collaboration centre for the mining sector.

Research Area and Interests
  • Industrial/employment relations
  • Labour history
  • Work, health and safety
  • Union renewal and union strategy
  • Work and unionism in the mining industry
  • Psychosocial hazards
  • The future of work

Languages spoken
  • English
  • Italian
  • French

Awards and recognition
  • 2024 – Australian Academy of the Humanities Publication Subsidy Scheme Recipient
  • 2024 – Early and Mid-Career Researcher Network Symposium People’s Choice Award
  • 2022 – Early and Mid-Career Researcher Network Symposium Outstanding Presentation Award
  • 2020 – PhD conference scholarship, Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand (AIRAANZ)
  • 2016 – Australian Postgraduate Award and Curtin Research Scholarship, Australian Government and Curtin University
  • 2016 – Higher Degree by Research Student Quality Publication Award, Curtin Business School
  • 2016 – Excellence Award, Curtin University Postgraduate Students’ Association
  • 2012 – Eric Fry Labour History Scholarship, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (ASSLH).

Professional associations
  • Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, member.
  • Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, member and committee member of Perth branch.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Curtin University of Technology, 2021.
  • Bachelor of Arts with Honours in History, The University of Western Australia, 2012.
  • Bachelor of Laws, The University of Western Australia, 2010.

Research Outputs

2025

Journal Articles

  • Vassiley, A., Shafaei Darastani, A., Nejati Ajibisheh, M., Onnis, L., Bentley, T. (2025). The autonomy paradox, working from home and psychosocial hazards. Journal of Industrial Relations, 2025(Article in press), 30 pages. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856251315859.
  • Vassiley, A., Barratt, T., Dayaram, K., Burgess, J. (2025). Psychosocial workplace hazards and industrial relations: an introduction. Journal of Industrial Relations, 2025(Article in press), pp. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221856251326664.

2024

Journal Articles

  • Jogulu, U., Green, N., Franken, E., Vassiley, A., Bentley, T., Onnis, L. (2024). Work arrangement ‘yo-yo’: forced flexibility from the office to home and back again. Personnel Review, 53(5), 1224-1243. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2023-0088.
  • Vassiley, A. (2024). Once more on the rank and file – union bureaucracy interplay: Mining unionism in Australia’s Pilbara region. Capital and Class, 2024(Article in press), pp. https://doi.org/10.1177/03098168241240462.

2023

Journal Articles

  • Bentley, T., Caponecchia, C., Onnis, L., Brunetto, Y., Farr-Wharton, B., Cattani, M., Neto, A., Vassiley, A. (2023). A systems model for the design of occupational health and safety management systems inclusive of work-from-home arrangements. Applied Ergonomics: human factors in technology and society, 109(May 2023), Article number 103966. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2023.103966.
  • Bentley, T., Onnis, L., Vassiley, A., Farr-Wharton, B., Caponecchia, C., Andrew, C., O'Neill, S., De Almeida Neto, A., Huron, V., Green, N. (2023). A Systematic Review Of Literature On Occupational Health And Safety Interventions For Older Workers. Ergonomics: an international journal of research and practice in human factors and ergonomics, 66(12), 1968-1983. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2023.2176550.

2022

Journal Articles

  • Vassiley, A. (2022). Rethinking the Robe River dispute 1986-7 – de-unionisation in Australia’s Pilbara iron ore industry in the early neoliberal period.. Labor History (US), 63(2), 248-266. https://doi.org/10.1080/0023656X.2022.2053842.

2021

Journal Articles

  • Vassiley, A., Russell, F. (2021). Concession-bargaining in Australian higher education: the case of the National Jobs Protection Framework. Labour and Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 31(4), 439-456. https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2021.2002239.

Reports

  • Bentley, T., Caponecchia, C., Onnis, L., Farr-Wharton, B., Vassiley, A., O’neill, S., Andrew, C., De Almeida Neto, A., Huron, V. (2021). The Healthy Older Worker: A Systematic Review of Literature on Work Health and Safety Interventions for Older Workers. Australia. Centre for Work, Health and Safety, NSW government.

2020

Reports

  • Bentley, T., Farr-Wharton, B., Omari, M., Vassiley, A., Onnis, L., Shafaei Darastani, A., Nejati Ajibisheh, M., Pooley, JA., Devine, A., De Almeida Neto, A. (2020). Flexible work and psychological safety - Best practice to advance psychologically safe solutions from alternate locations: A report on findings from interviews with NSW flexible employees and managers: Phase 2 Report. Australia. Centre for Work Health and Safety NSW.

2018

Journal Articles

  • Vassiley, A. (2018). Establishing trade unionism in the emerging iron ore mining industry in Western Australia's Pilbara region, 1965-72. Labour History: a journal of labour and social history, 115(1 November 2018), 105–127. https://doi.org/10.3828/labourhistory.115.0105.

2016

Journal Articles

  • Vassiley, A. (2016). “There’s No Flies at Noonkanbah but the Scabs Are on the Way”: Trade Union Support for Aboriginal Rights during the Noonkanbah Dispute, 1979–80. Labour History: a journal of labour and social history, 110(May 2016), 77–95. https://doi.org/10.5263/labourhistory.110.0077.

Research Projects

  • The role of worker voice in managing psychosocial hazards in the Western Australian mining industry, DMIRS: Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety - MARS, MARS - Grant, 2025 ‑ 2026, $49,990.
  • Learning from past union revivals: rebuilding trade unionism in early 20th century Australia, Academic Staff Association of Edith Cowan University, Solidarity Research Fund (SRF), 2023 ‑ 2025, $19,967.
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