Bungala Aboriginal Corporation is a corporate CDEP, and the largest CDEP organisation in South Australia. It now has 310 participants, and is the fifth largest employer in Port Augusta. From its administrative centre in Port Augusta it services a number of satellite work sites over a range of 450 kilometres, from Port Pirie in the south to Nepabunna in the northern Flinders Ranges.^[4] The satellite schemes are primarily community organisations, responsible for providing a variety of services to their communities.

Bungala has a Board of Management that is responsible for making the major decisions about the overall running of the organisation. The board members are CDEP participants who are elected for a term of one year by their fellow participants. The Board appoints a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who is responsible for the operation of the scheme and who reports directly to the Board (see Fig. 15.1).

Bungala's work activities are organised into three main work programs: the Construction Program; the Works Program; and the Expansion (satellite scheme) Program. Each of these programs has a full-time manager who reports directly to the CEO. The Office Section, headed by the Office Manager, provides administrative support. There is also a Project Officer responsible for developing new ventures and sources of funding. Bungala hires external accountants to manage its payroll and finances, and to provide financial reporting.

The Works Program provides two days a week of work to participants in Port Augusta. Many of the participants have very limited, if any, non-CDEP employment experience and lack basic work skills. There are a number of work groups undertaking a wide range of work activities including cleaning up yards, firewood collection, arts and crafts production, and the running of a licensed child-care centre. Each work group has a full-- 145 -time supervisor who is also a CDEP participant. These supervisors tend to be older, long-standing participants, many of whom have employment experience outside CDEP. Their seniority generates respect and provides them with moral authority. The close personal interaction that occurs between participants and the supervisors is an important factor in the development of the participants' work skills and general life skills. As of July 2000 the Works Program had the largest number of personnel, with 132 participants and 11 full-time supervisors.

The Expansion Program provides work activities two days a week for participants in the satellite schemes. The nature of the work activities and the way in which work is managed are primarily determined by the relevant Aboriginal organisation in each community and vary from site to site. In the remote satellite schemes, the opportunities for unsubsidised employment are very limited and therefore the focus is on community development objectives. The work culture in these satellite schemes is much more like that typically found in remote CDEPs (Altman &Taylor 1989). These programs employ a total of 76 participants and one full-time tradesman.

The Construction Program, as its name suggests, undertakes construction work. In general this work is won through competitive tender. Bungala has won contracts to build both residential and commercial buildings as well as for renovations, office refits and a variety of maintenance jobs. There are nine fully qualified tradesmen (who are not CDEP participants) employed in the Construction Program and 19 CDEP participants who are employed full-time and are undertaking apprenticeships. Apprenticeship training leads to a recognised qualification.

- 146 -In addition to those working in the three work programs and the Office Section, 65 of the CDEP participants are placed with non-CDEP employers. These participants generally work five days a week for the non-CDEP employer, with Bungala contributing the participants' wages allocation (wages for two days a week) to the costs of employing that person. The non-CDEP employer contributes the balance of the participant's earnings. This arrangement is very much like the traditional wage subsidy.

Bungala's participants come from a wide range of backgrounds and their experience of employment varies widely. There are also differences in their career aspirations and in what they hope to achieve by participating in CDEP. Of particular relevance to this paper are aspirations about moving to 'mainstream' employment.^[5] Almost half of the participants interviewed said that they did not wish to leave CDEP for mainstream employment; the remainder indicated their wish to do so. In general, participants wanted to make the move either to earn more money or because they became bored on those days on which they were not working on CDEP.

For participants in the 'remote' Expansion Program work sites, the question about wanting to move to mainstream employment had little relevance because there is virtually no employment available in their areas. Some of these participants indicated that they would like to move to mainstream employment, but they did not consider it a possibility.

In order to balance the different objectives and the diverse needs of participants each work program has developed a distinct work culture. A feature common to all is the enforcement of a 'no work, no pay' rule for all participants.

In the Works Program, the primary objective is to provide meaningful work and allow participants to develop basic work skills. They work for two days a week in what they perceive as a comfortable work environment. While the no work, no pay rule is enforced, the work culture is sympathetic to the fact that many of the participants employed in this group have very limited work experience or skills.

The Expansion Program also provides work activities for participants for two days per week. The nature of these activities, and the way in which work is managed are mostly determined by the relevant Aboriginal organisation in each community, according to local needs and aspirations. It is more difficult to enforce the no work, no pay rule in this program because of the greater autonomy in determining the work rules, and because it is difficult for staff in Port Augusta to monitor the work efforts of participants in distant locations.

In the Construction Program the culture more closely reflects the mainstream labour market and participants are expected to be more reliable in their work attendance and to work industriously to develop a high level of technical competence. However, as in the Work Program, the work culture allows for some accommodation of family and cultural demands which at times may conflict with the requirements of running a commercial business. Bungala provides a considerable amount of training to participants in the Construction Program.

- -The clear separation between the different work programs within the organisational structure of Bungala has allowed the different work practices and cultures to develop. Managers can provide a consistent set of rules, and minimise perceptions of unfairness and tensions that might otherwise arise as the result of the application of different work cultures to people who are working side by side.