Australia’s current national employment standards have changed and developed to comply with the national standards. These employment standards are set out in law through the National Employment Standards. The industrial framework in Australia is managed by the Fair Work Commission which is responsible for educating and promoting enterprise bargaining. Industrial relation are governed by the Fair Work Act 2009 which established the 3 major streams in the labour market that determines the pay and conditions of employees. This includes industrial awards, collective agreements and industrial employment contracts, also known as common law contracts.
Minimum employment standards are current national employment conditions that employees are guaranteed
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Awards are legally binding documents which contain minimum terms and conditions of employment. Awards include information about the type of employment, arrangements for when work is performed, overtime, penalty rates, annualized wages, salary arrangements, allowances, leave related matter and superannuation. Awards extend the protection of the NES, which means that instead of having a single minimum wage rate, Australia has varying minimum pay rates across approximately 122 different awards. The Fair Work Commission sets these minimum award wage rates and casual loadings. Industrial awards set minimum pay and conditions which protect employees from exploitation, although this award can be inflexible which may not work for all employees. According to the above diagram, approximately 16% of the labour force is included in this award. Another disadvantage of industrial awards is that it prevents recognition of individual initiative as all employees received the same …show more content…
Individual employment contracts are an important wage determiner in Australia which must comply with the Fair Work Act. Common law contract are not included in the formal industrial relations system, however it must comply with the minimum standard of system. These individual contract are add-ons to relevant awards, they cannot offer pay rates and conditions below the rate that would be paid by the equivalent award. However when they offer high rates of pay above $129,300, the award requirements do not apply and the common law contract is able to replace the award. Common law contracts are enforced through law courts rather than industrial tribunals, although this usually creates increased expenses for employees and employers. Using the above diagram, approximately 39% of the workforce use individual employment contracts. Common law contracts, are not included in the formal industrial relations system as these contracts are private and not able to be discussed by others. These contracts offer less protection than other agreement and can lead to possible exploitation of employees due to unfair bargaining positions. However, these individual contracts allow flexibility to suit the varying needs of
Corporations functioning within the jurisdiction of the Australian Commonwealth are governed and regulated by the provisions of the Corporations Act, 2001. Common law principles developed through judicial
In this part, the task is to explain the role of the Fair Work Commission and the powers it is able to exercise in relation to this process. The Fair Work Commission is the self-governing national workplace relations tribunal and its main concern is to sustain a safety standard of salaries and working conditions, as well as other related areas such as workplace regulation and function (Australian Government, 2015).
With commercial dealings on the rise in Australia and globally, so too are the complications. If some sort of codification is not established and built from the principals that already exist, commercial opportunities could be in jeopardy due to the uncertainty and risk of not having a clear outline or set of laws to cover contracts generally.
The first legislation I am going to be talking about is the Pay Equity Act. The act was passed in order to restore sex-based wage discrimination in Ontario workplaces. The Equity Act applies to all public sector employees and private. In general the act identifies the rate of pay by comparing payment to female job classes with those paid to male job classes of similar value. In non-unionized workplaces, employers are having the freedom to review the Pay Equity Plan and make recommendations in order to change it. An example of the Pay Equity Act would be if you have a female and male both working as a swampier for an oil field company. They both have the same job responsibilities and work the same hours. If the boss of the company where to pay the male more because he was stronger and in general male and pay the women less that would be a violation. The women would have the right to contact Human Resources and file a complaint against her boss, and get the same rate of pay prior to the male. The Pay equity act in my opinion is important in the workplace because it creates equality and minimizes stereotypes against women in the workplace. You never want to be in a business or visit one that has an awkward atmosphere related to se...
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a specific, hypothetical employment situation encountered and to include the information regarding employment conflicts, questions, grievances, lawsuits, etc., in terms of how the situation was handled or resolved. Employment conflicts are a constant issue everyday in any organization; it is how you handle them both legally and professionally that counts.
The health of a labour market can be judged by levels of unemployment and changes in wage growth. Both of these issues come into play when The Australian Financial Review reports that the Australian labour market has tightened over the past twelve months and comments on predictions for the coming year.
14. Fair Labor Standards Act, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk, 6/11/04 --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Fair Labor Standards Act; www.inforplease.com, June 11, 2004.
Moran, J. J. (2008). Employment law: New challenges in the business environment. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
... the safety net of modern awards, the ten national employment standards introduced by the fair work act 2009, and annual adjustments to the National minimum wage provided minimum levels of income and working conditions to workers with low skills and low bargaining power in the labour market. Other components include government spending on public health, education, housing, transport and community services which provide a safety net for low income earners. Macroeconomic policies such as monetary and fiscal policies supports aggregate demand as the GFC and recession impacted adversely on the Australian economy. The main concerns were to support economic growth, household incomes and living standards in the short term, to minimise the increasing rate of unemployment in the medium term, and increase public investment in infrastructure to increase productive capacity.
Victoria. (2006). How Much of Remaining Gender Pay Gap is Result of Discrimination and How Much is Due to Individual Choices? International Journal of Urban Labour and Leaisure , 7 (2).
The “Fair” Work Commission has ruled that over six hundred and fifty thousand Australians working in retail and hospitality, would have their penalty rates diminished at the government's decisions to scrap weekend penalty rates. Unfortunately for some workers, they are amongst the lowest paid in the country and as a result of, Sundays and public holidays, essentially a day for Australians to “rest”, will have workers on those days being paid less. Many Australians will become disheartened by this decision as Australia swears to have a proud nation of democracy and many of our workers who already are enduring assiduous physical work at a very low pay already will have their pay slashed even further.
“The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was created in 1938 to establish a minimum wage and a limit on the number of hours which may be worked in a standard work week. It also provides standards for equal pay, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor.” This law was created during a time period of great financial and political turmoil.
The Australian Legal System has a rich and detailed history dating from 1066. Law is made in Parliament. We have four sources of law and three courts with different jurisdictions that interpret the law when giving out justice. Important doctrines act as the corner-stones of our legal system. There is a procedure in the courts for making appeals. Separation of powers exists between officials in the courts, the parliament and the Executive. Everyone in Australia is treated equally under the Rule of Law, no matter their office or status. The Law is always changing as society changes, but it can never be perfect and cannot please everyone.
will get paid for their work or labour. It is known to be one of the most common work forms in the
Legal considerations play an important role in how employers and employees interact in the workplace. Common-law doctrines regarding this relationship have been established from many legal decisions made over the course of centuries (Reed & Bogardus, 2012). Common-law doctrines lay the foundation for best practices in employment which provide for both employer and employee safeguards.