Labour Market Institutions In Australia

Labour market institutions are different organisations that are designed to control stability in the labour market and dealing labour market outcomes. In a broad sense, labour market outcomes are the conditions and wages of workers with regards to economic conditions which includes wages, employment and Occupational health and safety. Three main labour market institutions include the trade unions, employer associations and the government and these three influence labour market outcomes to a large extent.

Unions (also known as trade unions or labour unions) are a group that represent the lower working class and fight for higher wage rates, better working conditions and job security on behalf of these people. This can be through lobbying the

Employer associations most often help employers of wage labour such as manufacturers and retailers. However they are less influential in the labour market because employers often have differing interests and many instances, unlike workers, are in direct competition with each other so employers mostly deal with unions directly. The major employer associations are the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), and the Business Council of Australia. Like unions, the role of employer associations appears to be in a decline. The decline of multi-employer bargaining representation in Australia has caused employer associations to think creatively about how they can influence the Australian labour market. Employer organisations usually seek wage moderations (having opposite to the role of unions) to maintain the profitability of members’ business. During the 1990s and 2000s, employer associations supported the spread of enterprise bargaining and a more decentralised system of wage, where wage rates were made more flexible depending on industry and could be negotiated at the level of an individual firm. This allowed employers to drive the employees to be more productive in the workplace based on the incentive that the

The Fair Work Commission regulates industrial relations in Australia with roles of overseeing the tribunal, promoting the idea of enterprise bargaining, and establishing industrial awards, collective agreements and individual employment contracts. The Fair Work Act 2009 was passed by the government in 2010 to act as a national workplace relations system and regulate businesses corporations for the purposes of setting wages and conditions of employment . Employees and employers in all Australian states now have the same ten National Employment standards (NES), standard Modern Awards, a national minimum wage, enterprise bargaining arrangements, OHS and protection from unfair dismissal. Some of the NES rules include a maximum weekly hours of work, fringe benefits for employees and notice of termination and redundancy pay. Occupational Health and Safety is a legally binding rule in all workplaces to ensure workers are healthy and if not followed can result in legal punishment. The Fair Work Commission also provides against unfair dismissal, where if an employee is dismissed from their job in an unreasonable manner then the Commission would take action against the employer. As a government agency, the Fair Work Commission the greatest