Australia Industrial Relations: The Enactment Of Fair Work Act

Discuss about the Australia Industrial Relations for the Enactment of Fair Work Act .

 

The Fair Work Act was introduced in the year 2009 to replace the Workplace Relations Act 1996 (Cth) that started its effects on 1st of July, 2009. There have been several historical events that surrounded the enactment of the Fair Works Act. It can be seen that amendments were made to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 by adding the ‘Work Choices’ in the year 2005 (Alrc.gov.au, 2016). After the Federal Election of 2007, the government of Australia decided to introduce fairness in the Act by replacing Workplace Relations Act with the Fair Work Act.

The primary purpose of the study is to analyse the changes made by the Commonwealth government to improve employment relations in the nation. The changes will be evaluated using the Neo-Institutionalism Approaches to know how the Australian Government has worked in favour of the employers and employees to maintain peace in the nation. Furthermore, the study emphasises on the enactment of Fair Work Act 2009 to analyse its objectives and post-implementation reviews. Hence, the primary purpose of the study is to analyse the enactment of Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) and observe the effectiveness of the legislation to improve employment relations in the Australian economy.

The objects of the Fair Work Act 2009 have been presented in section 3 of the legislation (Legislation.gov.au, 2016). The objects of the Act set out the ways in which the legislation will achieve its particular objectives. The main objective of the Act is to provide stable framework for productive and cooperative workplace relations that will promote social inclusion and national economic prosperity for all Australian citizens (Gollan, 2009). The Act aims to provide a workplace relation law that will promote a fair working environment in the nation. It will provide the employees with flexible work arrangements and promote economic growth through increased productivity. The Fair Work Act also considers the international labour obligations to improve the working conditions for the employees (Legislation.gov.au, 2016). Furthermore, the legislation ensures a guaranteed safety for the employees and employers through relevant, fair and enforceable terms and conditions. The Fair Work Act assists the employees to stabilise their family and work responsibilities by improvising a flexible working arrangement.

In the recent enactment of the Fair Work Act 2009, collective bargaining and good-faith barning have been included to develop significant negotiation terms with the employee- employer’s treatment (Bukarica, Dallas and Bukarica, 2012). In the enactment of the Act, by removing the individual Australian Workplace Agreements, new regulations has considered playing a major role in promoting enterprise bargaining (Creighton, 2011). Herein, considering the six elements of Neo-institutionalism such as philosophy, nature of employment relation, role of state, management, unions and industrial conflict, the evolution of the Fair Work Act 2009 Amendments has been discussed (Alrc.gov.au, 2016). Evidently, the enactment of the Fair Work Act 2009 has identified some of the mandatory terms such as time flexibility on agreement purpose to protect the rights of the employees in the workplaces. Furthermore, the options of equality bargaining have been included in the amendment of the Fair Work Act 2009 so that the employee’s interest can be protected.

The Fair Work Act makes the organisations comprise of different interest and aims for the welfare of the employees and employers. The changes made in the Act makes the management maintain a good relationship with the employees by working for their interest. It helps to maintain unity among the employees and employers to work with a common aim to sustainable growth of business. The Act presents the modern awards, the National Employment Standards and minimum wage rates that are applicable in the nation. Along with that, the Act also provides the employees to present their voice regarding any decision of the employers (Forsyth and Stewart, 2009). It protects the employees from any unfair treatment, discrimination, dispute and compliance mechanisms. Furthermore, the Act also works on behalf of the employers by reducing chances of dispute at the workplace (McCrystal, 2010). Hence, it can be seen that the power is diffused and no party dominates the other. The legislation aims to establish a mutual understanding among the employers and employees to improve working conditions and performance of the organisations.

Through the classification of cooperative workplace relations, the Fair Work Act 2009 has significantly contributed to strengthening the employee- employer’s relationship providing terms and conditions supportive for both the parties (O’Neill, 2012). By following the National Employment Standards, enactment of the Fair Work Act 2009 has included certain labour obligations to be removed to protect the employee rights for benefits of the same (Wheelwright, 2013). As a result of the scenario, the positions of the human resources as well as the unions have been strengthened to increase bargaining power on any given agenda. Understandably, the effective procedure of the Fair Work Act 2009 has contributed to the fair workplace relation arrangements protecting the rights of the human resources.  The Fair Work Act was introduced to develop a new national industrial relations system (Legislation.gov.au, 2016). The government believed that the new legislation would be effective in solving employment relationship issues and improvised a better trade system in the nation.

The amendments of the Act has been significantly utilised to guide the public interests so that employees can be protected from any distress during any misconduct. The Fair Work Act Regulations have set standards to be maintained at the state level operations so that laws of Australian federal government can be administrated at the individual state platform. The role of the state in the Amendments is implacable as the state improves their administrative relation power over the private as well as local government employees. 

The application of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) has been taken into consideration in significant aspects to deal with significant issues associated with workplace and discrimination. By considering issues in the workplace such as occupational health and safety, compensation of the workforce, child labour issues, training arrangements, emergency service regarding issues, long service leave, any declaration of a public holiday and workplace surveillance can be controlled in an effective way. In the case of any agreements that do not follow the regulations must be prosecuted under the sections of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Nadasen, 2012).

The union membership standards and position of the unions have been lifted in the Fair Work Act Amendments. Under the legal framework, an organisation cannot force employees adding pressure to the situation or cannot pressure a self-governing contractor to work only with a single enterprise. In such illegal scenario, the role of the unions has been evident to solve issues. By changing the terms and conditions, the union’s power has been strengthened to increase bargaining power on any given agenda. Such unanimous enforcement of the fair work policy and terms has provided significant sustainability and fairness to be maintained at the workplace culture (Andrades, 2009). On the other side, the Fair Work Act 2009 has provided effective proposals so that the bargaining representatives can get reasonable time and relevant resources to get meet the agreements (Creighton and Forsyth, 2012).

Apart from that, in the case of any agreements with the employee as well as employer’s association, there are significant regulations to be followed by the sections. Also, rights of remedies have been mentioned in the Fair Work Act to be utilised in case of any workplace issues regarding employee rights and safety. In the case of amendments to the Act, certain provisions must be taken into identification to achieve the fair workplace objectives (O’Neill, 2012). In case of any adverse action on the employees and significant employer-employee conflict circumstances, rights for both the parties have been protected under the legislation.

In January 2012, the government of Australia commenced a Post-implementation Review to observe and analyse the impact of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Alrc.gov.au, 2016). The review was conducted to analyse the progress and performance of the legislation to meet the desired objectives. It was found through the review that the Act missed out the issues of family violence that negatively impacted the work performance of the employees. Furthermore, the Act was merely a legislation that needs to be enforced by some legal bodies (Wheelwright, 2013). There is a need of government authority that will check and monitor the implementation of the policies in national businesses.

After the post-implementation review, the government of Australia introduce various changes in the Fair Work Act that are related to family violence to improve the performance of the employees and provide them with better working arrangements (Wheelwright, 2013). Along with that, the government introduced new policies in the Fair Work Act to improve its performance in regards to maintaining better employment relations in the nation. For example, the employees were entitled to unpaid parental leave, protection from unlawful termination of employment and new labour standards.

Justifiably, the role of enactment of the Fair Work Act 2009 has balanced the flexible working arrangements promoting instrumental practices and fair policies within the workplace management. Both the government and private employees have been covered under the sections of the Fair Work Act 2009. The standard procedure of the Act has contributed towards the sustainability of laws at the corporate level. On the other hand, the unions, business management groups and human resources attached to the modern corporations have been connected in a planned procedure through the implementation of the Fair Work Act 2009. The regulatory system of the Act has improved the industrial relations to say the providing fewer complications and issues at the organisational level. Moreover, the explanatory memorandum of the Act has linked business sustainability with the safety and security of the employees. Such instrumental changes have improved the position of the human resources so that employers cannot use the corporate powers in an illegal way.

Alrc.gov.au. (2016). Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) | ALRC. [online] Available at: https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/16-fair-work-act-2009-cth/fair-work-act-2009-cth [Accessed Aug. 2016].

Andrades, C. (2009). Intersections between “General protections” under the Fair Work Act 2009 (CTH) and anti-discrimination law. [Melbourne]: Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, The University of Melbourne.

Bukarica, A., Dallas, A. and Bukarica, A. (2012). Good faith bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009. Annandale, N.S.W.: Federation Press.

Creighton, B. (2011). A Retreat from Individualism? The Fair Work Act 2009 and the Re-collectivisation of Australian Labour Law. Industrial Law Journal, 40(2), pp.116-145.

Creighton, W. and Forsyth, A. (2012). Rediscovering collective bargaining. New York, NY: Routledge.

Forsyth, A. and Stewart, A. (2009). Fair Work. Annandale, N.S.W.: Federation Press.

Gollan, P. (2009). Australian industrial relations reform in perspective: Beyond Work Choices and future prospects under the Fair Work Act 2009. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 47(3), pp.260-269.

Legislation.gov.au. (2016). Fair Work Act 2009. [online] Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2014C00031 [Accessed Aug. 2016].

McCrystal, S. (2010). Protected Industrial Action and Voluntary Collective Bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 21(1), pp.37-52.

Nadasen, P. (2012). Citizenship Rights, Domestic Work, and the Fair Labor Standards Act. J. Policy Hist., 24(01), pp.74-94.

O’Neill, B. (2012). General Manager’s Report into Enterprise Agreement-Making in Australia Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) 2009-2012. Melbourne: Australian Government – Fair Work Australia.

Wheelwright, K. (2013). Bearing the Economic Loss of Industrial Action: The Payment of Striking Employees under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Deakin Law Review, 18(2), p.292.